CRN bids farewell to a founding father

Steve Gold, who helped set up CRN's predecessor PC Dealer, has sadly passed away due to complications following surgery

Steve Gold, who was one of the founding editors of CRN’s predecessors PC Dealer, has passed away.

According to a tribute site set up in his memory – Silentmodems.com - Steve started his full-time journalistic career as a staff writer on Microscope in 1986, and in 1987 helped launch PC Dealer at VNU Publications – the former owner of CRN before it was taken over by Incisive Media – where he rapidly moved from technical editor to editor in the space of four years.

John Barnes, managing director at Incisive Media and a former VNU colleague, remembers Steve fondly:

"Steve and I knew each other for nearly 30 years as colleague, editor, publisher and friend, he was a instrumental to the successful launch of PC Dealer, and was a regular contributor to all of our tech brands, as well as an expert and mentor to many generations of journalists and editors," he said. "He will be very sorely missed, and the UK tech sector has lost a guru. All our thoughts are with his wife and son, at this sad time."

Gold left PC Dealer to pursue a freelance career in 1991, helping fellow journalist Paul Robinson to found SC Magazine, the world's first dedicated IT security news publication in 1994, as freelance news editor – a position he held until the title was sold to Haymarket Publishing in 2004.

At the same time, he helped a fellow team of US, Canadian and Australian writers launch and evolve a pioneering IT newswire – Newsbytes News Network – in the US in 1985. He and his colleagues later went on to sell the highly successful newswire to the Washington Post in the early 2000s.

He hit the headlines himself in the 1980s when he was arrested for hacking BT’s Prestel Viewdata service, but despite being convicted for offences under the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act, the verdict was overturned on appeal.

In 2004 he joined Infosecurity Magazine as a contributor and soon became technical editor, assisting a succession of editors over a period of seven years in evolving both the print and online publications as the IT security industry developed and matured.

At the time of his death, he was group editor for LGN Media, which publishes Cloud Computing World, Lawtech Magazine and Netcomms Europe. He also contributed to the news pages of SC Magazine on a regular basis.

CRN editor Sara Yirrell said: "I never had the pleasure of meeting Steve, but his role in the formative years of PC Dealer, which later merged with CRN, has no doubt contributed significantly to our success today.

"We would like to extend our sympathies to all Steve's family and friends at this terribly sad time."