I’ve been a Macworld reader and subscriber for as long as I can remember, and today the magazine and its website are perhaps the best source of iPhone news and reviews. The first issue of Macworld was released on January 24, 1984, the same day that the Macintosh itself was introduced by Steve Jobs. Last year, on the 25th anniversary of Macworld, the magazine’s current editor, Jason Snell, wrote about that first issue revealing, for example, that there is no date on the issue because nobody knew for sure which day the Macintosh would debut. Kev Kitchens of Low End Mac wrote another good article about the first issue of Macworld, which apparently included an interview with Bill Gates.
One of the founders of Macworld magazine was David Bunnell, a media entrepreneur who founded other magazines such as PC World. Earlier this month, he started a series of posts called “My Close Encounters with Steve Jobs” on his website in which he describes the origin of Macworld magazine. The posts are very entertaining and include lots of humorous stories about Bunnell’s meetings with a much younger Steve Jobs.
If you enjoy reading entertaining stories about Apple history, you will love this series of posts. Here is a link to Part 1, and from there you can page through his website to get to the most recent entry, although along the way you’ll have to skip through some other posts which are not part of the story. Or, here are direct links to the entries so far: [I’ve updated this post to include links to all 15 parts.]
Part 1: Meeting Steve
Part 2: Seeing the Macintosh for the Very First Time
Part 3: We Met with the REAL Steve Jobs and He Showed Us the Macintosh!
Part 4: Steve Jobs Tells Us to “Belly Up to the Bar”
Part 5: Steve Jobs Comes Up with a Weird, Outlandish, Bizarre, Puzzling and Stunning Ad to Introduce the Macintosh
Part 6: Steve Jobs Poses for 1st Cover of Macworld, Then Changes His Mind, but…
Part 7: Andrew Fluegelman Urges Apple to Delay the Mac’s Introduction
Part 8: Pat McGovern Meets with Steve, the Deal is Done
Part 9: Steve is F*cking Great!
Part 10: Steve Thumbs his Nose at the Apple II
Part 11: The Macintosh Speaks for Itself (literally)
Part 12: The Fat Mac Saves the Day
Part 13: Steve Brings Tina to the Macworld Dinner Party
Part 14: Ella Fitzgerald Sings Happy Birthday to a “Young Man Named Steve”
Part 15: Steve’s NeXT Big Thing
This is a great series of stories about Steve Jobs and the early days of the Mac and Macworld.