use them, and construction plans for useful electronic devices. Many of you probably know of me from my decade-long stewardship of Popular Electronics magazine, which changed its name and editorial philosophy last year to distance itself from active electronics enthusiasts who move fluidly across electronics and computer product areas. In a sense, then, Modern Electronics is the successor to the original concept of Popular Electronics … The last issue of Computers & Electronics was April 1985. The magazine still had 600,000 readers but the intense competition from other computer magazines resulted in flat advertising revenues. Ziff-Davis asset sale In 1953, William B. Ziff, Jr. (age 23) was thrust into the publishing business when his father died of a heart attack. In 1982, Ziff was diagnosed with prostate cancer so he asked his three sons (ages 14 to 20) if they wanted to run a publishing empire. They did not. Ziff wanted to simplify the estate by selling some of the magazines. In November 1984, CBS bought the consumer group for $362.5 million and Rupert Murdoch bought the business group for $350 million. This left Ziff-Davis with the computer group and the database publisher (Information Access Company.) These groups were not profitable. Ziff took time off to successfully battle the prostate cancer. (He lived until 2006.) When he returned he focused on magazines like PC Magazine and MacUser to rebuild Ziff-Davis. In 1994 he and his sons sold Ziff-Davis for $1.4 billion. Gernsback Publications The title Popular Electronics was sold to Gernsback Publications and their Hands-On Electronics magazine was renamed to Popular Electronics in February 1989. This version was published until it was merged with Electronics Now to become Poptronics in January 2000. In late 2002 Gernsback Publications went out of business and the January 2003 Poptronics was the last issue. See also WGU-20 - an unusual radio station first explained by Popular Electronics Nuts and Volts - an electronic hobbyists' magazine still in print Elektor - another electronic hobbyists' magazine still in print References External links Popular Electronics Magazine History Online scans of selected Popular Electronics issues Index of all of John T. Frye's Carl and Jerry stories STARTUP: Albuquerque and the Personal Computer Revolution America Radio History archives of Popular Electronics issues Popular Electronics website continuing the magazine title Archived Popular Electronics on the Internet Archive Science and technology magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1954