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From: bea...@milton.u.washington.edu (Clint Olsen)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
Subject: PC Mag editor responds to Zachman allegations!
Message-ID: <1992May7.210825.13812@u.washington.edu>
Date: 7 May 92 21:08:25 GMT
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Date: Thu, 7 May 92 17:53 GMT
From: Joel Dreyfuss <0003316...@mcimail.com>
To: "Clinton V. Olsen" <ols...@hertz.ee.washington.edu>
Subject: Re - (Forwarded) Will Zachmann
Message-Id: <90920507175309/0003316982NA4EM@mcimail.com>
Status: R
I want to respond to the rumor that Ziff-Davis is censoring Will Zachmann.
That is simply not true. While the incident reported involves PC Week and
not PC Magazine, the philosphy of our parent company is clear on issues of
censorship.
Will Zachmann has been an ardent advocate of OS/2 for as long as I
can remember. In the year that I've been editor of PC Magazine, he has
pounded relentlessly at the shortcomings of Windows and --in his view--the
superiority of OS/2. The only concern I--and any other PC Magazine senior
editor--has ever expressed to him was the possibility that he was becoming
monotonous. I have suggested that he also cover other aspects of the
industry--and he has: he's done pieces on C++, Object-oriented programming
and argued for a new communications standard of 9600 baud--and gone
right back to his favorite topic.
I have never heard any threats from Microsoft about Zachmann. I'm sure he
has exasperated some Microsoft officials and they have taken him on in the
Compuserve forums on occasion. But Will's role is to be contrarian. We have
a number of contributors and columnists--some readers would say too
many--who LOVE Windows and write about it constantly. Will plays a valuable
role of balancing those opinions.
PC Magazine's success is predicated on its credibility with our readers.
Both readers AND advertisers value that credibility. We would be incredibly
stupid to jeopardize that to satisfy an advertiser. We do occasionally
receive complaints from advertisers and companies occasionally pull their
ads. That is their perogative, but we have never changed our editorial
content to placate. The only reason we would stop using a columnist is if we
concluded that he was boring readers and not giving them value for their
time and money-not because an advertiser was unhappy with his work.
Please do me a favor and post this message on any public boards you have access to;
we want to set the record straight.
Joel Dreyfuss
Editor, PC Magazine
-Clint
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
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From: r...@uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Ray Kan)
Subject: PC Mag's Response (was Re: Will Zachmann and Ziff-Davis)
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Well I decided to send a message to PC Mag to inquire about the allegations
of censoring Zachmann due to pressure from Microsoft, here's their reply:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Date: Thu, 7 May 92 17:52 GMT
From: Joel Dreyfuss <0003316...@mcimail.com>
To: Ray Kan <r...@uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu>
Subject: Re - Censorship
Message-Id: <21920507175212/0003316982NA4EM@mcimail.com>
I want to respond to the rumor that Ziff-Davis is censoring Will Zachmann.
That is simply not true. While the incident reported involves PC Week and
not PC Magazine, the philosphy of our parent company is clear on issues of
censorship.
Will Zachmann has been an ardent advocate of OS/2 for as long as I
can remember. In the year that I've been editor of PC Magazine, he has
pounded relentlessly at the shortcomings of Windows and --in his view--the
superiority of OS/2. The only concern I--and any other PC Magazine senior
editor--have ever expressed to him was the possibility that he was becoming
monotonous. I have suggested that he also cover other aspects of the
industry--and he has: he's done pieces on C++, Object-oriented programming
and argued for a new communications standard of 9600 baud--and gone
right back to his favorite topic.
I have never heard any threats from Microsoft about Zachmann. I'm sure he
has exasperated some Microsoft officials and they have taken him on in the
Compuserve forums on occasion. But Will's role is to be contrarian. We have
a number of contributors and columnists--some readers would say too
many--who LOVE Windows and write about it constantly. Will plays a valuable
role of balancing those opinions.
PC Magazine's success is predicated on its credibility with our readers.
Both readers AND advertisers value that credibility. We would be incredibly
stupid to jeopardize that to satisfy an advertiser. We do occasionally
receive complaints from advertisers and companies occasionally pull their
ads. That is their perogative, but we have never changed our editorial
content to placate.The only reason we would stop using a columnist is if we
concluded that he was boring readers and not giving them value for their
time and money-not because an advertiser was unhappy with his work.
I would appreciate your posting this message on any public network you have
access to so we can quash these unfounded rumors.
Joel Dreyfuss
Editor, PC Magazine
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Sounds reasonable to me...any comments?