Dowline: The Magazine of Dow Jones Information Services

[Areala]

Digging through the pile of computer-related things I've saved from the recycle bins at work, I found six issues of this periodical, but I can find literally nothing about it on the Internet save for an entry on WorldCat showing that a few libraries carry archival copies of it.

Flipping through them, it's all about using a special pre-Internet computer connection to get access to news, stock information, and other stuff via Dow Jones. Seems a bit like CompuServe in that respect.

I scanned and uploaded the half-dozen covers to the gallery, but I'm curious to know if anyone else is familiar with it. Has anyone else even seen it? Am I holding something unique in all the computer world?

*huggles*

Areala

[perfinpuz]

Not mentioned here. http://www.vintage-computer.com/magazines.shtml I seem to remember it being listed in the "old days" as one of the places you could subscribe to when the Atari 800 and Commodore 64 got their first modems. Possibly listed in articles and reviews of early modems. Listed in this reprint of article from Compute Sept 1983 http://www.commodore.ca/history/other/telecomputing83/telecomputing.htm It's mentioned in a paragraph between the 3rd and 4th blue boxes.

[perfinpuz]

trademarkia.com lists dowline as trademarked to Dow, Jones and Company in 1988 with a first use May 3,1982

Saw a full page ad in sept 1985 Computes Gazette for Dow Jones Information Network that mentions the dowline magazine. There are probably ads in computer magazines as early as 1983.

[marktrade]

Great find! This does seem pretty rare, especially those early issues you have. You must work at an interesting place if they throw away stuff like this and Multimedia World.

There were many ads for Dow Jones News/Retrieval service throughout the 80s in magazines like PC Magazine and Kiplinger's Personal Finance, available on GoogleBooks, and they include subscription offers for Dowline as a bonus for signing up. Given that the number of people using the service around that time, there probably weren't more than a couple thousand issues printed from those early years. Only one of the libraries listed by WorldCat has those issues and it's in Minnesota.