I Was a Teenage-Magazine Editor
Part 2 of my conversations with 'Star Hits' royalty, this time with Editor Guy Steve Korté
June 27, 2025
Following my post last week, in which I interviewed queer Star Hits Editor Guy David Keeps, here is my talk with Editor Guy Steve Korté.
Steve worked with David at Star Hits, first in advertising and then as a writer, and when Star Hits hit the fan, Steve continued as EIC of the TV and movie teen mags Wow! and Hot!.
In some ways, Steve’s career in teen publishing more closely mirrors my own. My first issue of Popstar! in 1998 was completely devoted to the men of music, but I soon realized that little girls were becoming absorbed by celebrities coming from a whole new arena: Disney Channel.
Disney Channel (and Nickelodeon) stars became my bread and butter in the ‘00s, whereas Steve was fighting the good fight interviewing network-TV stars 15 years before me, when the surefire sellers like Duran Duran had fallen from favor.
Enjoy my chat with Steve, and be sure to subscribe — it’ll help me keep the original interrogations coming.
What was the job that led you to Star Hits?
STEVE: My first job in New York City was for Trouser Press magazine. I sold the ads for Trouser Press, but I did a little bit of writing. It had a small but devoted audience, but it never got the circulation that our publisher wanted. And he tried to expand the circulation a great deal, and we still just kept our small, devoted audience, and a lot of issues went unsold. And then I moved over to Pilot Communications selling ads for Star Hits, which I'm sure you know all about now since you talked to David.
Well, and I was also a consumer.
STEVE: Were you? Star Hits started out strong-ish. Neil Tennant [later of Pet Shop Boys] was our first editor for a little bit of British cachet. He was super nice, quiet, a hard worker.
They tried to license the rights to the name Smash Hits, which Neil had worked on in England, but [publisher] Felix Dennis couldn't get those rights, so that's how it became Star Hits. And we were never the success that Smash Hits was in England.
So, I was selling ads for Star Hits, and we were doing okay. But again, it just reached a plateau of a certain number of readers, and we never expanded the way Felix wanted it to. Felix had some major magazine success, like a Bruce Lee poster magazine and a few other things. So Neil left. And then the ads were not quite what Felix wanted. So he had told me that if ad sales didn't improve by a certain amount, then we would part ways, and they didn't. I was in limbo for a while, and they kept bringing in people to replace me. And they all turned Felix down, which I thought was hilarious. Then I asked him, “Could I switch to editorial?” Because I had some writing experience. Felix said, “Yeah, it's fine with me.”
David said, “Sure,” and that’s how I became an editor at Star Hits.
What writing experience did you have?
STEVE: I only wrote a couple of things for Trouser Press. It was mostly high school writing, editing the school newspaper and writing for it in the yearbook. I really had no pop music writing experience, aside from at Trouser Press.
Did you find it was almost an innate ability?
STEVE: Yeah, and you have to love music, which I did, so it was easy. Star Hits was launched just during MTV's initial heyday. Pop music was everywhere. It was a natural fit for me, and I loved it.
Did you go to any of these legendary clubs? Did you see any iconic live shows?
STEVE: The main thing I remember a lot during the Trouser Press days, and also at Star Hits, is going down to the Ritz seeing the Clash, the Police, Squeeze. It was a great time for music.