On Disk Monthly 60/odm60.zip/DISKOVER.TXT

Text File | 1991-08-28 | 7KB | 132 lines

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|E║ |5First Things First|E ║       ^1 Diskovery |E        ║ |5First Things First|E ║
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^C^1By Dan Tobias and Jay Wilbur


The hallowed halls of Casa Softy are ringing with celebration!  This
month marks the five year anniversary for On Disk Monthly (formerly
BIG BLUE DISK) and the ten year anniversary for Softdisk Inc.  As you
can imagine, Shreveport, the fair (though humid) city that we call
home, is one happy place this month.  What follows is a condensed
version of our history.  We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we've
enjoyed doing it!

It all started in mid-1981.  Jim Mangham was working for Louisiana
State Univerity-Shreveport's Medical Center when he got the idea of
doing an interactive publication on disk for the Apple II.  At first
he wanted a specialty publication for medical researchers, but
ultimately he decided to make one of general interest.  It was to be
not only a periodical program collection (something which had been
done before, as with CLOAD, a cassette publication for the TRS-80
founded in 1978) but an interactive medium with reader participation
through feedback, surveys, and program submissions.  Readers were to
return each disk to get the next one; this was partly due to the high
price of disks (then $4 each), but mostly to encourage feedback on
returning disks.

Jim first called has product "The Harbinger Magazette", but it was
changed to "Softdisk Magazette" at the suggestion of Al Tommervik, the
publisher of Softalk, a leading Apple-specific magazine.  Tommervik
liked the idea enough to let Jim's project affiliate itself with
Softalk.  This gave Softdisk a free monthly ad in return for part-
ownership of Softdisk by Softalk.  The word "Magazette" was a newly-
coined word for "MAGAZine on diskETTE."

The first Softdisk, dated September 1981, went to 50 subscribers.
Early issues consisted mostly of submitted material.  Submitters were
not yet paid except for coupons good for free issues of Softdisk; this
sufficed to draw submissions from hobbyists.

In 1982, Al Vekovius, Jim Mangham's boss at LSU, became involved as a
partner.  At first, they worked part-time on Softdisk, but in 1983
they quit their jobs to work full-time for their company.  Also in
1983, other employees were hired, including Jim Weiler as the first
in-house programmer.  In September 1983, Softdisk was formally
incorporated.

By 1984, Softdisk was ready to expand into new markets, and it
acquired a failed attempt at a Commodore 64 magazine by another local
company (which hadn't published any issues).  This product, which had
been called "Disk-A-Zine 64" was renamed "Loadstar."  Early Loadstar
issues consisted of programs converted from Softdisk, but eventually
an independent submitter base was built up.  By this time, submitters
for both machines were being paid for their efforts.  By 1986,
submitters were getting $100 per program, and this has escalated
greatly since then to encourage increasingly high-quality submissions
(submitters can get over $1000 now, depending on the program and its
quality).

Launching Loadstar created a problem:  The name "Softdisk"
could confusingly refer to the whole company or its Apple
publication.  For a while, the generic name "Magazines On Disk" was
used as if it were the company name, but ultimately, "Softdisk
Publishing" became the marketing name for the full line of products,
as opposed to "Softdisk" which is just the Apple product.  "Softdisk,
Inc." is the legal corporate name.

Also in 1984 came Softdisk's big move from its original location in
Jim Mangham's house in Shreveport (since torn down) to a
business park on Greenwood Road.  Later, the programming
department required more space and was moved to an adjacent
building.

The bankruptcy of Softalk in 1984 left Softdisk "on its own", without
a free monthly ad.  Loadstar, however, made an arrangement to become
the official companion of Commodore Magazine, publishing its programs
on disk and getting advertising in every issue.  This lasted for
several years, helping make Loadstar the leading Softdisk publication
until BIG BLUE DISK came along in 1986.  BIG BLUE DISK was launched to
capture the growing IBM PC market.

By this time, Softdisk products were sold at Waldenbooks
and other retail outlets, as well as through subscriptions.  Several
competitors had arisen over the years.  PC Life featured spiffy
graphics but relatively little content (BIG BLUE DISK spoofed it in
the April Fool parody issue #6); Diskazine (for the Apple) and
Diskette Gazette (for the IBM PC) attempted to imitate the Softdisk
idea of monthly software collections, but didn't last long.
The Shreveport-based I.B. Magazette was actually the first IBM PC
diskmagazine, and it was still publishing up until 1990.  However, the
most successful competitor was Uptime, which published Apple, IBM,
Commodore, and Macintosh software collections for several years before
finally going bankrupt.  Softdisk acquired many of Uptime's assets,
including its back issues, in the bankruptcy sale.  Some Uptime
programmers ended up at Softdisk, including me, On Disk Monthly's
editor Jay Wilbur.

Continued expansion of Softdisk necessitated another move, to a weird
triangular building right on the edge of downtown Shreveport.  Even
then the editorial and programming department eventually had to move
to a nearby building to make room for everyone.

Softdisk entered the Macintosh market with Diskworld in August 1988,
and new publications were released for the Commodore 128 and Apple
IIgs soon afterward.  An Amiga project was begun, but later shelved,
though it may still be resurrected.  A later trend was to produce
specialty publications for different markets, like Gamer's Edge for
game players, and (the late) PC BusinessDisk for business users and
DT Publisher for desktop publishers.

In 1990, retail distribution of Softdisk products was ended due to
unprofitability; getting on the shelves had been a big break years
earlier, but had eventually turned into a liability.  Retail
packaging had evolved from the small plastic "blister-pack" (used
from 1984-86) to a larger, magazine-sized plastic package (1986-88),
to a large cardboard booklet (1988-90), to a smaller booklet (used
briefly in 1990 until the dropping of retail sales).

Recent months have brought many changes to Softdisk, as the company
faces the changing marketplace of the '90s.  Arnold Lincove, formerly
an official in Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer's administration, came
on as President in 1990.  In 1991, Jim Weiler, Softdisk's
longest-tenured programmer, became Director of Quality Assurance, in
charge of the in-house beta testing.  We've rehired Greg Malone as
our publisher and moved Kevin Cloud, ace computer artist and former
editor, to the position of Editorial Director.  All areas of the
Softdisk organization have been made more productive and better-
organized, and many avenues of marketing (such as foreign
licensing) have been vigorously pursued.  This is necessary to
survive and prosper in a tough market, and Softdisk expects its
second decade to be even more successful than its first.