Harry McCracken
American magazine editor

Harry McCracken is a global technology editor for Fast Company and the founder of Technologizer, a website about personal technology. He was an editor at large for Time, covering technology, from February 2012 to June 2014. McCracken is also a former contributing editor at CNET.
Until June 2, 2008, McCracken was the editor-in-chief of PC World for four years; he had previously held other editorial positions for ten.
Biography
He was educated in the public schools of Newton, Massachusetts, the Cambridge School of Weston, and Boston University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history.
McCracken is the son of the late Samuel McCracken, a professor at Boston University and a long-time assistant to BU president John Silber; and Natalie Jacobson McCracken, a retired editor in chief for development and alumni publications at BU.
Controversy
On May 1, 2007, McCracken resigned abruptly under controversial circumstances. McCracken quit abruptly because the new CEO of PC World, Colin Crawford, tried to stop an unfavorable story about Apple Inc. and Steve Jobs. Crawford responded, calling media reports of McCracken's resignation "inaccurate." McCracken told colleagues that IDG, PC World's publisher, "was pressuring him to avoid stories that were critical of major advertisers." On May 9, 2007, Crawford was transferred to another department and McCracken returned to PC World.
Other works
In addition to his computer magazine work, McCracken has also been active in animation fandom, as a central mailer for Apatoons, and editor of Animato! magazine.
“Harry McCracken” enters the record as american magazine editor. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Harry, McCracken and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Harry McCracken” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Harry, McCracken and American provides the most credible route into that argument.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16195675. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2012, 2014, 2008 and 2007.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Harry McCracken”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Harry McCracken primary sources, Harry McCracken archive and Harry research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Harry McCracken”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Harry McCracken” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.