I was browsing through an old issue of inCider (November 1986) and came across this ad for UPTIME magazine. As is typical of the time, its very informative!
I’m actually tempted to write to the PO box and see if it is still owned by any of the same people who were working on this 30 years ago. I tried the phone number and it just directs me to a recording that offers a “quick 3 question survey, with select callers being given a free Caribbean cruise for answering.” I hung up before it got any further. Unfortunate, but not unexpected.
At its height, UPTIME employed approximately 100 employees. Due to high operating costs, and relying on a business model requiring more and more subscribers to be added per month, they eventually could not keep up with the high overhead of producing quality software “magazine” disk on a monthly basis; As users became more savvy, demand for the magazine (at newsstands) decreased, and new subscriptions declined. This resulted in a negative feedback loop, resulting in further delays, which then impacted renewal rates. “Where’s my monthly disk?” was a common complaint on the customer support line. Uptime (Viking) moved to more affordable office space, but continued to struggle, and after another layoff or two, eventually went into chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Uptime streamlined their operations, again, and again, but could not keep up with high operating costs, and ever declining sales. Another round off layoffs, and another move to smaller offices followed. The remaining staff was highly dedicated, and various magazines lines were cut (Amiga, then Commodore, then Apple), but again, they could not keep of with monthly production, and after one more layoff, eventually left a staff of just 10 employees, who focused all their efforts Mac and PC product lines. Reduced staff, and decreasing new and renewal subscription rates, further contributed to production delays of the monthly, and UPTIME could simply not keep up with business costs. They eventually closed their doors, filing chapter 7, letting go of the final 10 employees in September, 1990.
Side node: Apple magazine volumes 1-9 never existed. When asked about them, the publisher reported that they were no longer available, and told users and publishers that the first 9 volumes of the Apple edition of the magazine, all copies, and source, where destroyed in a fire. The was simply not true. The publisher started Apple volumes (the first edition) at Volume 10, disk 1, in an effort to give the new magazine some “street cred”. Commodore, then PC, then Mac, then Amiga editions followed the Apple editions, after the Apple edition was well established, all starting at Volume 1. Eventually, the PC and Mac versions became the dominant ‘zine. As I recall, the Amiga edition never released an issue., In the streamlining efforts to save the company, after chapter 11, the Commodore, then Apple, editions were canceled. PC (which became the most popular edition) and Mac ‘zine continued releasing their “monthly” disks until the very final days.
Found a beautiful Uptime wooden box in my Dads things. Thank you for telling me what it was.