eWeek

File:PCWeek 23 October 1984 vol 1 sect 1.png

The magazine was started by Ziff Davis to cover the use of computers as business tools.

Team members that started PCWeek included John Dodge, the first news editor; Lois Paul, the first features editor; and Sam Whitmore, the first reporter, who later went on to become editor-in-chief.

At the time, many magazines at the time already covered business computing, such as Datamation and Computerworld. There were also magazines dedicated to hobbyist machines, so it seemed there was no place for a weekly issue to fit in. The first few issues had only 22 pages of advertising, but then PCWeek began establishing itself. By the end of the first year, the average number of advertising pages for the last month was 74.875.{{cn|date=March 2018}}

John Pallatto, a writer for PCWeek in its first year, produced a full buyer's guide on all DOS-compatible PCs on the market.{{Cite news

|url=http://www.eweek.com/pc-hardware/pc-week-eweek-chronicler-of-the-pc-revolution-for-25-years

|title=PC WEEK/eWEEK: Chronicler of the PC Revolution for 25 years

|work=eWEEK |access-date=May 18, 2017}}

Early promotional publications from PCWeek show them describing their key audience as "volume buyers", that is, people and companies that would buy PCs in bulk for business purposes.{{cn|date=March 2018}} With this the magazine was able to show big computer companies that advertising in an issue of PCWeek was the best possible way to get their product seen by the biggest and most important buyers.

PCWeek grew. Scot Peterson became eWeek's main editor in 2005, having been, a Ziff-Davis employee

since 1995, and previously held the title news editor.{{cite news

|newspaper=Advertising Age |date=January 4, 2005

|url=https://adage.com/article/btob/peterson-named-editor-eweek/259199

|title=Peterson named editor of 'eWeek'}}

People involved in between PCWeek's initial success and change to eWeek were David Strom, Sam Whitmore, Mike Edelhart, Gina Smith, Peter Coffee, Paul Bonner, current editor Chris Preimesberger and many others.{{Cite web

|url=https://strom.wordpress.com/2013/08/06/pcweek-2

|title=In tribute to PC Week's original staffers

|author=David Strom |date=2013-08-06

|website=David Strom's Web Informant

|access-date=2017-05-18}}

Jim Louderback, a lab director at PCWeek as of 1991, describes how they were able to "get a product in on Wednesday, review it, and have it on the front page on Monday" and that "that was something we were the first to do".

In 2012, eWeek and other Ziff Davis assets were acquired by the company QuinStreet, which also runs other tech-oriented publications.

As the whole PC Industry evolved, PCWeek grew, and also developed a very active audience that spoke of their experiences, good and bad.

Successor eWeek is even more oriented towards "Lab-based product evaluation," and covers a wide range tech topics.{{cite news

|url=http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/eweek-magazine-increases-investment-in-editorial--circulation-reveals-new-look-70806277.html

|title=eWEEK Magazine Increases Investment in Editorial & Circulation; Reveals New Look |date=April 7, 2003

|work=PR Newswire |access-date=January 18, 2017}}

Among former/current writers are:

• Jessica Davis{{cite web

|title=Jessica Davis

|quote=covering ... at titles including IDG's Infoworld, Ziff Davis Enterprise's eWeek and ...

|url=https://www.informationweek.com/author-bio.asp?author_id=2345}}

• Scott Ferguson, former Editor in Chief of eWeek, 2006 - 2012 (when eWeek stopped their print edition "and eWeek became an all-digital publication").{{cite web

|quote=.. until the print publication stopped in 2012 and eWeek became an all-digital publication

|url=https://www.informationweek.com/author-bio.asp?author_id=2166&

|title=Profile of Scott Ferguson, Director of Audience Development, UBM Tech}}

• Todd Weiss, Senior Writer ("all things mobile"){{cite web

|quote=formerly .. Computerworld.com from 2000 to 2008

|url=https://www.eweek.com/author/todd-r-weiss/

|title=Todd R. Weiss, Author at eWEEK|date=May 3, 2019

}}

A famous part of PCWeek was the fictional gossip columnist by the name of "Spencer F. Katt". The column would cover all sorts of rumors and gossip about the PC Industry, and the character of Spencer F. Katt became a famous icon of the entire world of computing.{{cite news

|newspaper=The New York Times

|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/03/31/business/the-executive-computer-is-optical-memory-next-from-i-b-m.html

|title=The executive computer: is optical memory next from I.B.M.

|author=Erik Sandberg-Diment |date=March 31, 1985

|quote=Readers .. turn first to .. Spencer F. Katt's Rumor Central before perusing the "news" of the industry.}}{{cite news |newspaper=The Los Angeles Times

|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-07-10-tm-14044-story.html

|title=Gossip Columnist to the Nerds : Digging Up the Digital Dirt in Silicon

|date=July 10, 1994

|quote=pseudonymous Spencer F. Katt}}

PCWeek had influence on the PC Industry that it covered and the success of business PCs contributed to the success of PCWeek. John Pallatto characterizes the rise of PCs in 1985 as a "social phenomenon", and says that "the most sought-after status symbol on Wall Street in 1985... was the key to unlock the power switch on an IBM PC AT".

PCWeek was licensed in other countries, notably Australia, where it was first published by Australian Consolidated Press. Towards the end of the 1990s, the title shifted to a publishing partnership between Ziff-Davis and Australian Provincial Newspapers where its final Australian editor was Paul Zucker.

One story from PCWeek that is well known is their coverage of "the famous 1994 flaw in the numerical processor in Intel's Pentium chip". The news they broke on Intel's processor, along with other research, caused Intel to actually pull back and fix their chips before offering new ones.

Former editor in chief Chris Preimesberger, who joined eWEEK in 2005 as a free-lancer, now runs a staff consisting of mostly free-lancers, many of whom have worked full time for eWEEK in the past and at other IT publications. The readership has been loyal through the years and now consists mostly of veteran IT professionals, company executives, software developers, investors and other people interested in the ebb and flow of the IT business and trends in products and services.

James Maguire was editor in chief for a few years until 2024. He remains as senior editor and media personality. Chris Bernard is currently the managing editor for the site and all of its staff and freelance writers and editors. He was previously the managing editor of both Datamation and Enterprise Storage Forum.

After 14 years at PC week, Sam Whitmore started his own firm (Media Survey). The latter, after over 2 decades, began a fellowship to train future reporters.{{cite web|url=https://www.bateman-group.com/banter/qa-sam-whitmore|title=Investing in a Reporter's Most Valuable Skill — Fact-Finding: Q&A with Sam Whitmore|author=John Thomey|date=June 8, 2018}}

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• {{Official website|http://www.eweek.com/}}

{{Ziff Davis}}

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