Code Like It's 198x

Compupress

The Athens publisher of Computer για Όλους, Pixel and PC Master

Companies & StudiosSource-checked

An Athens magazine publisher run by Nikos Manousos. It published Computer για Όλους, launched the listings magazine Pixel in October 1983 because a reader questionnaire asked for more programs, and added PC Master, a monthly with a disk for PC owners, in September 1989. Pixel closed in 1996; Computer για Όλους carried on in print, by Wikipedia's account, until 2013.

Compupress was the Athens house behind two of Greece’s longest-running computer magazines. Its Computer για Όλους (Computer for Everyone) was already on its fifth issue in 1983, when a questionnaire in it found that readers wanted more ready-made programs. Compupress answered by launching a second magazine, Pixel, made up almost entirely of type-in listings. Six years later, as readers moved to IBM-compatible PCs, it launched a third, PC Master, with a floppy disk on the cover every month. One name runs through all of them: Nikos Manousos, the publisher.

Fast facts

  • Based: Athens: Solomou and Botasi streets in 1985, then Syngrou Avenue 44 from at least 1987; with an office in Thessaloniki.
  • Publisher: Νίκος Μανούσος (Nikos Manousos), named as publisher on Pixel from its first issue to its last and as publisher-director of PC Master.
  • Titles: Computer για Όλους (by 1983), Pixel (October 1983 to June 1996), PC Master (from September 1989).
  • Company form: a limited company (ΕΠΕ) on Pixel’s masthead in 1984, a société anonyme (Α.Ε.) on PC Master’s in 1989.

Computer για Όλους and Pixel

Pixel began as an offshoot. The publisher’s letter in its first issue, dated October–December 1983, called it an effort by Computer για Όλους to cover home and personal computers through programs, and explained where the idea came from: the questionnaire in the fifth issue of Computer για Όλους, where “a large proportion of readers asked for more ready-made programs”. Pixel described itself as the first Greek magazine devoted only to listings. It went from quarterly to bimonthly in 1984 and monthly in 1985, and the Pixel entry tells its story, including the 1987 reader party at the Panathinaikos ground.

The two magazines advertised the company as a whole. A Compupress advertisement in Pixel in January 1985 ran the line “Η πληροφόρηση στην πληροφορική ονομάζεται Compupress”: information about computing is called Compupress. On Pixel’s 1984 masthead Βαγγέλης Παπαλιός (Vangelis Papalios) worked in public relations and advertising; by 1989 he was deputy director of PC Master.

PC Master

PC Master appeared in September 1989 as “a monthly magazine with a disk for PCs”, eleven issues a year at 3,000 drachmas by annual subscription. Its first editorial promised a disk every month of utilities and games chosen from the big public domain libraries, along with programs written by readers and contributors. The first disk included Lines, a variant of Tetris. Computer για Όλους grew in the same direction. In 1992 Compupress advertised an archive of its 1989–91 issues on CD-ROM, with a full-text search program, as “the first Greek magazine on CD-ROM”, and by the end of 1993 the magazine came with a 3.5-inch disk and an extra supplement on multimedia and CD-ROM.

PC Master outlived Pixel. In Pixel’s last issue, number 133 in June 1996, Manousos explained that readers who moved to PCs had turned to its “sister” magazine PC Master, and that many of Pixel’s contributors were already writing for it.

Later years

Wikipedia, which cites no specific sources, says that Compupress was formed in 1982, that Computer για Όλους reached its 300th issue in August 2009, and that its last print issue, number 344, appeared in May 2013, after the magazine had also gone out as a digital edition.

Sources

  • Pixel issue 1, October–December 1983, p. 3: publisher’s letter (an effort of Computer για Όλους; the fifth-issue questionnaire; the first Greek listings magazine).
  • Pixel issue 2, May–June 1984, p. 3: masthead (Compupress ΕΠΕ; Νίκος Μανούσος, publisher; Βαγγέλης Παπαλιός, public relations and advertising).
  • Pixel issue 6, January 1985, p. 70: Compupress advertisement (Solomou and Botasi, Athens; Chalkeon 29, Thessaloniki).
  • Pixel issue 34, June 1987, p. 92: Compupress subscription and reader-service address, Syngrou 44, Athens.
  • PC Master issue 1, September 1989: editorial (the monthly disk) and masthead (Compupress Α.Ε.; Manousos, publisher-director; Papalios, deputy director; 11 issues a year).
  • PC Master issue 27, March 1992, p. 45: advertisement for the Computer για Όλους CD-ROM archive of 1989–91.
  • PC Master issue 46, December 1993, p. 92: advertisement for Computer για Όλους with its disk and the Multimedia & CD-ROM supplement.
  • Pixel issue 133, June 1996: farewell editorial by Ν.Ο. Μανούσος (PC Master as the “sister” magazine).
  • Wikipedia, “Compupress” (web, secondary; no inline citations): formed in 1982; Computer για Όλους’s 300th issue (August 2009) and last print issue, number 344 (May 2013). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compupress

See also

Checked. Verified against primary sources and signed off by a person.