Nov 30, 2024
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.
[NEEDED for scanning: Volume 2 Number 12, most of Volume
3]