IDG | Code Like It's 198x

To readers of Amiga Computing, IDG arrived in a short news item in the Christmas 1994 issue. The magazine, it said, had been sold with ten other Europress titles to “the US-controlled multinational that forms the world’s largest computer magazine publisher”. That was no exaggeration. International Data Group had been publishing about computers for almost thirty years, and in the United States it had been publishing AmigaWorld since the Amiga’s launch year. For Amiga Computing and its sister titles the sale changed the name at the foot of the page and very little else.

From a database to Computerworld

IDG began with research, not magazines. Patrick J. McGovern founded International Data Corporation (IDC) in 1964 to sell statistics about the young computer industry. In 1967 he launched Computerworld, a weekly newspaper for people who bought and ran computers. It became the group’s flagship, and IDG later copied the formula in country after country.

By the mid-1980s the group was publishing for home computer owners too. In 1983 Wayne Green, who had founded Kilobaud Microcomputing and 80 Micro, sold his publishing company to IDG. In his column in 80 Micro that September, Green wrote that on 22 May he had “signed a preliminary agreement with Pat McGovern”, whom he described as “the publisher of Computerworld, InfoWorld, and so on… several times the size of my firm in sales”. By then Green had added magazines for Commodore, Apple and Tandy Color Computer owners. His titles became part of IDG’s CW Communications, and its company in Peterborough, New Hampshire, launched AmigaWorld in 1985, the year the Amiga went on sale. Its first issue advertised itself as “the only magazine for Amiga users”.

The group’s growth shows in what it printed about itself:

Date	What IDG said	Where
April 1987	“more than 70 computer publications in 28 countries”; 12 million readers a month	80 Micro
June 1990	“over 130 computer publications in more than 40 countries”; 19 million readers a month	AmigaWorld
December 1994	“more than 220 publications in 64 countries”	Amiga Computing, quoting Derek Meakin

The 1990 list, printed in AmigaWorld, shows how much of it touched home computers. In the United States IDG published AmigaWorld, RUN for the Commodore 64, inCider for the Apple II, GamePro and PC Games. The same list named titles called AmigaWorld in the Netherlands and Spain and AmigaWelt in West Germany. The list also named five British titles, among them Macworld U.K. and PC Business World.

Buying Europress’s magazines

That British list matters, because the man who sold IDG its next British titles described the UK as a gap in its network. At the end of 1994 Europress, the Macclesfield group founded by Derek Meakin, sold eleven of its magazines to IDG. Amiga Computing reported the deal under the heading “AC joins IDG” and quoted Meakin:

“IDG is pre-eminent all round the world, with more than 220 publications in 64 countries. One significant gap in this global network has been the UK. With the acquisition of the Europress titles, IDG now has a core business with which it can expand to become the major player here as it already is in so many other countries.”

IDG did have British magazines already, but the five in its 1990 list were titles for business, graduate and Macintosh readers. Europress published for home users: when it listed its magazines in 1991 they covered the Amiga, the Atari ST, the PC and Acorn’s machines, and included games titles such as Amiga Action.

Same office, new name

The colophon in that Christmas 1994 issue already read “Published by IDG Publications” and “©1994 IDG Publications Ltd”, and called the magazine “a key member of the IDG communications group”. Everything else was where it had been: Europa House, Adlington Park, Macclesfield, the same telephone number, Paul Austin as editor, the same staff list and the same printer in Maidstone. Derek Meakin was still listed as chairman.

The January 1995 issue showed the handover finished. Its copyright line read IDG Media, and the chairman was now Richard Hease, the name that had stood as chairman on the first issue of Sinclair User in April 1982. Looking back in April 1997, Amiga Computing’s editor Tina Hackett mentioned in passing that Europress had “sold the publishing side of its business to the International Data Group”, in the same paragraph as losing a Sensible Soccer match to Stockport County.

