Dear Subscriber

I'm afraid we cannot start any more new TIME subscriptions for people here in the U.S. until after July 1.

The only domestic subscriptions we can put through this spring will be renewal orders from our old subscribers (and even on these we will have to ask you to send in your renewal instructions before your present subscription expires and has to be cut off).

But we will continue to enter new subscriptions promptly to our out-of-the-country editions--particularly those editions we publish for our armed forces overseas. For with so many soldiers and sailors and men in Government posts abroad writing us to say how much TIME'S news from home means to them, I am sure these are the new orders we should fill first.

During the weeks ahead I am almost sure some friend of yours will tell you how we had to ask him to wait when he asked us to enroll him as a new subscriber.

And so I think you might like to know why (for a few months) this will have to be TIME'S policy.

The first reason is the Government's paper curtailment program, with which TIME is cooperating wholeheartedly. Our paper quota for 1944 is only 59% of what we were using in the fall of 1942, and TIME and its brother magazines are budgeted to use 73,000,000 Lb. (1,450 carloads) less paper than in 1942. This means we cannot possibly print enough copies for all the people who want them.

The second reason is the soaring demand for new subscriptions, coming just at this time when our paper supplies have been reduced so drastically. Before the paper cuts began TIME'S circulation was growing faster than that of any other frontrank magazine whose circulation is audited by the A.B.C.--and the orders are still flooding in faster & faster as more & more people discover TIME and the importance of TIME'S help in following the news quickly and confidently. And only by postponing entry on these new orders for three months can we accumulate enough paper under our allotment to take care of them.

The third reason why we must declare a moratorium is that all these orders have swamped our subscription staff. TIME'S Circulation Office in Chicago is right in the heart of the tightest manpower shortage area in the country. And with so many war plants around us we cannot go out and bid for all the workers we would need to handle this winter's subscription volume with anything like the speed and efficiency with which we have always tried to enter TIME'S subscriptions.

For all these reasons, new domestic subscriptions received from now through April will be entered to start in July--and new subscriptions received during May will be entered to start in August.

We hope this moratorium will enable us to handle renewal orders from TIME'S old friends promptly and without a slip--and that it will make it possible for us to continue entering subscriptions for our overseas forces as fast as we get them.

Cordially,

P.I. Prentice

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