ANTIC Interview 446 - Mary Eisenhart, MicroTimes magazine

Mary Eisenhart, MicroTimes magazine

 

Mary Eisenhart was editor of MicroTimes magazine, a free, advertising-supported magazine that was distributed in California. The first issue was May 1984, and Mary remained at the magazine until 1998, producing more than 180 issues. MicroTimes provided interviews, computer industry news, rumors, and columns, and - of course - advertising. For most of its run, there were two editions of each issue: Northern California and Southern California. 

 

When she left MicroTimes, Mary took with her a copy or two of every issue, which years later were scanned by Internet Archive. The almost-complete collection is now online, full-text searchable, where they can be read online or downloaded.

 

As a young teenager growing up in Southern California, I read MicroTimes whenever I could find it, usually in record stores. It was a great computer magazine, with the huge bonus that it was free. When I graduated college in Northern California, I wrote for MicroTimes as often as possible (Mary was my editor.) The $200 per article paychecks were the start of my freelance writing career. 

 

Mary and I didn't talk too much about Atari in this interview, but rest assured there was plenty of material of interest to Atari lovers in MicroTimes. For instance, issue 1 has Mary's interview with Jon Freeman and Anne Westfall, creators of Archon. A 1985 cover article features "The People Behind 'The Print Shop'" — and there was a long-running Atari ST column written by Helmi Kobler.

 

This interview took place on November 25, 2024.

 

Video version of this interview at YouTube

 

MicroTimes at Internet Archive

[NEEDED for scanning: Volume 2 Number 12, most of Volume 3]

 

Mary's web site

 

BAM Magazine in Wikipedia

 

Hedy Lamarr issue

 

Kay's first published article

 

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