Byte Magazine Columnist Jerry Pournelle Returns for Byte.com Relaunch

Posted on March 11, 1999

CMP Media Inc. announced that longtime BYTE Magazine columnist Jerry Pournelle and two other BYTE veterans have returned for the online revival of the venerable publication, which launched today.

Pournelle joins as senior contributing editor and will pen a monthly edition of his Chaos Manor column, which was a staple of the magazine for 20 years until it ceased publication last year. Pournelle rose to prominence as a renowned author, lecturer, science-fiction writer, and celluloid celebrity. In addition to BYTE, he has written for a number of publications including InfoWorld, Galaxy Science Fiction, and the National Catholic Press, and he remains a frequent contributor to various publications. Pournelle has also lectured on technology at MIT, Harvard, and New York University. He is currently at work on a new Chaos Manor book that will be published by O'Reilly and Associates.

"Chaos Manor on BYTE.com will--just as it did in print--do all the silly things so the readers won't have to," said Pournelle. "BYTE is back and I like what I have seen so far. I think that we will be able to recreate the old magazine again and fill a void that has been sorely missing."

BYTE.com also announced the return of two other BYTE magazine veterans: Jon Udell and Martin Heller. Udell, an author and Web/Internet consultant, was the magazine's executive editor for new media and author of its monthly Web Project column. Heller wrote software development tool reviews, features, and the Beyond DOS column. Both will pen columns for the new site.

BYTE magazine, which CMP shut down last July due to a lack of advertiser support, had an extremely loyal reader following. As a result, traffic on BYTE.com is expected to be strong. While dormant, the site averaged 600,000 page views per month. That number is expected to balloon to more than one million monthly page views now that the brand has been revived.

"I have become so used to getting my information from the Web, doing it the old paper way seems as feasible and attractive as returning to typewriters," said technology consultant Murray Dundas, a satisfied BYTE.com reader. "I am also delighted you have chosen to bring Jerry Pournelle back into the fold. His column was a major reason for my subscribing to BYTE. I hope it continues the BYTE tradition of presenting information on computing in a fair and impartial manner."