Cigar Journal Cigar Magazines

15 years ago, just as our magazine was running off the press for the first time, the world’s biggest tobacco exhibition, Tabexpo 94, was taking place in Vienna. Around 100 leading industry figures had travelled there to attend the “Cigar Colloquium”. Heinrich Villiger (“Even in Bremen you don’t get that many cigar experts getting together”), Hans Leusen and Christian Burger of Dannemann, Dick di Meola of Consolidated Cigar Corp., Agio’s Ad Wintermans, Felipe Gregorio’s Philip Gregory Wynne and George Brightman from the Cigar Aficionado were just some of those who came from virtually every country on earth. Shortly afterwards the faces of Bill Cosby and Sharon Stone were smiling on our cover page photos. The European Cigar Journal was intended to be a magazine for friends of the cigar in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

And it was. Today, however, the ECJ as it is known for short is read all round the world. The fact that we are often described as – and receive awards for being – “the world’s best cigar magazine”, is not just a great honour, it is first and foremost a mission that we take seriously. You, the readers, want well-founded information about cultured smoking? That is precisely what we will continue to deliver, no more, no less. Let other magazines look at cars, fashion, jewellery and golf – we choose to concentrate on Fine Smoke.

The last 15 years have been a rollercoaster – the boom, the first smoking bans, the hotly debated issue of passive smoking, through to absurd tobacco taxes … But in spite of all adversity we cigar and pipe aficionados have always found ways and means of indulging in our hobby. 15 years ago scarcely anyone would have felt guilty about lighting a cigar or filling a pipe after dinner in a restaurant. Nowadays we meet to smoke in a Lounge, cigar bar or smoke shop. All the better! The more we close ranks, the more convivial our company becomes.

Thank you for your loyalty, Dr. Helmut Romé and Reinhold C. Widmayer
Publishers and editors in chief