The author | Ailleurs and Wang Yue
Editor| Chen Caixian
On April 27, Computerworld, China's largest and most established IT publication, founded in 1980, announced its suspension.
An era has come to an end.
China ComputerWorld Publishing Service issued a notice stating that from April 27, 2022, the company will suspend work and business, and all employees will be arranged to wait for work. The notice said that since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, the company has continued to suffer serious losses, and the company's cash flow has been cut off and it has been unable to maintain its operations.
Picture note: China ComputerWorld Publishing Service issued a notice of suspension of work and business
The "Computerworld" public account posted again on the late night of the 27th "Computerworld" - print media exit and embrace the future":
We will terminate all print media-related businesses under the "Computerworld" brand, but only "Paper" disappears from "Computerworld", and the "Computerworld" brand will continue to serve the industry.
Picture note: "Computerworld"' public account issued a document on the suspension of work and production
Previously, Computerworld had decided to make transformations and business adjustments to cope with the impact of new media, and officially stopped publishing and distribution of paper editions in June 2021. The total 1844 issue is the last issue of computerworld newspaper in the form of a paper version for readers, and the subsequent "Computerworld" newspaper provides industrial information services through software platforms and self-media on major social platforms.
However, the transformation process of print media is difficult, and the constantly compressed living space coupled with the blow of the epidemic has led to the newspaper finally being unable to persist any longer. The decline of print media is an inevitability, and many people sigh: "Computerworld" has not been easy to survive to this day.
1
"Computerworld", abandoned by "Computerworld"
After more than 40 years of history, Computerworld has come to an end today. Many former readers, authors, and editors have recalled the story of "Computerworld" under the topic of knowing the hot list, remembering the youth of generations of IT people.
"If I hadn't had a top publication like Computerworld to give me the opportunity to learn about the infinite vision of the IT industry, I probably wouldn't have been working in the IT industry for more than two decades,"
Image note: The source of the picture is known
"Even if you save a computer, buy a printer, and what specifications and models you want, it's all information from magazines."
Image note: The source of the picture is known
STEPVR partner and senior vice president Zang Zhongtang published an article in the circle of friends titled "Who will save 'Computerworld'?" The article reveals regret that Computerworld has been lost to the times:
Picture note: Zang Zhongtang circle of friends posted
After the opening of the Internet era in China in the last century, IT media publications that popularized computer knowledge and promoted industrial progress together with Computerworld, as well as China Computer News, which was founded in 1985, and Computer News, which was founded in 1992. The main readership groups of ComputerWorld and China Computer News are large customers in the industry, and the content is more cutting-edge, while the Computer Newspaper is mainly for ordinary IT consumers, and the content is more popular. They have played an important role in the historical process of computers "flying into the homes of ordinary people" and are the gateway for countless IT people to enter the computer world.
It is worth mentioning that at that time, IDG Technology Venture Capital Fund began to invest in the publishing company of "Computerworld", bringing the concept of "venture capital" to the IT industry, and with the investment support of IDG VC, China has Tencent, Baidu and so on, which have now grown into Internet giants.
Once the existence of China's Internet "guide", but now it has fallen into the era of Internet prosperity, which is really lamentable and intriguing.
2
Watching him rise from a tall building, watching him collapse
Founded in 1980, Computerworld is the first industry newspaper for computers and information technology published by the Electronic Science and Technology Information Institute of the Ministry of Information Industry and the International Data Corporation (IDG) of the United States, and is the first industry newspaper in China for the computer and information industry.
The publication once ranked among the top ten newspapers in the country, because of the hot sales volume, the advertising volume is huge, and it has maintained more than 300 pages for a long time. "Computerworld" has accompanied the growth of several generations of IT people and promoted the vigorous development of China's IT industry. Ma Huateng once published an article in Ji to promote his entrepreneurial projects. After making the Hanka M-6401, Shi Yuzhu in his entrepreneurial period also "cheekily" requested to advertise on credit.
Photo note: Ma Huateng's article published in the computer world that year
The "Plan" announced the suspension of publication, and many old IT people said in personal microblogs and other social media that they felt sorry. However, the current IT people also believe that the media is reincarnating in a new way, now everyone is a disseminator of news, media platforms are no longer so important, and the trend of future media is decentralization.
As the former head of the technology media, it has also tasted a gradual decline because of the change of media methods. Today's readers do not know anything about "Computerworld", and the most profound memory of Internet people who have been immersed in this circle for many years should be the "Tencent" of "Dog Day" that caused a big discussion in the technology circle that year.
Caption: Cover headline "Tencent of "Dog Day"" Image source https://xueqiu.com/6493571021/149430018
Tencent of "Dog Day" was published in July 2010 as a cover headline in Computerworld.
Not only is the title of this article too straightforward, the cover is slightly bloody, and the content is somewhat imbued with personal emotions. The author calls Tencent a "Terminator" and "Predator", describes Tencent's business model as "following step by step, then imitating meticulously, and then decisively surpassing", and then describes in detail the entanglement of interests between Meituan, Lianzhong, Qihoo, 360 and Tencent, listing many of Tencent's "crimes", which seems to be suspected of criticizing Tencent as an Internet public enemy, and is unfair as a media.
Note: Computerworld's apology statement
Although after a tugging with Tencent, Computerworld apologized, saying that the use of title language and pictures in the article was inappropriate, which had a negative impact on Tencent, but such "spicy and stimulating" content could not be completely erased from the young minds of readers at that time, leaving many topics for later generations.
"History of China's IT, Half of the World", is such a once spirited publication, announced in early June 2021 to stop the publication and distribution of paper editions, but still maintain the operation of websites, smartphone software and WeChat public accounts of various platforms. Readers would have thought that Computerworld would continue in digital form, perhaps "upswing." But in less than a year, "Computerworld" not only failed to achieve the gorgeous transformation of digital media, but instead made it worse and came to an end, which can't help but sigh.
Computerworld, goodbye!
Reference Links:
https://baike.baidu.com/item/ computerworld/9952113?fr=aladdin
https://www.zhihu.com/question/530298099
https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1731245575097468367
https://groups.google.com/g/nkeric-daily/c/SHJRCXLPM1s
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