MacUser was unique. Although it began in 1985 as a conventional computer magazine focused (of course) on the Macintosh, it followed its market — and its market became creative professionals. That meant over time it became much more focused on design and creativity than most other tech mags, and its creative approach had to be sharp.
It also mutated into a business to business (B2B) magazine. Those creative professionals were, by and large, freelance or running their own small businesses. They bought the magazine on subscription (charging it to the company) rather than with their money.
And they spent a lot on tech. In the mid- to late 90s the average annual spend per reader was about £10,000, or about £25,000 in 2024 money. That was a huge amount compared to the run-of-the-mill computer magazine buyer.
All this meant that demand for advertising in MacUser was high. So high, in fact, that you had to be spending a lot with us regularly to get a discount on rate card, which at the time was almost unheard of. The likes of Computer Warehouse would have 20+ pages of advertising in the issue because it was the best way to reach an audience that spent lots of cash.
The magazine was started by Felix Dennis in 1985, but he quickly sold the US rights to Ziff Davis, which created its own completely separate version. We always looked at MU US as our distant cousins, but it was a very different magazine: monthly, not as focused on design, and, by the mid-90s, more of a traditional computer publication than we were.
One of the other unique things about MacUser was its frequency. At a time when almost all computer magazines were monthly, MacUser was fortnightly. And it was still the size of a monthly magazine. Big issues would reach 160 pages, with half of that editorial. And the standards — of writing, design, production — had to be high. Remember that audience of creatives? They wanted to see high creative standards.
Peak creative MacUser was probably the era when Adam Banks was editor the first time around, from (I think) 1996 to 1999. Stuart Price, Adam’s predecessor, loved design but was fundamentally a words person. Adam was not only a brilliant writer, he also had a designers’ eye and loved brilliant design and illustration. Later on, when he took the magazine on as its last editor, he not only wrote but also designed and laid out the magazine. He was talented enough to do anything.
I can’t remember if it was Adam that hired Paul Kurzeja as art editor — it might have been Stuart — but Paul was a revelation. He had come from Time Out and took the design of the magazine on to a whole new level. Paul’s ideas for covers and layouts were outstanding, and he started the trend of MacUser winning design awards which carried on for many years.
I think it was Paul’s idea to do a spread every issue which just featured beautifully designed things, shot in creative ways. Rumours that members of the team furnished their homes with some items, which PRs never wanted to be returned, cannot be corroborated this removed from the era.
Paul was also the best talent spotter I have ever worked with. We had a slew of designers that Paul hand-picked straight out of college, many of whom actually went on to art edit the magazine.
The production desk – headed by Kevin Wilson, then Kirsty Fortune — held everything together. Not only brilliant writers, production made everything run on time. Despite the pressure of producing a monthly magazine on a fortnightly schedule, we didn’t miss deadlines. And when us sloppy section editors did miss a deadline, production made sure we knew quite how much shit we were in, while rescuing us and making sure it all went out on time.
MacUser wasn’t just design, though. The other key pillar of the team was the news desk and in particular Karen Harvey. Karen taught me everything about journalism, and without her, I wouldn’t have been half the writer or editor I became. It was Karen who taught me how to write news, how the most important thing as a reporter was the depth of your contacts, how, in her words, “anything you read in a press release isn’t news”. She was brilliant, demanding, and I loved loved loved working for her.
Adam was too good to be left on MacUser. There is always a temptation in publishing companies to move your most talented people around, both to give them a fresh challenge and put them where they are most needed. But after a few years of the relentless schedule, I suspect he was also a bit burned out. He and Paul were essentially moved upward to work on new launches at Dennis — Paul remained creative director, one of his protégées became art editor — and Karen was next in line. I became deputy and, in 2001, took over as editor.
In hindsight, I wasn’t ready and was also probably more than a little burned out even before I started. I lasted a couple of years before I had to quit, and at that point I really was burned out, planning a different kind of career. Instead, I ended up freelancing, found I liked it, and it was profitable enough to keep me afloat, and went on my squiggly career path.
There were parts of being an editor that I loved. I liked getting invites to all the art shows. I liked being the head of an influential creative technology magazine. But I should have been pushing us to make a digital transformation, and I didn’t have the imagination to see the web as anything but a place for low-rent content factories. In a sense I was right, but I could have pushed harder to get us online in new and creative ways (no, that would not have involved Flash). I didn’t, and by the time I left it was probably too late.
After a period of commercial decline and the inevitable cost-cutting, MacUser ended up back in Adam’s hands. By now freelance, he took it on a contract basis, basically running the whole thing by himself. He made it look great again, and did some absolutely brilliant covers, one of which was named of the PPA's Covers of the Century. But of course, as the sales inevitably declined, so did the budget and ad sales, to the point it was really all over.
Adam died a few years ago at a far too young age, and everyone who worked with him misses him very much. Paul Nesbitt, Tony Tyler, and Jim Smith - who all played a part in making MacUser what it was – have also passed away. That’s one of the reasons why I thought it was time to commit some of this to the collective memory of the internet. Life is too short not to write it all down.