IDG Media in Macclesfield

IDG put its two Amiga businesses together. In 1995 AmigaWorld’s American subscribers were transferred to Amiga Computing, which produced a US edition from Macclesfield. Amiga Action came out under “IDG Media Ltd” from 1995 until Christmas 1996, when Amiga Computing absorbed it as its games section. Amiga Computing itself closed in October 1997, more than three years after Commodore’s collapse, by which time IDG Media had moved to Media House, also on Adlington Park.

Acorn User followed the same path. By September 1995 it was “Published by IDG Media Ltd, Media House, Adlington Park, Macclesfield”, and it stayed with IDG until Tau Press took it over at the end of 1998.

After the founder

McGovern ran IDG until his death on 19 March 2014, at the age of 76. Three years later the group was sold: the deal, completed on 29 March 2017, gave China Oceanwide Holdings 90 per cent, including IDC and the publishing arm, IDG Communications, and IDG Capital the remaining 10 per cent. In June 2021 Blackstone agreed to buy IDG from China Oceanwide for an enterprise value of $1.3 billion. In February 2022 IDG Communications, still the publisher of Computerworld, PCWorld and Macworld, renamed itself Foundry, while IDC kept its name.

Sources

Amiga Computing issue 81, Christmas 1994, p. 12, “AC joins IDG”; p. 16, editorial page and colophon (IDG Publications; Adlington Park; staff; Derek Meakin, chairman; Duncan Webb Offset, Maidstone).
Amiga Computing issue 80, December 1994, and issue 82, January 1995: colophons (Europress Publications; then IDG Media, with Richard Hease as chairman).
Amiga Computing issue 111, April 1997: Tina Hackett’s farewell.
Amiga Computing issue 37, June 1991, p. 14, “Amiga Computing goes Euro”: the Europress companies and their magazines.
Sinclair User issue 1, April 1982: masthead (Richard Hease, chairman; ECC Publications).
80 Micro, September 1983: Wayne Green’s “Remarks” column (the agreement with Pat McGovern). 80 Micro, April 1987, and August 1987: CW Communications as “an International Data Group company”, its size; Green’s career and the sale of his company to IDG.
AmigaWorld vol. 1 no. 1, September 1985: colophon (CW Communications/Peterborough) and launch advertisement. AmigaWorld vol. 2 no. 6, November 1986: statement of ownership (owner International Data Group, Framingham, Massachusetts; Patrick J. McGovern). AmigaWorld vol. 6 no. 6, June 1990: IDG’s list of publications.
Acorn User issue 159, September 1995: colophon (IDG Media Ltd). For the later IDG years of Amiga Computing, Amiga Action and Acorn User, including the AmigaWorld subscribers and Tau Press, see the sources for those entries.
Rob Marvin, “Pat McGovern, technology publishing pioneer and founder of IDG, dies at 76”, SD Times, 20 March 2014 (web, secondary). https://sdtimes.com/computerworld/pat-mcgovern-technology-publishing-pioneer-and-founder-of-idg-dies-at-76/
“IDG founder and chairman Patrick J. McGovern dies at 76”, Computerworld, 20 March 2014 (web, secondary). https://www.computerworld.com/article/1390342/idg-founder-and-chairman-patrick-j-mcgovern-dies-at-76.html
“China Oceanwide completes its purchase of IDG”, Computerworld, 29 March 2017, and “IDG Capital completes IDG acquisition”, Global Corporate Venturing, April 2017 (web, secondary): the buyers and their stakes. https://www.computerworld.com/article/1670006/china-oceanwide-completes-its-purchase-of-idg.html
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, “Blackstone to Acquire International Data Group for $1.3 Billion”, 3 June 2021 (web, secondary). https://www.stblaw.com/about-us/news/view/2021/06/03/blackstone-to-acquire-international-data-group-for-$1.3-billion
“IDG Communications rebrands as Foundry, positions itself as a martech company”, MarTech, 18 February 2022, and Axios, 17 February 2022 (web, secondary). https://martech.org/idg-communications-rebrands-as-foundry-positions-itself-as-a-martech-company/