Larry Magid (born 1947) is an American journalist, technology

columnist A columnist is a person who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Column (newspaper), Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs. They take the fo ...

and commentator. He is the author of several books.

Early life

Lawrence J. Magid was born in 1947 in

Brooklyn, NY Brooklyn () is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county i ...

. He grew up in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. He received his BA from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

(1970) and a doctorate of education from the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...

(1981).

Career

Magid is CEO of ConnectSafely.org and, for 20 years, served as the on-air technology analyst for

CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 48 H ...

He is also a frequent contributor to BBC, NPR and other broadcast outlets. In 1981 Magid was hired to secretly write the manual for the

IBM PC The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a team ...

version of

EasyWriter EasyWriter was a word processor first written for the Apple II series computer in 1979, the first word processor for that platform. History Published by Information Unlimited Software (IUS), it was written by John Draper's Cap'n Software, which al ...

, so he was among those aware of the computer's existence before its August 1981 debut. His technology columns and reviews appear regularly on CNET

News.com ''CNET'' (short for "Computer Network") is an American media website that publishes reviews, news, articles, blogs, podcasts, and videos on technology and consumer electronics globally. ''CNET'' originally produced content for radio and televi ...

Forbes.com ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

and in the ''

San Jose Mercury News ''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidiar ...

''. Magid served the board of directors of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and now serves on an advisory board. In 1994 he wrote the first popular publication on Internet safety called ''Child Safety on the Information Highway'' for the

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) is a private, nonprofit organization established in 1984 by the United States Congress. In September 2013, the United States House of Representatives, United States Senate, and the Pres ...

. That was followed in 1998 with ''Teen Safety on the Information Highway''. Both publications have been revised and reprinted many times. He serves on the advisory boards of

PBS Kids PBS Kids is the brand for most of the children's programming aired by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. Some public television children's programs are not produced by PBS member stations or transmitted by PBS. Instead, ...

, the

Family Online Safety Institute The Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) is an international nonprofit organization. It is registered as a 501(c)(3) tax-deductible nonprofit charity in the United States and a registered charity in the United Kingdom. FOSI was founded in Fe ...

and the Congressional Internet Caucus, The Hub (children's TV network) and the

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

Safety Advisory Board. Magid is also the founder of SafeKids.com and SafeTeens.com, and co-founder and CEO of ConnectSafely.org. His technology website is LarrysWorld.com. All three websites provide information about Internet safety. From 1983 to 2002 Magid wrote technology columns for the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', and has written numerous columns for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. He is former editor of ''

PC Magazine ''PC Magazine'' (shortened as ''PCMag'') is an American computer magazine published by Ziff Davis. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009. Publication of online editions started in late 1994 and have continued to the present d ...

'' and has contributed to numerous other publications.

Works

* ''Mini Manual for a Free University'' (1974) * ''The Electronic Link: Using the IBM PC to Communicate'' (1984) * ''Advanced WordPerfect: Feature and Techniques'' (1986) * ''Larry Magid's Guide to the New Digital Highways'' (1993) * ''The Little PC Books'' (1994, 1998, 2003, 2007) * ''MySpace Unraveled'' (with Anne Collier, 2006)

References

External links

Author’s web site

LarrysWorld

SafeKids.com

Magid's Forbes columns
* Magid's

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Magid, Larry 1947 births Living people University of California, Berkeley alumni University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Education alumni Writers from Brooklyn Journalists from New York City American chief executives