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Gareth Ogden

Customised - Custom PC reaches 50

Posted at: 2nd October 2007

As you've no doubt noticed from the big, flashy banner on the front cover that reads 'Special 50th Issue!', Custom PC magazine is 50 issues old this month. And the time has really flown.

Whenever anyone reaches a milestone age, it's normal to reminisce about times gone by and, before writing this column, I felt the need to go back to Issue 1 and re-read what I wrote just over four years ago.

I did this with a certain amount of trepidation. Had I made grand promises that we simply couldn't keep? Had I said we were one thing when in fact we'd turned out to be something completely different? Was my column photo much worse than the one I have now? All important questions, I'm sure you'll agree.

However, as I read my first Custom PC column, I couldn't help a little smile creeping onto my face. Sure, I'd been quite brazen, saying, for example, that 'The future is now', which was a lofty statement referring to the fact that Custom PC was a new and forward-looking publication, and unlike anything else on the newsstand. And while CPC isn't so futuristic as to be printed on e-paper, I still think that we're unique compared with other IT publications. I also took a few sly potshots at 'our more starchy contemporaries', the more established and traditional IT press; in hindsight, this was meaningless posturing and an attitude that we've long since outgrown (after all, we're now very well 'established' alongside them).

However, it wasn't these aspects of the column that made me smile; I was smiling because I realised that what I'd said about the magazine and its prospective readers (bearing in mind that we didn't have any readers when I wrote that column, and was banking on you lot being out there!) hadn't been wild fabrication or mere flights of fancy.

I commented that you'd all have something in common, which is that you care about the hardware inside your PCs. Judging by the calls and letters we receive each month (and the specs lists of your PCs on the CPC Benchmarks Leaderboard online), this is certainly the case.

I also stated that you could trust us to deliver 'unbiased views and honest, frank opinions', since the people who write the reviews and features were 'just like you'. We shared 'the same enthusiasm for the PC' and were 'members of the same community'. This is as true today as it was then, and is perhaps best illustrated by the fact that one of our recent writers, Chris Lee, was plucked from the ranks of readerdom. I think our no-nonsense, honest approach (which has certainly put many corporate noses out of joint over the years), and our shared enthusiasm for computers and technology is a large part of the reason why so many of you continue to read Custom PC, for which I thank you.

Reminiscing can sometimes be a sad experience, when you look back at times past and wish that you could recapture them. However, reading my column from Issue 1 simply made me realise how far Custom PC has progressed over the past 50 issues (apart from my column photo, which is eerily similar), and this is down to the hard work of everyone on the team. But it's also down to you, the readers; without your support and your honest feedback, which helps us continually to evolve the magazine (and now the new website too) into the publication that you want to read, Custom PC simply wouldn't be here. As I said in Issue 1, Custom PC is your magazine, and that's the way it should be. Here's to another 50 issues.

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