Enter Vision

In the crowded confusion of a fourth-floor Manhattan loft last week, a crew of 24 editors and writers shared the birth pangs of a new magazine. After putting to bed the first issue of Vision, a 25-c-^ news fortnightly printed entirely in Spanish, they rushed 67,000 copies by plane to 5,000 newsstands all over Latin America.

Latin America already has several local newsmagazines, but many attempts at bigger ventures have failed because the founders counted on below-the-border advertising which did not materialize. Vision's founder, 32-year-old Publisher William E. Barlow, formerly an advertising space salesman with TIME International, reasoned that U.S. companies with Latin American trade were the logical supporters of such a venture. He not only persuaded them to take ads, but to put up most of his $750,000 initial capital. As editor, Barlow hired Iowa-born, Spanish-speaking Edwin Stout, onetime assistant managing editor of Newsweek and Quick.

In Vol. I, No. i, Editor Stout covered world events with a special eye to Latin interests: a two-page lead on Puerto Rico's revolt and the attempted assassination of President Truman, a roundup of the Holy Year in Rome, a feature on the Spanish navy. But he also gave full accounts of the war in Asia, plenty of cheesecake, an updating on television and flying saucers. Editorially, Vision promised not to "take the side of any single country . . . or of any internal group of any nation."

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