Here at PCN we're staking our claim to the title "Best magazine for computer hobbyists". The grounds for this unusual lack of modesty are the recent computer magazine awards organised by Times Newspapers and Hewlett-Packard.

In the awards, for "excellence in computer journalism", Personal Computer News picked up three nominations - more than any other magazine - for best magazine, best designed magazine, and feature writer of the year, the latter in the guise of John Lettice.

Not only did we have the most nominations, but in the best magazine category we were the only hobbyist magazine. The other two nominees were Computing, one of PCN's sister magazines, and Microscope. Both are controlled circulation which means you read them by invitation only.

The winners were: best magazine, Microscope; best designed magazine, PC; feature writer, Caroline Berman of Computing; news writer, Lisa Israel of Computer News (no relation).

While we didn't exactly win anything, we're prepared to forgive the judges this remarkable oversight and put it down to a desire to be highbrow on their awards debut. Next year we hope for a victory for common sense...