A letter from the PUBLISHER

As you will read in the Press section, a major realignment of executive responsibilities has taken place at TIME Inc.

It gives me much professional and personal pleasure to welcome TIME'S new publisher, Bernhard M. Auer, to these columns. But I must confess that after nearly 15 years of discourse with TIME'S readers in this space, I turn it over to my successor with some regret.

Bernhard Auer's name is known to many of you. For the past several years he has been signing all our circulation mail. A graduate of Taft School and Williams College, where he majored in political science. Bernie came to TIME as a copy boy in 1939. He moved fast. By 1946 he was assistant circulation director for TIME, LIFE and FORTUNE. (His World War II service included two years with the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps in Burma and India.) He became TIME'S circulation director in 1951. In the nine years that he held that key post, TIME'S circulation grew from 1,651,-372 to the present base of 2,450,000 (more than 3,000,000 worldwide for all TIME editions).

Auer, 44, has long been active in civic and educational affairs. He has served as president of the Bronxville, N.Y. community fund, a trustee of the Taft School, president of the Bronxville, N.Y. Parent-Teacher Association, and is director and vice president of the New York State Citizens Committee for the Public Schools. Auer and his wife Carol are active in sports (tennis, skiing, swimming) and the parents of three children.

Publisher Auer brings a wealth of experience to his new post. I feel that TIME readers the world over will join all of us here in wishing him well.

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