Jeff Yang Collection on A. Magazine

A. Magazine: Inside Asian America was an East Coast-based magazine in the 1990s that, at the time, was the largest magazine dedicated to Asian American pop culture, politics, traditions, and achievements.

In 1990, Metro East Publications, Inc. (MEP), co-founded by Jeff Yang, released the first official issue of A. Magazine, produced by a small team of volunteer staff. At its initial launch, A. Magazine was a community-based publication with limited national circulation. Eventually, A. Magazine hit national newsstand and bookstore distribution, shifting to a bi-monthly publication schedule and printing in full color. In 1996, the A. Magazine team began producing ancillary projects to expand their brand such as Eastern Standard Time: A Guide to Asian Influence in American Culture, From Astro Boy to Zen Buddhism.

Through 1998-1999, A. Magazine reached a circulation of 200,000, becoming the best-selling Asian American serial in the country. Transitioning to the new millennium, aMedia replaced Metro East Publications as the parent company of the former A. Magazine, now being printed as aMagazine, in preparation for the publication’s online debut. Their website aOnline (www.aOnline.com) launched in the Summer of 2000, providing access to Asian and Asian American news and unique content from aMedia and its broad network of partners. However, publication only lasted two more years and aMagazine released its final issue in 2002.

The Jeff Yang Collection on A. Magazine contains copies of A. Magazine, Eastern Standard Time, newspapers and press coverage, business records, and event programs donated by co-founder Yang. The bulk of materials consists of internal documentation and correspondence pertaining to Metro East Publications and aMedia, including litigation, financial records, accounting reports, business summaries, and prospectuses.

To learn more about the contents of the Jeff Yang Collection on A. Magazine, located at the NYU Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, view the collection’s finding aid.

Image: Photograph of A. Magazine covers, June/July 2000, April/May 2001; The Jeff Yang Collection on A. Magazine; TAM.858; Box: 7; Folders: 2-3; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University Libraries.