Black History Month is, among other things, a media event. And believe it or not, there was a time when the cover of a magazine was considered an unparalleled promotional powerhouse. Following is a collection of covers that feature an artist, personality, historical event, or publication of significance in black history. This series is co-produced by Linda Rubes of Fortune magazine. View the full list here. (Cover at left: Time, April 6, 1970, painting of Jesse Jackson by Jacob Lawrence, for a special issue on "Black America 1970.") (more...)

The Aughts

As the face of media evolves, it's important to honor the figures who helped define, shape and set the standards in their industries. These are some of the most prominent members of the media who passed away over the past 10 years.  Take a look back with some snippets from their respective New York Times obituaries.

Last week Fortune magazine picked Apple's Steve Jobs as the CEO of the decade, and ran this cool cover (design director: John Korpics; photograph by Albert Watson). Jobs has been the go-to tech dude for business mags and newsweeklies for over 20 years, and it got us thinking about all the covers that he has appeared on. Fortunately, art director Sam Kuo over at Kuo Design has created the Steve Jobs on Magazine Covers page, a compilation of 85 covers from 1981-2009. In collaboration with Steve, we have created this list of The 10 Greatest Steve Jobs Magazine Covers of All Time. Feast your eyes on these beauties, and then head over to Kuo's page for the full, obsessive Steve Jobs experience. (more...)

Grab the latest issue of New York or Fortune magazine, roll it up and smoke it — you might get high. Both are full of weed. Both titles ran full-length features about marijuana in their most recent issues, taking a look, in their respective ways, at the relationship between marijuana and American law. Both stories notice that marijuana is more legal these days than you might think. But both stories mention The Volcano, a $600 vaporizer. And both make passing jabs at the Reagan era, a backward slide after the pot-smoking progress of the '70s. (more...)