Before I was a writer and I was a happy systems administrator, PC Magazine was one of my favorite computer magazines. After I started my tech. journalism career, I was thrilled to start publishing there from time to time. And, now, PC Magazine print will cease publication with the forthcoming January 2009 issue.

I’ll miss it. I think anyone who cared about PCs and technology from the 80s to the last few years will miss it. PC Magazine, starting under Bill Machrone, defined what PC magazines were. The comparative reviews, the use of benchmarks, colorful columnists, and the always coveted Editors’ Choice awards, it was all there.

Personally, the demise of PC Magazine print will have little impact on me. In the last few years, I’d only publish a story there once every year or so. Still, it just isn’t going to be the same looking at newsstands without PC Magazine front and center in the technology section.

Of course, there’s no longer much of a technology section. The day of print computer and technology magazines has been waning for years. The current economy didn’t kill PC Magazine. It, and all the other tech print publications have been dying for years.

Today, almost all of my work appears online first. I’m fine with that. Still, I got my start with now long gone print publications like Byte and PC/Computing. Seeing PC Magazine, the most popular of all the print PC publications leave is like seeing an old friend moving to another country. I know he’ll still be alive out there online, but it just isn’t going to be the same.