Computer Life[1] [2] was a magazine which focused on computers. The New York Times called it "an endless array of permutations that marry the term PC to some older, less-capitalized form of existence"[2] because of its coverage of "the culture of computers."[1] Amidst "hundreds of computing magazines" its focus was Generation X.[3]
Ziff Davis began publishing the San Francisco monthly in 1994.[1] Advertising revenues had increasedby 1996, but not in proportion to "the increase in overall spending."[2] Part of this was attributed to major portions of some company's ad budgets focused on television.[2]
When it first came out, Family Life was "the largest start-up ever undertaken" by Ziff Davis. This was the era when the magazine's big brother was "No. 1 in total advertising, ahead of Forbes and Business Week."[4] By 1998 it had been renamed;[5] it was subsequently closed by Ziff Davis.