Newsfield Publications

Newsfield Publications was a British magazine publisher during the 1980s and early 1990s.

History
Newsfield Publications Ltd was founded by Roger Kean, Franco Frey and Oliver Frey in 1983. Based in Ludlow, Shropshire, Newsfield published a number of popular computer game magazines and other entertainment titles from the mid-1980s to early-1990s. Newsfield's first publication, Crash, actually started out as a simple software catalogue and it wasn't until February 1984 when the title became a fully fledged commercial magazine. Unlike its peers, Crash focused soley on the gaming aspect of the ZX SPectrum, becoming a huge hit with the younger readership.

With the success of Crash, Newsfield were able to follow this up with another iconic title, Zzap!64. Launched in May 1985, Zzap!64 covered another sucessful 8-bit computer, the Commodore 64. Like Crash, the title focused on the gaming aspects of the C64, although would briefly include Amiga games coverage during the late 1980s. Amtix also launched in November of the same year and would cover gaming on the Amstrad CPC.

In 1987, Amtix was solf off to Database Publications. The sale of Amtix did mean that Newsfield could launch a multi-format magazine, The Games Machine, later that year. The title, which covered gaming on all formats, would later be re-launched in 1990 as Raze. During 1991, plans were being made to split Raze into Sega Force and Ninetndo Force, but Newsfield went into voluntary liquidation.

Another magazine publisher, Europress, bought over the assets of Newsfield and under a new company called Europress Impact, Zzap!64 and Crash continued to be published until their demise. Sega Force and Nintendo Force were finally launched, although the latter was renamed N Force.

Magazine Chronology
Crash

Zzap!64

Amtix!

The Games Machine

Raze

Notable Staff
Matthew Uffindell, Julian Rignall, Gary Penn, Bob Wade, Graeme Kidd, Dominic Handy, Steve Jarratt, Ciarán Brennan, Gordon Houghton, Paul Glancey, Richard Eddy, Nick Roberts, Stuart Wynne, Phil King,