The Guardian's technology coverage: what happens next | Technology | The Guardian
What you're holding in your hands – assuming you're reading this in print form, which a substantial number of you are – is a collector's item. Guardian Technology, in its print incarnation, is to cease publication. The last edition will be on 17 December.
This does not mean the Guardian is abandoning its technology coverage; far from it. For example, our award-winning games coverage (the 2009 winner, for the third year running, of the Games Media Awards for coverage in a national newspaper) will continue with reviews, blogposts and features. So will our coverage of gadgets, and the Ask Jack column (which has been running online as a blog since 2005), and our in-depth features and coverage of all the important issues in technology.
The final issue will mark just over 26 continuous years since Futures Micro Guardian had its first edition, on 20 October 1983. (It was a Thursday; the publication date of this section has remained unchanged.) From then, you will continue to find our writing online, or through our Twitter feed, and also throughout the paper incarnations of the Guardian in the news, business, features and other sections, where we will have a renewed focus on bringing you our take on the technology issues that truly matter and which you should know about.
That said, I am sure that many of you will feel the absence of the physical manifestation of the Technology section — which among its former incarnations has been called Futures Micro Guardian, Computer Guardian and Online, before taking up its current naming in 2005 in order to reflect our wider coverage of all sorts of technology, not just that which comes through a browser. The latter is, of course, still enormously important, given the key part that the internet plays in all our lives.
In part it has been the internet that has hastened the end of the physical version of this section, as more classified job adverts have migrated to online job sites such as Guardian Jobs (jobs.guardian.co.uk, in case you're looking); there have also been the arctic winds of the recession, which seems to be hitting the UK harder than many other countries around the world.
But it would be foolish to resist the tide; we prefer to swim with it, and the purpose of this section has always been to teach our readers how to manage technology, what to expect, what to watch out for, and where to look for further advice. We've also tried to be guided by the feedback you have given us – through the letters and more recently emails, and then blogs and most recently Twitter remarks that you've written.
The huge advantage of going online, of course, is that it frees us from the space constraints of print – games and gadget reviews can be longer and more plentiful, features are untroubled by the tyranny of the word count, and interactivity comes to the fore, both in how we present data and how you can respond and inform us about the topics you find interesting and important.
There is still plenty more to tell you: there are issues left unsolved (such as the Free Our Data campaign, which as you will see is still gaining momentum right at the top of government), and topics that we know you'll want to have answered. We know that there's a huge swathe of readers for whom Ask Jack has been a weekly lifeboat; that fact is evidenced by the continuing stream of queries and cries for help that we receive.
But having said that, we'd like to ask for your help. We're sure that you have stories that you'd like to tell us about how this section has affected your life over the past two decades. Has it helped you find a job? Start a company? Shaped your life in some important way? We'd like to know: email us at tech@guardian.co.uk with the subject line "Guardian Technology memories". We'll try to use the best in one of the last issues that we produce. And with your help, we'll make it one to keep for a long, long time.
• Charles Arthur is editor of the Guardian's technology coverage
I'm a part-time Guardian reader and full-time technophile so I look forward to Thursdays when I buy a copy of The Guardian for the Technology section -- sometimes that's the only bit I actually read. I was saddened, therefore, to read in last Thursday's section an article from the Guardian's technology editor that the Technology section will no longer be printed and that the last article will be on 17th December. The Guardian's excellent technology coverage will continue to appear in the regular paper, and of course, on-line. As I listen to the Podcast, follow the blog, and subscribe to the twitter feed, I'll probably continue to get my regular fix of Guardian Tecky goodness. Just not over a Massimo Latte in the library coffee shop!
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