To Our Readers: Jan. 15, 1996

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SINCE THIS IS MY FIRST NOTE TO YOU as the new managing editor of TIME, I'd like to introduce myself and share a few of my goals for a magazine that I have lived with and loved for more than 16 years.

As Time Inc.'s editor of new media for the past two years, I helped create products--like Pathfinder, our Internet service--that had no models or histories. Every day we faced issues for which there were no precedents to rely upon or be constrained by. Now I'm facing the opposite challenge, one that is no less exciting: helping invent a product that has been invented and reinvented nearly 3,800 times--every week for almost 73 years--and has a wealth of tradition unsurpassed by any other magazine that has ever existed.

Henry Luce, in the original prospectus for TIME, wrote that in an age when people were bombarded by information--not unlike the digital age we are entering--they were, ironically, becoming less informed. This magazine was created to provide synthesis and analysis that cut through the clutter and save readers time. That service remains just as valid, and that mission just as clear, today.

In New Orleans, where I come from, folks are divided into two categories: preachers and storytellers. I'm a bit more in the storyteller camp. I believe that ever since we invented campfires, narrative tales have been the best way to capture people's attention, to convey ideas and moral beliefs. And as an occasional biographer, I believe that portraying interesting people is a good way to make the world come alive. "TIME did not invent personality journalism," Luce once said. "The Bible did."

But I also believe that tales and profiles must have a point. For any TIME story, we must always ask, What are the questions we are trying to answer? What are the core issues? What are the facts? What ideas can we explore?

Ideas matter. What about cutting back on welfare in an attempt to break the cycle of dependency? We must report how that works and think as honestly as we can about it, because it matters. Community policing? School vouchers? Sending troops to Bosnia? Violence in movies and music? These debates involve fascinating philosophies--and reportable facts--that have the power to intrigue our minds and touch our daily lives. Our goal must be to treat such issues seriously, thoughtfully, honestly.

More specifically, I bring some passions based on my experiences. I've loved politics ever since I covered it as a newspaper reporter in Louisiana (the place, along with Chicago and Boston, where it is practiced with the most gusto) and then as a correspondent for this magazine. We must convey the human entertainment of campaigns, and also their true meanings.

I've also enjoyed writing about diplomacy and the cold war's conclusion. Part of TIME's mandate is to capture the drama of world events and the rumbling historic issues that underlie them.

As editor of new media, I grappled with the import and the impact of the digital age. I want TIME to be all over this story because the people and inventions and businesses involved are fascinating--and because they have the power to change our culture as nothing has since the invention of television.