• by Ray Schultz , September 3, 2023

Richard Ekstract, a publisher whose titles ranged from Audio Times to Hamptons Cottages and Gardens, has died of cancer at age 92.  

Ekstract was a boisterous character known for hiring and firing and using colorful language, The New York Times reports in an obituary. But he also spotted niche topics and built audiences around them.   

At one point, Ekstract was primarily a trade publisher, reporting on such topics as consumer electronics. In that pre-digital age, he ran an operation in which stories were typeset on equipment in the office and laid out on boards that were delivered to a printer.  

Occasionally, he would take time to purchase and pick up artwork. 

Ekstract gained a measure of notoriety when he lent a Norelco video camera to artist Andy Warhol. 

Warhol used the equipment to create the film “Outer and Inner Space,” deemed a masterpiece of video art, according to the Times.  

In return, Warhol gave Ekstract a series of acetates he had used for red silk-screened self-portraits, and with Warhol’s permission one appeared on the cover of a new Extract magazine, Tape Recording, the Times continues. 

Ekstract studied journalism at Temple University, and later served as editor of an Army magazine. He founded his first publication, Audio Times, in 1965.