Pat McGovern's “Technology Publishing for Dummies”

Fri, 24 Sep 1999 16:00:00 +0000

Pat McGovern thought he had a deal to buy PC, an independent technology trade magazine. So did PC's co-founder and publisher, David Bunnell, when he left his San Francisco office one Friday night in 1982. But the following Monday, Manhattan-based Ziff-Davis executives revealed that they had signed a deal with Bunnell's partner, financier Tony Gold, to buy what is now known as PC Magazine. Displeased with the sudden switch, Bunnell -- and most of the editorial and sales staff that had made PC a hot title -- walked out. Ziff had bought a hollow book; and McGovern, not one to fret over something he couldn't fix, seized on a fresh opportunity.

With the same entrepreneurial chutzpah that has characterized his leadership of IDG, a $2.35 billion technology publishing, research and conference company, McGovern gave Bunnell the financial backing to hire his former staff and launch PC World. (The name distinguished the magazine as an IDG title, like InfoWorld, ComputerWorld and, later, Macworld.)
Ziff-Davis promptly filed for an injunction to prevent PC World from publishing and sued most of the former PC staff -- an action Bunnell likens to "sending troops into Vietnam." And so began a nasty publishing war that defined computer magazine publishing for more than a decade.

Salon.com > Chris Sandlund

Pat McGovern's “Technology Publishing for Dummies”