Editorial

OUTGOING ED DAN GARDINER REFLECTS ON HIS TIME RUNNING THE MAG AND INTRODUCES THE MAN WHO’LL BE FILLING HIS SHOES.

LOOKING BACK, IT still comes as a bit of a shock to me that I’ve been at the helm of TechLife for most of its life (since issue 13, in fact, making this my 61st). I’m rather fond of the mag, so I must confess that, it’s with somewhat mixed feelings that, from next month’s issue, my colleague Paul Taylor will be taking over the editing duties.

TechLife’s birth in 2012 was fairly controversial at the time. It was effectively a massive overhaul and redesign of Australian PC User, which had been in print since 1990 and, at times, was the country’s #1 tech title. I’ve worked on PC User and TechLife continuously (in numerous different roles) since 2004, so I’ve been with the mag through all the changes and read all the reader feedback. I’m fairly proud that, these days, almost every reader letter we receive includes a note that they “love the mag”.

As a magazine, TechLife is a lot of fun to put together every month; the sheer variety of topics we cover means there’s always something exciting happening — and I’m therefore a little jealous of the fun Paul’s in for.

I’d also like to take a moment to give some thanks where they’re due, because although the Editor’s face is up the front of the mag, it’s the team behind the scenes that really makes TechLife happen every month. That includes our tech-savvy writers, our designers (Troy and Nykke Coleman and Sharnee Swinnerton) who turn the rough and raw materials into a finished product worth buying, and it’s all quality-controlled by Carmel Sealey, our tireless chief sub-editor.

Like any good publication, TechLife has morphed with the times to reflect new trends and stay current, and that’s a model that we’ll be sticking with under Mr Taylor’s editorship — although you can rest assured that we won’t be making any radical changes overnight.

And while this is goodbye from me, it’s not quite farewell. Like any doting parent, I’ll still be hovering around in the background and keeping (at least half of) a watchful eye on TechLife, if from further afield. So I hope you’ll continue to enjoy the mag (I’m quietly excited that I’ll being able to look at it from a new and different perspective) and keep sending us those letters and suggestions!