The words "The Novell Users Monthly" will no longer appear on the cover of the LAN Times magazine.
That's because Novell Inc. no longer publishes the magazine and the magazine will no longer target Novell users only.Novell sold three of its publications, called the LAN Times Group, on July 17 to McGraw-Hill Inc. in New York City. The publications are the LAN Times, a monthly magazine for local area network users; the NetWare Technical Journal, a quarterly magazine for LAN software and systems developers; and Selling Red, a monthly marketing publication for LAN resellers.
McGraw-Hill would not disclose the terms of the deal, but the Deseret News learned through other sources that three publications sold for about $6 million.
LAN Times Executive Editor Camille Craze said the sale allows the LAN Times to grow and cover areas it could not cover before. The magazine will now target the networking industry as a whole instead of focusing on Novell related products. The circulation will likely double over the next five years, she said.
"This is a positive step for the LAN Times because we've been basically covering Novell products and products compatible with Novell. But in order to be an industrywide publication we needed to be published by a third party," Craze said.
Craze said the offices of the LAN Times Group will remain in Utah but will be relocated before 1990. A team from McGraw-Hill will come to Utah to look for suitable office space somewhere between Salt Lake and Provo.
"This really isn't going to change anything except the mission and the focus of the magazine," Craze said.
Craze said McGraw-Hill will likely offer jobs to most of the employees currently working for the group and anticipates an increase in staff as the circulations increase. Laurence Altman, McGraw-Hill's data communications group publisher, will act as publisher of the group until a local publisher is hired.
"It's an opportunity to not only work for a big publisher, but it's an opportunity to expand our knowledge of the networking industry," said Craze.
Joseph L. Dionne, chairman and chief executive officer of McGraw-Hill, said the publications will become part of the computers and communications group of the McGraw-Hill Information Services Company. The publications will complement other publications in the computer field and will allow them to focus on specific needs.
"This acquisition is consistent with our effort to identify and nurture publications which meet the needs of specialized markets with high growth potential," Dionne said.
A Novell spokesman said the company decided to sell the publications because they had fulfilled their initial purpose - to educate people on local area networks. The publications would be able to serve the industry better as independent publications, he said.
The LAN Times began in 1984 as a four-page, black and white newsletter. It is now a 190-page, full color magazine with a circulation of more than 100,000. The NetWare Technical Journal's circulation is 20,000 and Selling Red's is 15,000.
The LAN Times Group employs about 50 people.