Re: A+ magazine questions

[spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article "Jason Whorton" <jason@microxl.com> writes...

>Hello.  I am trying to collect all the A+ magazines

    That makes two of us, I only have about 25 issues myself (not
counting doubles) and hope to one day fill in the gaps.

>and am wanting to know a couple of things about it.  The earliest issue I
>have is November 1984 and it is Volume 2, issue 11.

    It began publication the very start of 1983, so I think it is safe 
to assume the first issue (Volume 1, issue 1) is dated January 1983.
Someone here can probably verify that.

>Were all the previous issues monthly or were any bi-monthly?

    Fairly sure it was a monthly magazine from beginning to end. It did
go through some changes, such as once having Apple Lisa, Apple III and
Macintosh coverage (early covers said "The Independent Guide for Apple
Computing" or "Apple II/Macintosh" before finally saying "The #1 Apple
II Magazine").

>The latest  one I have is May 1993.  Were there any issues made
>after the May 1993 issue?  When was the last issue made?

    Essentially, the last issue was May 1989 as that is when Ziff-Davis
cancelled it and ceased publication. The reason you have an issue later
than that date is due to the fact Ziff allowed it to merge it with their
long time competitor, inCider magazine. inCider, starting with the June
1989 issue, became inCider/A+ (a la MacWorld/MacUser merger).

    inCider/A+ went on until the July 1993 issue, at which point IDG
Communications killed it (they kept losing subscribers, which was no
suprise since the magazine kept getting smaller, its accuracy went
down and misinformation sky-rocketed--and worst of all, they added
Macintosh coverage with _very_ biased attitudes towards the Apple II.
One of the best examples was an article entitled "The Apple IIGS:
What the Mac LC Should Have Been?"). One regular inCider/A+ columnist
decided not to call it quits though, and started a spin-off of his
inCider/A+ column (after joining up with another former well known
inCider contributing editor). You may have heard of the publication, 
which will be turning 5 years old next month. (Hi, Joe!) :-)

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca