Funny how things work out. About a year after I launched IT Reviews I attended the launch party for a new Internet company, Net Communities, and met its founder and Managing Director, Andy Evans. We had a brief chat about our respective businesses, found we had quite a lot in common and promised to keep in touch.

Which we did. Net Communities represented IT Reviews for advertising sales for a number of years, both of us survived the dot-com bust thanks to sensible, pragmatic, non-delusional attitudes to doing business, and our respective companies thrived while others - some of them supposedly bigger and better - turned to dust.

After losing touch for a few years, Andy contacted me earlier in 2010. We agreed to meet in London in summer for a chat and a catch-up. And now, more than 12 years since I launched this website, IT Reviews has been sold to Net Communities.

What this means for the site is new investment in content, design, focus and reach. Andy and his team at Net Communities have big plans for IT Reviews, particularly in 2011, so please make sure you pop back here regularly to see how it all develops.

There will be more reviews - from the same team of professional writers - plus more product photos and screenshots, new features to help you decide what and where to buy, and a variety of other developments that will considerably improve the usefulness of this site to you, its readers.

What this means for me is the chance to step back from the day-to-day running of the site and consider various new opportunities in my career. I will still be involved in the transfer, maintenance and development of IT Reviews in the short-to-medium term, though, and I'm looking forward to seeing what Andy's infectious enthusiasm and skilled, dedicated team can do with the site I launched from a spare bedroom last century.

A new editor has been appointed and will stamp his mark on IT Reviews over the coming months. For posterity, and for those of you who have been amused by my occasionally tangential editorial ramblings over the years, below is a copy of the 'About the editor' page of this site as it was before the sale to Net Communities.

Thank you for reading IT Reviews over the years. I hope it's served you well and I'm sure it will continue to do so with its new owners.

Enough. I'm leaving you in good hands. I can see the pub from here...

Alex Cruickshank
Founder and former Editor of IT Reviews

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This site is edited by Alex Cruickshank, freelance journalist. I started the project in May 1998, intending to bring clear, accurate, unbiased and occasionally entertaining reviews to anyone interested in, or involved in, the IT industry. And maybe blag a few PlayStation games along the way. So it's been at least a partial success.

Some history... after graduating from Royal Holloway, University of London, with a degree in Physics & Astrophysics (I'm a practical man), and following various stints as a technical translator, a language tutor, a proof-reader and a graphic designer, I joined computer games publisher Maxis as a technical support bloke just before the launch of SimCity 2000.

Great fun. I stuck the 60 phone calls a day for seven months and then slid gracefully into Ziff-Davis as the Technical Analyst for PC Direct magazine. I was soon promoted to Technical Editor (since everyone else had resigned; not my fault), before jumping ship in 1996 to head out into the uncharted oceans of freelance journalism.

Since then I've contributed to PC Magazine, PC Direct, PC Week, IT Week, PC Gaming World, Business Computer World, Computer Life, ComputerActive, Inside, Computing, Internet Magazine, .Net, Practical Internet, Start & Run Your Business, PC Utilities, PC Explorer, Mobile Computing and various other large and small magazines, most if not all of which now Rest In Peace (again, not my fault... honest).

My interests include photography, astronomy and motorsport (doing, not watching). I got into motorbiking a few years ago and I'd like to try motorbike racing, although awareness of my own mortality and lack of aptitude is making me uncharacteristically cautious. And I'm writing a best-selling novel, of course. One day, one day.

Leisure pursuits include clubbing (I'm old enough to know better... and old enough not to care), snow-boarding (likewise), press parties/jaunts/freebies and Guinness-fuelled misbehaviour with friends and colleagues. I now live in a rural haven after spending several years amidst the eccentric debauchery of Brighton & Hove, and too many years before that in the vacuous DIY-infested drudgery of the suburbs. I'm in my mid- (cough... late) thirties and loving that, too.

To keep my brain active I studied for a degree in Psychology with the Open University a few years ago, which made a refreshing change from all things IT. I'm involved in one or two other publishing projects, both print and online, and I'm occasionally available for contract work (editorial, Internet/Intranet project management and so on), having worked for various blue-chip companies and UK government departments.

NB: I have no presence on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter or any other social networking sites. Other people may share my name, but they ain't me.

Tags: simcity editing pc direct computeractive andy evans myspace eweek magazines and e-zines