Voyager Company

Voyager Company. Founded in 1985 by Bob Stein, Aleen Stein, and the renowned immunologist Jonas Salk, it was a pioneering force in the emerging fields of digital publishing and interactive media. Initially focused on educational CD-ROMs, it later became a highly influential distributor of The Criterion Collection on Laserdisc, setting new standards for home video presentation. The company's innovative spirit and curated approach left a lasting impact on both educational technology and cinephile culture before its dissolution in 2001.

History

The company was established in Los Angeles, with early guidance and investment from Jonas Salk, who was interested in exploring new methods for education. Under the leadership of Bob Stein, a former book publisher, it quickly moved beyond traditional print, embracing the potential of the CD-ROM format. This shift aligned with the rise of Apple Macintosh computers, which became the primary platform for its early interactive titles. The company's expansion into the Laserdisc market in the late 1980s, through a pivotal partnership with The Criterion Collection, marked a major turning point, establishing it as a key player in the home video industry. Financial challenges in the mid-1990s, exacerbated by the slow consumer adoption of Laserdisc and the costly development of CD-ROM projects, led to a series of restructuring efforts, including the sale of The Criterion Collection to HBO.

Products and innovations

Its early products were groundbreaking interactive CD-ROMs, such as the CD Audio-based Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and the immersive *A Hard Day's Night* disc, which combined audio, text, and video. The company's Expanded Books series, featuring titles like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and The Complete Annotated Sherlock Holmes, helped define the digital book genre. In the Laserdisc realm, it was renowned for its meticulous work on The Criterion Collection, introducing features like letterboxing, audio commentary, and lavish printed booklets that included essays by noted film scholars. Other notable releases included the CD Companion series, which provided interactive guides to classical music works, and ambitious projects like the CD-ROM for The Residents' Freak Show.

Impact and legacy

The company fundamentally influenced how media was presented and studied in the digital age, raising the bar for supplemental materials and film restoration in the home video market. Its work with The Criterion Collection educated a generation of cinephiles and directly inspired the special edition practices of later DVD and Blu-ray distributors like The Criterion Collection and Arrow Films. In educational technology, its interactive titles demonstrated the potential of multimedia for deep, non-linear learning, influencing subsequent developers in the field. Many of its former employees and collaborators, such as Roger Ebert and Martin Scorsese, who contributed commentaries, went on to shape media criticism and film preservation.

Criterion Collection

The partnership with The Criterion Collection began in 1988, with the company handling manufacturing, distribution, and the creation of supplemental content for the prestigious line of Laserdiscs. It was responsible for producing definitive editions of classic films from directors like Alfred Hitchcock, Akira Kurosawa, and Stanley Kubrick. The company's team, including producer Kathy Geritz, commissioned scholarly essays, restored original theatrical aspect ratios, and pioneered the use of audio commentary tracks featuring filmmakers such as John Lasseter and critics like Leonard Maltin. This collaboration established many of the conventions for special edition home video releases that continue today under the stewardship of subsequent owners like HBO and Warner Bros..

Expansion Laserdisc era

During the peak of the Laserdisc format in the early 1990s, the company significantly broadened its catalog beyond The Criterion Collection. It released editions of contemporary Hollywood films, including Barton Fink and *The Silence of the Lambs*, and curated lines like the Voyager Laser Editions. This period also saw the release of influential CAV editions, which allowed for precise frame-by-frame analysis, benefiting film students and scholars. The company collaborated with institutions like the Museum of Modern Art and filmmakers such as Orson Welles for the release of his unfinished project *It's All True*. Despite the format's niche status, these releases cemented its reputation for quality and curation until the market dominance of DVD led to the format's decline.