Barry Golson is an American editor, journalist, and author. He was the editor of World Press Review, then executive editor of Playboy 1973-1990. He launched the short-lived Men's Life, then became executive editor of TV Guide for four years, launching TV Guide Online. In 1995, in partnership with Yahoo!, he created Yahoo! Internet Life, a high-circulation magazine covering the early digital revolution with Roger Ebert as featured columnist. He also helped launch Truthdig.com, and created ForbesTraveler.com. He attended Exeter Academy, Yale College, and Stanford University.
While at Playboy, he co-authored and edited a number of influential interviews, including John Lennon, Jimmy Carter, Bob Dylan, Alex Haley, and Mel Brooks, with Donald Trump as his final Playboy interview. He also edited The Playboy Interviews with John Lennon and Yoko Ono and the anthologies The Playboy Interview I and II. In 2006, he wrote “Gringos in Paradise,” a memoir of life in Mexico, featured in Time magazine that year. He and his wife Thia Golson co-wrote “Retirement Without Borders,” a 2008 guide. He was awarded the Lowell Thomas Travel Writing Award in 2004 for his work in AARP Magazine. After moving to Tampa, he became a regular guest columnist covering the senior scene for the Tampa Bay Times during the Covid era.