Article: The MacWeekly Story

It’s been over a year since MacWeekly ended publication. Perhaps you’ve heard of it, perhaps you haven’t, but I think it’s important to share the story behind it, as it has played a major role in shaping SchwarzTech.

MacWeekly on 24 Oct 2003

Let’s look back 3 years ago. I was writing for another Mac publication, SchwarzTech was merely my personal corner of the web, and I had found an upstart called the Classic Mac Newsletter. John Christie, the founder of Classic Mac Newsletter, focused on very, very early Macs (all based around the 68000 processor). Soon, the need to update the newsletter to include not so classic Macs, so we included everything pre-G3.

Of course, it needed a new name, so it became Classic Mac Weekly, a weekly newsletter focusing on Macs that were just behind the curve. We found that the interest in older Macs was waning, so we changed the newsletter to include all models, and dropped “Classic” from the name.

With the name change came a new format, gone was the email-based newsletter, replaced with a web site with columnists and regular articles published every other day. Over time, MacWeekly became a good source of Mac-related commentary for the few visitors we received.

In mid-2002, a change was made to make the web site more feature-based (articles and reviews) with a weekly news roundup. Although we were called MacWeekly, we published things all throughout the week. We started reviewing more and more products, and had a few guest writers share their insight.

June 2003 saw a major change in MacWeekly. As SchwarzTech and iMUG were other sites hosted on the server, we decided to change all three to match each other. With a contemporary new design, visitors could go from site to site with no changes.

Unfortunately, by the end of November 2003, there was some miscommunication, and MacWeekly’s hosting service was not renewed. In addition, I had taken over full responsibility of the site, and MacWeekly as a name was not as fitting. Because of that, the decision to purchase schwarztech.us and use that was made. Much of our old content was moved, and a complete redesign of the site was made.

Thanks to MacSurfer, iMUG, and various other cross-promotions, SchwarzTech has grown to include various news updates, reviews, articles, and more. Traffic has grown, and our new servers have been able to handle it.

While we take the time to reflect on MacWeekly, we’re also looking at the future of SchwarzTech. We’re intending to make 2005 the best year of Mac reviews and commentary, complete with coverage of all the Macworld Expos, more product reviews, and more writers.

Thanks for reading this self-promotion of our site, and thanks for your visits, comments, and emails. Without our readers, we’d be nothing.