It concentrates on lifestyle and human interest stories, and on reviewing restaurants, travel, fashion, and theatre from or nearby Chicago.

[6] The other version was a quarterly magazine that was published by the New Chicago Foundation from 1964 until 1973 and had Richard P. Frisbie as its editor, from 1971 until 1973.

[7][8][9] (Starting in late 1973, the formerly New Chicago Foundation-published Chicago magazine changed its name to the Chicagoan, and was published by the husband-and-wife duo of Jon Anderson and Abra Prentice Wilkin, had Richard Christiansen as its editor for a time,[10] and hit the newsstands with its new name and format in September 1973.

[21] Chicago magazine's first editor was Allen Kelson, who previously had been named editor-in-chief of WFMT Guide in 1968.

He left in early 1991 to join other investors in buying a Miami-based and Caribbean media group.

[25] Levin was succeeded by Richard Babcock, who up to that point had been assistant managing editor of Rupert Murdoch's New York magazine.

[27] In December 2009, it was announced that longtime Chicago restaurant critic Dennis Ray Wheaton would be leaving his position and that Jeff Ruby would replace him.

[34] In November 2015, Chicago magazine's award-winning features editor, David Bernstein, took a buyout and left the company.