I was a charter subscriber to "Premiere" magazine. The first cover, with Dan Akroyd and Tom Hanks, featured a story on the big-screen version of "Dragnet." No one much talks about that movie these days, and maybe that was the magazine's problem as well: People stopped talking about "Premiere" years ago.

I ceased my subscription in the mid-1990s after the magazine changed ownership -- and right before the magazine shifted away from its respected coverage of the movie industry and toward more photo boxes and glam shots of movie stars. It was a strategy to compete with "Us" and "People," or so it seemed at the time.

I would monitor the magazine's downward spiral with disgust. In the midst of "Premiere's" identity crisis, and further fueling it, Time Warner launched "Entertainment Weekly," which was able to cover movies, music and cultural happenings without the long lead time of the monthly "Premiere."

"EW" ate "Premiere" for lunch.

In the online era, "Premiere" began to gain some attention again for Glenn Kenney's film reviews. Hired as the magazine's film critic, Kenney moved away from the fawning PR-ish features of the magazine and toward the more thoughtful engagement with films that any self-respecting critic seeks to highlight. "Premiere" online began to gain some traction, even as print subscriptions continued to decline.

Kenney alone couldn’t save the magazine. Earlier this week, it was announced that the print magazine would cease publication with its April 2007 issue. As sad and inevitable as that decision was, the online edition of "Premiere," with Kenney taking the reigns, will live on. 

So three cheers for Kenney. His reviews have never been must-reads for me, but when I have stumbled upon them, I've been generally impressed. OK, I admit it: I smirked a little when I first discovered Kenney’s reviews, tainted as they were by my general disdain for what "Premiere" had become. But slowly I was won over, and I had begun to hope that the print magazine might find its footing and re-connect with a broader readership.

That's not going to happen, but ironically, I bookmarked the "Premiere" Web site today. I'll be a more regular reader of the magazine -- in its new iteration -- now, assuming it doesn't devolve into an online gossip rag.

With Kenney at the helm, all indications are that the new site will appeal to film connoisseurs and general movie fans alike. In an era when those two groups look down upon each other, anything that brings us together is probably a good thing.

Comments? Contact me at crosswalkchristian@earthlink.net.