As many of you may already know, SyncWare News is published by four partners who are geographically spread out across continental North America. All of us, with the exception of Basil who is retired but very active in the Symphony, college, and civic matters, work full time jobs to support our families. Due to the cooling of the Timex/Sinclair market, we have been publishing more or less as a hobby.
For the past two years or so, SyncWare News was taking in enough to pay for its authors, printing, and postage. We have done everything we could think of to cut the magazine’s expenses. Authors have been asked to take a cut in pay. The magazine is being mailed 3rd class. Each of the partners has been paying his own incidental office expenses (telephone, blue pencils, tape, etc.) out-of-pocket for some time. Nevertheless, after the publication of the Volume 5 Number 5 issue of SyncWare News, we found ourselves on the brink of bankruptcy. There was no longer enough income to cover the major expenses for SyncWare News. At this point, we were forced to consider the probability of closing down the magazine. In an effort to gain some advice on how to gracefully go out of business, we explained our situation to a few close friends.
During July and August, we received not one, but two offers from parties interested in acquiring SyncWare News. September and the better part of October found us in negotiations with these parties to sell out SyncWare News. (During this negotiation period, we held, rather than return, many of the checks we received for renewals to SyncWare News. We felt at the time this was best due to the uncertainty of the final outcome of the negotiations. If SyncWare News was sold, the checks would be cashed and the subscriptions continued as normal. If not, the checks could be returned for only the cost of postage, saving both the subscriber and us the cost of processing the check.) In the end, we felt that neither offer would be fair to us or the current subscribers to SyncWare News. In late October we decided to continue with SyncWare News, but to change its format somewhat. We cashed the renewal checks we’d been holding and then began work on SyncWare News Volume 5 Number 6.
Beginning with Volume 6 Number 1, SyncWare News will merge with its sister publication Quantum Levels. If you are a current subscriber to SyncWare News rest assured, you will receive every issue due you. We will add your name to the Quantum Levels mailing list and continue your subscription with the new combined magazine. If you are not satisfied with the new format after receiving your first copy or two, we will be more than happy to refund the balance of your subscription.
The merger will allow us to be more innovative and explore some exciting new areas. We will continue to run quality articles on TS1000 and TS2068 software and hardware. The QL computer will be explored in depth. The new Cambridge Computer Z88 (Sir Clive’s laptop) has many interesting features and deserves to be supported as well. Also recently announced and in distribution is the Sinclair MS-DOS computer (an Amstrad clone of an IBM clone!?!). Many of you have requested information for this machine.
So you can see, the world of Sinclair computers is not dead, but it is changing. SyncWare News, together with Quantum Levels, will continue to adjust accordingly. As we make alterations we will need your input. This publication has always leaned more or less toward the TS ’power user’ – those who wished to explore beyond the horizons set forth by an owner/operator’s manual. We wish to continue to be that small voice which beckons those who dare to push their minds and machines to the performance envelope and beyond. Help us serve you. Send us your ideas, thoughts, questions, and solutions.
We thank you for your continued support.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey D. Moore, Publisher
SyncWare News
Quantum Levels