Blend

For six years owlish, opinionated Eugene Lyons has edited the American Mercury (circ. 74,558). Lately Editor Lyons (who was the first U.S. foreign correspondent to interview Joseph Stalin and is an ex-admirer of Communist Russia) has pined for a bigger audience.

For six years bulbous, balding Alex L. Hillman has successfully competed with Macfadden and Fawcett in the lucrative magazine fields of true confessions (Real Story, Real Confessions, Real Romances) , crime (Crime Detective, Real Detective, Crime Confessions) and comics. A onetime book publisher, Alex Hillman has lately pined for prestige.

Last week the product of these combined yearnings appeared on U.S. newsstands in the form of a new magazine, Pageant, edited by Lyons, published by Hillman. To get the paper for a new mass magazine (first issue: 500,000 copies), Publisher Hillman had to sacrifice some of his old ones. He decided to jettison the detectives and comics, which have been netting $250,000 annual profit.

Publisher Hillman and Editor Lyons bristle at the suggestion that their new 25-c- slick-paper, pocket-sized magazine is another Coronet, beam at comparison with Reader's Digest. Disinterested readers may find Pageant an agreeable blend of the two.

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