. . . How TIME gathers, verifies, organizes and writes its news

To answer some of the questions subscribers are asking about how TIME gathers, verifies, organizes and writes its news

A good many readers have been asking to know more about Michael Griffin, our Louisville correspondent, for whom we broke our rule of editorial anonymity last week when we identified him as the writer of the story headed "What is the Matter with the People?"

So this seems like a good week to tell you not only about Griffin but also about some of the other reporters who are on the job for TIME in more than 100 U.S. cities.

In places like Louisville, TIME'S correspondent is usually the city editor of the leading newspaper--or else the city editor nominates his best reporter for the job. Either way we can be pretty sure that our correspondent is just about the best informed man in town.

In Baltimore, for example, TIME'S man is Ed Young, city editor of the Baltimore Sun. In Minneapolis, he is Arnold Aslakson, city editor of the Cowles brothers' Daily Times. Gould Beech represents us in Montgomery, where he is chief editorial writer of The Advertiser--while Pulitzer Citation Winner Clayton Fritchey of the Press covers Cleveland for us.

Three of TIME'S men have won Nieman Fellowships for outstanding work in journalism--a score of them are senior editorial writers--several are managing editors or executive editors. All told, they have close to ten centuries of practical newspaper experience.

Louisville's Michael Griffin is as good an example as I could pick of how we find these newsmen--for, like so many others, he was recommended to our Chief of Correspondents by the managing editor of the town's best paper--the famous old Courier-Journal.

Griffin is a graduate of Wisconsin--got his first break as a kid reporter when he helped convict a mild-mannered but bigamous itinerant preacher who had killed his extra wife, painstakingly disjointed her body and buried each piece separately. On the crest of this achievement, Griffin sailed for France, got a job on the Paris Times, was at Le Bourget when Lindbergh landed.

In 1928 he came back to the U.S., was promptly sent touring the Midwest with Al Smith. He also traveled around the country on the campaign train with Herbert Hoover in 1928, when Hoover won, and again in 1932, when Hoover lost. "I will never forget the crowds of silent dead-pan people at the stations that year," he writes. "I know now I was witnessing the start of a peaceful American revolution."

After that he tried his hand at a Government publicity job. A few years of this were enough, and he was back in the newspaper city-room, reaching the Courier-Journal by way of two Chicago newspapers.

Griffin and these 100-odd resident U.S. correspondents do a very important job for us. They scout for stories whose importance we might otherwise overlook; they telegraph local background and on-the-spot detail whenever an event of national interest breaks in their bailiwicks.

But, most important, they are our constant contact with the American people--and through them TIME can (and often does) take the pulse of the country for you.

Cordially,

P.S. In centers like Atlanta, Detroit, Boston, etc. we have our own editorial branch offices, of course, staffed by our own newsmen, who are kept busy full-time covering assignments from our editors. In fact, we keep 15 of them busy in the TIME & LIFE bureau in Washington alone--and since Pearl Harbor we have had six men in Los Angeles and San Francisco covering the West Coast for us.

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