Spider (internet magazine)

"Spider" written as SPIDER (written with an inverted 'R') is a monthly magazine circulated in Pakistan by the DAWN group of newspapers, focusing on issues related to software/hardware and Internet technologies. The magazine sported a tagline boasting it to be "Pakistan's Internet Magazine" till March 2005. Since most of the issues discussed in its leaves are mostly about things not "just" Internet, the tagline was removed and it is now recognized as Pakistan's IT magazine. A symbol that dons its cover pronouncing its identity is that of a mouse with eight limbs and a blinking red sensor as an eye over a web engulfed in a yellow circle, mostly found at the top-right corner of the publication.__TOC__

The magazine was launched at the end of the year 1998 in the month of December and created a niche in the publishing market for itself as an internet magazine out of mere perception that not many lasted at the newsstands and all were picked off the shelves. It was however the first publishing venture that tied readers more closely to its interface by letting them comment and criticize their work. Reader's comments and criticism are a regular feature in the magazine since then. Completely printed in colour, it holds 140 pages including those containing advertisements. The current volume, the magazine is in, is the ninth. The basic aim and mission of the magazine is to inform its readers of the trends that happen on the information superhighway that is gradually turning the world into a "global village".

Copy features

Magazine style and content

The monthly comprises cover stories and feature articles usually on the growth of the internet and how Information Technology is affecting Pakistanis. It is known to include thoughts and talks of and with the nation's leading technology evangelists and renowned names in the Pakistani Information Technology Industry.

The magazine has a trend of following up on its cover story accompanied by related topics packed into a single issue with regular features like "HardTalk", "E-Security" and "Tips and Tricks". In recent years, Spider magazine has put most of its focus on the recent online video gaming trends in Pakistan, e-Governance and the Open Source movement.

With a readership of tens of thousands, the newspaper serves as a knowledge hub for young technology enthusiasts, thus attracting advertisements from Internet Services Providers and hardware vendors. It also attracts IT firms from all over Pakistan to help themselves gain ground by publicising their products via the magazine content.

Cover price

When the magazine began its steady climb into the world of publishing, its cover price was Rs. 35 per issue. Since March 2005, the cover price of the magazine has risen up to Rs. 50 per issue mainly because the magazine decided to include more pages for the people to read and extract information from.

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The founding Editor of the magazine was Dr Altamash Kamal.

Reba Shahid took over as editor in May 2007. Editorial Assistants include Cecil J. Chen (assistant editor), Junaid Hameed Khan, Muhammad Humair Anwar and M. Khayyam Siddiqi. The journal is published by Hoshang S. Master at the "Pakistan Herald (Limited) Press" for the Pakistan Herald Publications PLC.

Former editors include Ali Ahsan Halai, and Zunaira Durrani

Offices

The publication comes under the supremacy of the DAWN group of newspapers and has offices all over the major cities of Pakistan. The main office is located at the Haroon House on Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Road in Karachi. Other offices are situated in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Peshawar, Multan, Quetta, and Hyderabad.

External links

* [http://www.spider.tm/ SPIDER website]