The Micro User was the BBC Micro magazine that took a Stockport publisher into home computing. In March 1983 Database Publications of Hazel Grove, Stockport, until then the publisher of Windfall, a magazine for Apple computers, and the trade paper Computer Dealer, put out the first issue of BBC Micro User, priced £1, for owners of the BBC Micro. Within a year the same house was running a second magazine for Acorn’s Electron and a trade show that drew thousands of visitors to Manchester. By the end of the decade it was publishing magazines for the Atari ST and the Amiga as part of the Europress group.
An independent magazine for one machine
The first cover called it “The independent magazine that helps you to make the most of your micro”, and the small print spelled out what that meant: “neither the BBC nor Acorn Computers Ltd are responsible for any of the articles in this issue or for any of the opinions expressed”. The BBC Micro already had an official magazine, Acorn User, which Addison-Wesley had been publishing for Acorn since its first issue, dated July/August 1982. The Micro User was a rival house’s view of the same machine.
Issue 1 offered a game to type in, Death Watch, a way to “iron out those cassette bugs”, instructions for building a games paddle, a review of the Alphabeta word processor (“useful but over-priced”) and a look at “What’s good — and bad — in BBC software”. Derek Meakin was managing editor, Mike Bibby features editor and Mike Cook technical editor. The welcome page promised that “one thing we are not going to do is to waste space on long editorials — we’ve got better uses for it!”
For its first three issues the magazine ran “BBC Micro User” across the top of every page. From June 1983 the page headers read simply “Micro User”. The colophon had called it The Micro User from the start.
A show and a second magazine
Database also ran events. The first BBC Micro User Show was held over three days in the summer of 1983 in UMIST’s Renold building in Manchester, and the magazine reported that more than 12,500 visitors came through the doors, with over 50 companies exhibiting. Acorn had planned to use the show to launch its second processors for the BBC Micro.
That autumn the house added a second title. The October 1983 issue of The Micro User carried “the first edition of ELECTRON USER — the exciting new magazine for users of Acorn’s latest micro”, bound in as a section, and the November issue carried the second. Electron User soon became a magazine in its own right.
Into the Europress group
Database went on to publish magazines for other home computers: Atari ST User and, from June 1988, Amiga Computing. By June 1988 it had moved from Hazel Grove to a new Europa House at Adlington Park, near Macclesfield, and by November 1988 its magazines described Database Publications as “a division of Europress Ltd”.
The name Europress appears in The Micro User much earlier, but in a different role. In 1985 the magazine’s news-trade distributor was “Europress Sales and Distribution Limited” of Crawley, West Sussex, while the colophon still gave the publisher as Database Publications at Hazel Grove. That credit shows who got the magazine into the shops, not who owned it.
In June 1991 Meakin brought all of the group’s companies under the Europress name, and The Micro User was listed among the titles of Europress Publications. By then it covered Acorn’s newer machines too: the September 1991 issue, published from Europa House, Adlington Park, was full of software and hardware for the Archimedes and A3000 alongside the BBC Micro and Master.
In October 1992 the magazine was renamed Acorn Computing, and according to a later secondary summary it ran until 1995.
Sources
- BBC Micro User issue 1, March 1983: cover (price, cover lines), welcome page, colophon (Database Publications, Hazel Grove) and masthead (Derek Meakin, Mike Bibby, Mike Cook), and the independence statement.
- BBC Micro User issues 2 and 3, April and May 1983, and The Micro User issue 4, June 1983: page headers.
- The Micro User issue 4, June 1983: preview of the BBC Micro User Show at UMIST (Acorn’s second processors).
- The Micro User issue 6, August 1983: report on the first BBC Micro User Show (three days, more than 12,500 visitors, over 50 companies).
- The Micro User issue 8, October 1983: “The first edition of ELECTRON USER”; issue 9, November 1983: the second edition.
- The Micro User vol. 3 no. 1, March 1985: colophon (Database Publications, Hazel Grove) and news-trade distribution by Europress Sales and Distribution Limited, Crawley.
- Windfall vol. 2 no. 10, April 1983: “Windfall and Computer Dealer, from Database Publications in Stockport”.
- Acorn User issue 1, July/August 1982: “published by Addison-Wesley for Acorn Computers Limited”.
- Amiga Computing issue 1, June 1988, and November 1988: colophons (Adlington Park; “Database Publications is a division of Europress Ltd”).
- Amiga Computing issue 37, June 1991, p. 14: “Amiga Computing goes Euro”, listing The Micro User under Europress Publications.
- The Micro User vol. 9 no. 7, September 1991: Europa House, Adlington Park address; Archimedes and A3000 coverage.
- Acorn User issue 123, October 1992: an advertisement quoting “Acorn Computing October 1992”.
- Wikipedia, “The Micro User” (web, secondary): renamed Acorn Computing from October 1992, closed in 1995. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Micro_User
See also
- BBC Micro
- Acorn User — the official magazine
- Europress — the group Database Publications became part of
- Atari ST User, Amiga Computing — later titles from the same house