Editing Popular Electronics (section)

{{short description|American magazine (1954–1982, 1989–1999, in print)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox magazine
| title           = Popular Electronics
| logo            = 
| logo_size       = <!-- default is 180px -->
| image_file      = [[File:Popular Electronics Cover Jan 1975.jpg|250px]]
| image_size      = 250px
| image_alt       = 
| image_caption   = The Altair 8800 computer kit (January 1975)
| editor          = <!-- up to |editor5= -->
| editor_title    = <!-- up to |editor_title5= -->
| previous_editor = 
| staff_writer    = 
| photographer    = 
| category        = hobbyist 
| frequency       = monthly
| format          = 8.5 x 11in., color
| circulation     = 
| publisher       = [[Ziff Davis]]<br>Gernsback Publications
| paid_circulation   = 
| unpaid_circulation = 
| circulation_year   = 1982
| total_circulation  = 409,344
| founder         = 
| founded         = 
| firstdate       = {{Start date and age|1954|10}}
| finalnumber     = 
| company         = 
| country         = 
| based           = 
| language        = 
| website         =
| issn            = 
| oclc            = 
}}

'''''Popular Electronics''''' was an American magazine published by John August Media, LLC, and hosted at TechnicaCuriosa.com. The magazine was started by [[Ziff-Davis]] Publishing Company in October 1954 for electronics hobbyists and experimenters. It soon became the "World's Largest-Selling Electronics Magazine". In April 1957, Ziff-Davis reported an average net paid circulation of 240,151 copies.<ref>The early issues listed the circulation figure on the Contents page. Starting in 1962 this data was in the back of each year's January issue.</ref> ''Popular Electronics'' was published until October 1982 when, in November 1982, Ziff-Davis launched a successor magazine, '''''Computers & Electronics'''''. During its last year of publication by Ziff-Davis, ''Popular Electronics'' reported an average monthly circulation of 409,344 copies.<ref>{{cite magazine |date=January 1982 | title = STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION (Required by 39 U.S.C. 3685) | volume = 20 | issue = 1 | page =89 | publisher = Ziff-Davis Publishing Company| url = http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Poptronics/80s/1982/Poptronics-1982-01.pdf|access-date= January 20, 2016}}</ref> The title was sold to [[Gernsback Publications]], and their ''[[Hands-On Electronics]]'' magazine was renamed to ''Popular Electronics'' in February 1989, and published until December 1999. The Popular Electronics trademark was then acquired by John August Media, who revived the magazine, the digital edition of which is hosted at TechnicaCuriosa.com,<ref>https://popularelectronics.technicacuriosa.com/ website continues the Popular Electronics magazine title</ref> along with sister titles, ''[[Mechanix Illustrated]]'' and ''[[Popular Astronomy (US magazine)|Popular Astronomy]]''.

A cover story on ''Popular Electronics'' could launch a new product or company. The most famous issue, January 1975, had the [[Altair 8800]] computer on the cover and ignited the home computer revolution. [[Paul Allen]] showed that issue to [[Bill Gates]]. They wrote a [[BASIC]] interpreter for the Altair computer and started [[Microsoft]].<ref>{{cite web |title=We have a BASIC |publisher=New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science |url=http://startup.nmnaturalhistory.org/gallery/story.php?ii=20&sid=4 |archive-date=September 15, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150915062448/http://startup.nmnaturalhistory.org/gallery/story.php?ii=20&sid=4 }}</ref>