History (1996): ≠100 Issue: Everything You Wanted to Know About Computer Data Storage Newsletter

To mark our 100th issue, Jean-Jacques Maleval, 48, editor and publisher of Computer Data Storage Newsletter (CDSN) asked himself a few of the questions most often posed by readers. And then answered them.

CDSN: How did you come up with idea to start CDSN?
Maleval: The publishing house, Micro-Journal, dates from 1976, and launched a variety of periodicals on micrographics, photocopying, optical memories, even a weekly about basketball. By the end of 1987, all of these publications had either been sold or discontinued. The company thus no longer had any activity, but enough cash to start a new publication. But why on a subject like storage. This choice wasn’t the result of any normal market study. I traveled around a bit to come up with a new theme for the newsletter, focusing more on information systems, and in particular went to Comdex/Fall and CeBIT. I realized that there wasn’t really anything out there (*) on an industry which was already worth several billion dollars. I queried various proessionals and consultants in the field to get their input. I recall that Jim Porter, president of Disk/Trend, was fairly skeptical.

That didn’t stop you?
Porter wasn’t wrong. It took more time than I expected for CDSN to become viable.

Why is CDSN written exclusively in English, and not also in French?
At the beginning, the idea was to offer a newsletter accessible to the storage industry worldwide. In France, this industry is almost non-existent. And those professionals that are there speak English, or don’t survive.

How many CDSN subscribers are there?
At last count, 504 paid subscriptions to date. CDSN offer virtually no free subscriptions, since it has no advertisers and survives solely on income from subscriptions.

In what countries are most subscribers found?
In 42 different nations, with the US leading the pack at 30%, Europe accounting for 54%, primarily in France, Germany and the UK. Our impact is fairly weak in Asia (13%) as in Africa and Australia (only 3% on the latter two continents).

Who are these subscribers?
Almost exclusively companies, essentially manufacturers, distributors, integrators/VARs, OEMs and consultants. Very few end users.

How does CDSN reach new subscribers?
The publishing house is in possession of a database that currently includes 4,845 firms involved in the storage industry, with some 7,500 people. This file is regularly updated, not an easy task, but one which is essential. A prospective mailing is sent out 2 to 3 times a year to these people. This database also helps the editor to get in touch with the heads of various firms in the course of investigating different stories.

Where does the information published in CDSN come from?
From the same sources used by most specialized publications: press releases and conferences, interviews, close review of special reports and the specialized press, attendance at major trade shows, onsite visits. The Internet is becoming more and more important as well. Additionally, CDSN has cultivated special relations with employees in certain companies, individuals who don’t wish to be cited, and who provide tips which CDSN then explores and verifies before reporting.

How many people work on CDSN?
I handle all the editorial and management aspects. David Gardner, from Los Angeles, CA, is responsible for the translation into American journalistic English as well as the layout, and Nigel Mackintosh provides proof reading services and occasional technical stories from the UK.

When did the first issue appear?
In February 1988, and I’m not particularly proud of its content when I reread it today. The front page headline of that issues was: “DAT: Tomorrow Streamer.” From issue number 1 to 100, we’ve amassed 1,372 pages or 8 pounds of paper. The database of articles from the newspaper currently holds 3,270 articles.

On what subjects?
Reviewing the files of old articles, I came up with the following statistics:
– 54% of the articles focus on products (drives, media, subsystems, software), with HDD drives topping the list, just ahead of tape units and optical devices, which are nearly tied in second place, followed by floppy drives.
– 42% of the articles deal with companies (financial results, OEM/distribution agreements, mergers and acquisitions, manufacturing plans, etc.).
Among the other topics covered have been 145 market studies and 21 in-depth interviews of major industry leaders, 5 alone with Alan Shugart.
IBM was most often featured (in 203 articles), followed by Seagate (163), Conner Peripherals (123) and Quantum (112).

What was the original cost of a yearly subscription?
$260. The price went up to $295 in 1992, and has been at $325 since 1995. Most American newsletters cost over $400. Of course, it took some time before CDSN, which is published in Paris, France, acquired international credibility, given its focus on a domain not at all developed in France as the bulk of activities are concentrated in Silicon Valley, Colorado, Southeast Asia and Japan. At one point, I considered setting up in Colorado, but with the demands of family life, Paris …

What’s the future of a newspaper on the storage industry?
A computer, like a person, will always need memory. Until now, we’re talking magnetic, with some optical. Tomorrow it may be flash or holography. CDSN will evolve with the technology. I have every intention of staying with CDSN until I retire. By continuing to improve the quality step by step. Take for example the new layout of this issue. You don’t change the essence of something that works. The principal challenge of CDSN is to keep pace with new forms of information distribution, and the Internet in particular.

But don’t you get tired of always writing about the same subject?
Not in the least, since this industry is in constant motion, whether at the level of technology or economics, not to mention the human stories. There’s never a shortage of breaking new stories, and not one issue has been put to bed without a considerable amount of material that wouldn’t fit leftover. This one just barely made the cut!

(*) In fact, I learned after the fact that a little-known newsletter Data Storage Report was in publication at the time by UK-based Elsevier.

This article is an abstract of news published on the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter on issue 100, published on May 1996.