NEWS •MARCH 9, 2001
MacWeek Folds into MacCentral
Content transitions over, some staffers don't

by David Nagel
Executive Producer
dnagel@digitalmedianet.com

Earlier this week Mac Publishing LLC, the publisher of Macworld, folded MacWeek.com into its daily headline news site, MacCentral.com. The move included layoffs of seven MacWeek staffers. The company says the change will not affect other Mac Publishing properties.

MacWeek was founded in 1987 with an emphasis primarily on I.T., though content often crossed over into creative applications and general Macintosh news and features, as well as what was generally regarded as one of the best columns in all of computer-related journalism, "Mac the Knife." In 1997, MacWeek was acquired as part of a joint venture between Ziff Davis and International Data Group, creating Mac Publishing LLC. In 1998, Mac Publishing decided to retain the MacWeek brand as a Web-only publication. The print version of the magazine had been folded and replaced by the ill-fated eMedia Weekly, whose content drifted away from Mac-only topics and into Unix and Windows articles. It was folded less than a year later.

"It's sad to see MacWeek go—definitely the end of an era," said Erik
Holsinger, a Digital Media Online founder and now vice president of DMN TV. Back in 1990 Holsinger was senior features editor at MacWeek for more than two years and was responsible for all of the features and special reports at MacWeek. "In its heyday, MacWeek was the best Mac publication on the planet, bar none. We had the best writers and most experienced editors and could bring out more scoop information about Apple faster than they could plug up the leaks. Also, unlike many of the trade rags at time, we worked extra hard a confirming details on everything that we did, which is why people always checked out the MacWeek version of a story to get the real scoop."

In a prepared statement, Colin Crawford, president and CEO of Mac Publishing, said, "It was a difficult decision. However, in today’s market, it no longer makes sense for us to spread our resources among three news products. We believe we can meet the needs of the Macintosh community more efficiently through the headline news on MacCentral.com and the more in-depth coverage on Macworld.com. We are providing all affected employees with severance packages, as well as assistance with finding new jobs."

MacWeek.com officially closed down March 5.

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