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When the 1980s were flush--before life came down to earth with the October 19, 1987, Wall Street crash and the subsequent "media recession"--Manhattan, inc. was a must-read for New York's business glitterati and editor-in-chief Amsterdam had attained near-Tina Brown- like celebrity status by winning the National Magazine Awards' "General Excellence" prize in 1985 (Mi's first full year of publication). Then, nine years ago tomorrow (March 26, 1987), she and three colleagues abruptly quit due to "professional differences" with Metrocorp chairman Herb Lipson. Speaking with min last Thursday (March 21), Lipson said "I still don't know why she left. Her father's my dentist {in Philadelphia}, and he doesn't know why she left." That is a bit of a stretch, because Amsterdam went on record saying that "church/state" differences (i.e., her refusal to establish a rapport with advertisers) was the determining factor (min, April 1, 1987). * Amsterdam's staying probably would not have rescued Mi from the scrap heap, for Lipson tells min that "the recession killed us": the monthly had cost him $20 million by the time it folded in August 1992 (as part of Fairchild Publications' M). But he admits that Mi was "never the same high-quality magazine" (under Clay Felker). Amsterdam, who was briefly New York Post editor-in-chief during the late 1980s (under the Peter Kalikow/Peter Price regime), now lives a much-lower-profile life with husband Jonathan Larsen (ex-The Village Voice). As for Lipson, he says that Metrocorp's Boston and Philadelphia magazines "are thriving like never before" and each is developing a slew of custom-publishing line extensions: Boston Home/Philadelphia Home (given gratis to new homeowners), hospital- sponsored newsletters, etc.