‘90s FAMILY : The Family Hour : Kids take to computers like fish to water. New magazines help tap that interest.

In 1990, when Jake Winebaum was senior vice president of U.S. News & World Report and his wife was pregnant with their first child, he considered buying a financially troubled windsurfing magazine. He decided against it, but while he was throwing away some old issues, inspiration struck.

“A cover caught my eye of a guy windsurfing with his daughter,” says Winebaum, 34, for whom the image and headline--”Fun”--made a connection. “I said, ‘There’s a magazine idea: family fun.’ ”

Conceiving a slick, advice-driven monthly that would offer suggestions for family “quality time” activities, Winebaum launched FamilyFun in 1991 using mostly his own money. Disney Magazine Publishing bought it after the second issue, but while the magazine caught on with the time-starved mothers and fathers of the ‘90s, Winebaum soon noticed the irony of a magazine about family leisure time often forcing him to work late.

He asked Disney for a computer so he could bring work home, and his daughter Jenna’s reaction to his Macintosh Centris gave him the idea for his newest magazine, FamilyPC, which arrived on newsstands last month.

“(Jenna) at that time was about 20 months old. Instantly, she took to (the computer). She figured out with a little help from me that moving the mouse moved the cursor around the page,” he says. “Within a day, she could basically navigate kids’ programs.”

After seeing friends’ children perform similar feats, he decided the time was right for a new magazine targeting families with home computers.

Winebaum took his idea to Disney and computer magazinepublisher Ziff-Davis, which agreed to publish it as a joint venture.

The first issue, dated September/October, offers suggestions in plain English for families on choosing and using computers. The issue rates multimedia computer systems and color printers, evaluates educational programs and multimedia encyclopedias in a family testing lab, and gives practical instructions for such home computing activities as high-tech Halloween parties and electronic pen-palling.

“The computer is this immensely powerful device that can do anything, (and) people are just figuring out how to harness this power for the home,” says Winebaum, editor and publisher of FamilyPC as well as president and editor in chief of FamilyFun.

Today’s multimedia-ready computers often come equipped with such features as fax modems and photo CD capability, Winebaum says, and many families don’t take full advantage of those capabilities. “What do you do with a fax modem at home? I guarantee we will be able to come up with 10 of the coolest things to do with a fax at home.”

Speaking from his magazines’ editorial offices in Northampton, Mass., Winebaum sounds so enthusiastic it’s easy to believe he might come up with seven of those ideas by himself. Some of the ideas in FamilyFun have grown out of activities Winebaum has tried with his family, says the magazine’s editor, Alexandra Kennedy, and his family computer activities could provide similar fodder for FamilyPC.

“Jenna and I did a (computer) project last week--’cause I do live the life,” Winebaum says. “We had a bunch of photographs (of Jenna’s introduction to her baby sister, Tess). I had a photo CD of them made (and) I took a program called ‘Kid’s Studio,’ a multimedia authoring program for 6-year-olds, and took the photo CDs and created a little story with Jenna that she narrated.”

Of course, such family projects require certain types of computer hardware and software, and FamilyPC provides activity ideas as well as buying guidance.

“The minute I told anybody at a dinner party or at work that I was working on this magazine, they’d pin me in the corner and say, ‘Write down what computer I should buy,’ ” Winebaum says. “(It) is one of the most considered purchases.”

Families nervous about buying the multimedia equivalent of a Betamax VCR certainly may need that buying advice, but Winebaum’s magazine isn’t the only one giving it. Home PC, launched earlier this year by CMP Publications, targets a broader audience of home computer users, and in October, Scholastic Inc. will reintroduce Family Computing, delivering it directly to some readers of Parent & Child and Home Office Computing.

Still, the combined marketing expertise of Ziff-Davis and Disney gives FamilyPC plenty of clout, and Winebaum’s magazine instincts are well regarded. “He’s got a sterling track record,” says Anne Russell, editor-in-chief of Folio, a trade publication for the magazine business. “The thing that’s interesting about Winebaum’s formula is it’s participatory . . . it’s for the family.”

Winebaum’s work sometimes keeps him away from the Manhattan home he shares with his wife, Cindy, and their daughters. The launch of FamilyPC has forced him to do some extra business travel, and he usually spends at least two days a week in his magazines’ Northampton offices.

Given the enormous time commitment involved, “it’s sort of ironic to start a start-up magazine about families,” he says by phone while driving from Northampton to New York.

“He’s always juggling everything,” Kennedy says. Still, “There’s any number of times he’s tearing out of the office saying, ‘I’ve got to go home and put Jenna to bed.’ ”