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Atari ST User

Database Publications' Atari ST monthly, from Stockport and Macclesfield

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Atari ST User began in March 1986 as a companion title that came with Database Publications' Atari User, and became a magazine in its own right from April 1987. It moved with its publisher from Stockport to Adlington Park near Macclesfield, passed through the Europress group's changing company names, and had gone by the end of 1994.

Atari ST User started life inside another magazine. Its first issue, dated March 1986, arrived with Database Publications’ Atari User, a magazine for Atari’s 8-bit computers, and opened with a welcome to “a magazine dedicated to the most talked-about computer of the year”. A year later it was selling on its own, and it went on to cover the Atari ST for more than eight years, through four company names and two addresses in Cheshire.

The younger cousin

The first issue caught the ST at the moment it was changing Atari’s reputation. “When Atari boss Jack Tramiel launched the ST in Hanover just 11 months ago, his rivals trembled,” the welcome page began. Mike Cowley’s lead news story reported that Atari had announced the 1040ST in the United States, its first personal computer with a megabyte of memory, at $999.95 with a monochrome monitor or $1,199.95 with colour. Readers were to write to Europa House, 68 Chester Road, Hazel Grove, Stockport, the home of Database Publications, which also published The Micro User.

For its first year Atari ST User was a slim companion to Atari User. The small print in Atari User called them “independent publications”, and the March 1987 Atari User carried an ST User issue numbered volume 2, number 1 inside it. The same issue announced the split. After what it called an overwhelming response to a readers’ survey, Atari User would “say goodbye to its younger cousin - Atari ST User - which from now on will be published as a magazine in its own right”. From the April issues Atari User would be “wholly aimed at owners of 8 bit Atari computers”. A later secondary account describes the early ST User as a pull-out inside Atari User.

The standalone magazine kept the old numbering. The December 1987 issue was volume 2, number 10, and cost £1.50; by August 1990 the issues carried plain numbers, starting from 54.

Inside the Europress group

In December 1987 the colophon read “Published by: Database Publications Ltd”, with Derek Meakin as managing editor and Alan McLachlan as group editor. By May 1988 the magazine had moved with its publisher to a new Europa House at Adlington Park, near Macclesfield, where Database had also launched Amiga Computing.

The publisher’s name changed several times after that, though the address did not. From at least August 1990 the colophon named Interactive Publishing Ltd, the company created by a deal between Database and Gollner Publishing of Chichester. By September 1991 the magazine was “© Europress Publications 1991”. The 1993 issues were “Published by Europress Enterprise Ltd”, and from August 1994 by Europress Publications Ltd. All were parts of the group Meakin had founded, Europress.

Editors

The mastheads name these editors:

  • Alan McLachlan, group editor from 1987 to 1989, under Derek Meakin as managing editor, with Roland Waddilove as features editor.
  • Jerry Glenwright, editor by August 1990. The December 1990 masthead made him co-editor with Claire Walls, and joked through the staff list: “Claire ‘the Great’ Walls”, “Jerry ‘Corking’ Glenwright”.
  • Claire Walls, editor by March 1991.
  • In September 1991 Meakin was managing editor, with Eddie McKendrick as associate editor.
  • John Butters, who had been news and features editor in 1990 and 1991, was editor from at least April 1993 to August 1994.
  • Darren Evans, the technical editor under Butters, was editor in September and October 1994.

The end

The October 1994 issue, number 105, looked like any other and trailed articles for the next month. A later secondary account says the magazine merged with ST Action, the Europress group’s ST games title, and stopped in November 1994. By Christmas 1994 Atari ST Review, another Europress title, described itself and one rival as the “two remaining glossy ST titles in the UK market”, and the page advertising an Atari show in Hammersmith offered “back issues of Atari ST Review and Atari ST User” at bargain prices.

Sources

  • Atari User vol. 1 no. 11, March 1986: contents (Atari ST User) and the notice that “Atari User” and “Atari ST User” are independent publications. Atari User vol. 2 no. 11, March 1987, p. 11: the Atari ST User vol. 2 no. 1 cover and the announcement of the split.
  • Atari ST User vol. 1 no. 1, March 1986: welcome page, Mike Cowley’s 1040ST news story and the Hazel Grove address.
  • Atari ST User vol. 2 no. 10, December 1987: cover (price, numbering), colophon and masthead (Database Publications, Hazel Grove; Derek Meakin; Alan McLachlan).
  • Atari ST User vol. 3 no. 3, May 1988, and vol. 3 no. 7, September 1988: colophon (Adlington Park) and masthead (McLachlan, Waddilove). Vol. 4 no. 2, April 1989: masthead.
  • Atari ST User issue 54, August 1990, to issue 58, December 1990: colophons (Interactive Publishing) and mastheads (Jerry Glenwright; Claire Walls; John Butters as news and features editor). Issue 61, March 1991: masthead (Claire Walls).
  • Atari ST User issue 67, September 1991: masthead (Derek Meakin, Eddie McKendrick, John Butters) and copyright line (Europress Publications).
  • Atari ST User issue 86, April 1993, to issue 103, August 1994: colophons (Europress Enterprise, then Europress Publications) and mastheads (John Butters; Darren Evans as technical editor). Issues 104 and 105, September and October 1994: mastheads (Darren Evans).
  • Atari ST Review Christmas 1994 edition: editorial (“two remaining glossy ST titles”, “becoming a Europress title”), the Atari show page, and the colophon.
  • For Database Publications, Interactive Publishing and the Europress group, see the sources for Europress and Amiga Computing.
  • Wikipedia, “Atari ST User” (web, secondary): the early issues as a pull-out in Atari User, the merger with ST Action and the end in November 1994. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_ST_User

See also

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