[ncmncm]

At the time people bought computer magazines mainly for the ads. The articles were filler. Newspapers, too: editors in newsrooms actually called the reportage "filler".

BYTE differed in its filler being of typically better quality, but Computer Shopper was much, much bigger, and much more popular despite its execrable filler because it had more and better ads.

[taftster]

This is so true. I remember back in the day reading computer magazines for the ads, simply because you learned a lot about what new things were coming out. It allowed my young mind to dream about the possibilities. Sometimes the articles somewhat matched the ads, in terms of being modern, but most of the articles were not on the bleeding edge. PCMag probably had a 100:1 ratio of ads to content, if I remember right.

[username223]

I don't know about "mainly for the ads," but I did enjoy them in the early 90s. Moore's Law was going full steam, and hard drives, RAM, and processors were all just barely fast enough to run the latest cool games. Every month you'd see ads for computers, components, and peripherals that were better in ways that really mattered. Computer Shopper was a phone-book-sized candy catalog.

I don't play leading-edge games anymore, so personal computers have been plenty fast for me for years. But I wouldn't mind reading Byte with 50% tasteful, non-creepy ads.

[ncmncm]

Logitech made quite a splash with its "Feels good / Feels better" ad, now almost completely scrubbed from teh innrnets: https://www.adforum.com/creative-work/ad/player/23267/baby/ or http://www.fimoculous.com/images/ad3.jpg

(It is a shame that they make crap now. Back then their equipment was the best.)

[beezle]

The ads were important yes, very much so. But the content was as well, even in the CS they had a few decent regular columns and features as well. I'd say people bought Byte at least as much for the content, CS more so the ads.

But I do miss those magazines and times, certainly was a lot more "fun" and interesting than today.