In the Spring of 1981, Usenet had grown to the point where it was awkward to use A-News. It was important to read news in newsgroup order (not by time of arrival) and to quit in the middle leaving some news unread. Also, the user interface of A-News resembled V7 /bin/mail, and users were express- ing a preference for other e-mail styles.

By then Horton was finishing his dissertation, so he did not have the time to do the needed work. Fortunately, however, as Horton recounts, "One day, into my office walked Matt Glickman. He was a local high-school student on spring break, looking for a computer project. We teamed up to design B news, and he did most of the coding that week. I'll never forget the smile on Matt's face when he told me, 'You know, you've made my spring break!'"

— Netizens by Michael Hauben, Ronda Hauben, Thomas Truscott (Page 177)