Growth and change
In April 1979, owner/publisher Virginia Williamson (née Londner Green) sold Byte to McGraw-Hill. At the time, Byte's paid circulation was 156,000 readers, making it second only to Business Week in the McGraw-Hill's technology magazine portfolio.[13] She remained publisher until 1983 and became a vice president of McGraw-Hill Publications Company. From August 1979, the magazine switched to computerized typesetting, using a Compugraphic system.[14] Shortly after the IBM PC was introduced, in 1981, the magazine changed editorial policies. It gradually de-emphasized the do-it-yourself electronics and software articles, and began running product reviews. It continued its wide-ranging coverage of hardware and software, but now it reported "what it does" and "how it works", not "how to do it". The editorial focus remained on home and personal computers.
By the early 1980s, Byte had become an "elite" magazine, seen as a peer of Rolling Stone and Playboy, and others such as David Bunnell of PC Magazine aspired to emulate its reputation and success.[15] It was the only computer publication on the 1981 Folio 400 list of largest magazines. Byte's 1982 average number of pages was 543, and the number of paid advertising pages grew by more than 1,000 while most magazines' amount of advertising did not change. Its circulation of 420,000 was the third-highest of all computer magazines.[16] Byte earned $9 million from revenue of $36.6 million in 1983, twice the average profit margin for the magazine industry. It remained successful while many other magazines failed in 1984 during economic weakness in the computer industry. The October 1984 issue had about 300 pages of ads sold at an average of $6,000 per page .[17]
Starting with the December 1975 issue through September 1990, Byte covers often featured the artwork of Robert Tinney. These covers made Byte visually distinctive.[18] However, issues featuring cover stories introducing significant hardware such as the Apple Lisa, Apple Macintosh, IBM PC and Commodore Amiga featured product photographs on the covers.
From approximately 1980 to 1985, cartoonist Tom Sloan drew full page multipanel cartoons. They covered various computer/tech related themes. Several of the original cartoons are now in the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.
Around 1985, Byte started an online service called BIX (Byte Information eXchange) which was a text-only BBS-style site running on the CoSy conferencing software,[19] also used by McGraw-Hill internally.[20] Access was via local dial-in or, for additional hourly charges, the Tymnet X.25 network. Monthly rates were $13/month for the account and $1/hour for X.25 access. Unlike CompuServe, access at higher speeds was not surcharged. Later, gateways permitted email communication outside the system.
By 1990, the magazine was about 1/2 in in thickness and had a subscription price of $56 per year. Around 1993, Byte began to develop a web presence. It acquired the domain name byte.com and began to host discussion boards and post selected editorial content.
Editions were published in Japan, Brazil, Germany, and an Arabic edition was published in Jordan.
