1990 ... A magazine column is born

On Jan. 10, 1990 the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette announced the coming of my weekly column on magazines. For the next 17 years I wrote one for the PG and the Pittsburgh Tribune Review.

My column on magazines ended up being syndicated in various ways and half a dozen big papers in places like Minneapolis and Memphis and many smaller papers printed it in whole or in part.

Because I was one of only two or three journalists in the USA who did what I did, I became a magazine expert by default.

I wish I could remember 1 percent of everything I read in all those magazines — from Time to Garbage to the New Republic to Guns & Ammo and Wigwag. The magazine biz was highly competitive in the 1990s and many titles were born with big dreams but died quickly.

This was my first column for the PG.