TIME is predominantly (90%) a subscribers' magazine. But a good way to measure its vitality is how well it sells on the newsstands. We are happy to report that with the May 26 issue, TIME set a new mark unique among all weekly magazines. For 52 consecutive weeks, each issue of TIME outsold the corresponding one of the previous year. The average increase in newsstand sales for those 52 issues was a remarkable 27%.

The biggest seller of all was the Jackie Kennedy cover at inauguration time. Not far behind were the pre-election Nixon and Kennedy covers. the inaugural issue, and the detailed report on the Cuban disaster, with Exile Leader Miro Cardona on the cover.

Still, it is the steady, regular subscriber that matters most of all. And we are happy to report that TIME has been delivering an average 2,650,000 paid circulation in the U.S. since the first of the year--a good 100,000 over our basic guarantee. This too is a record. TIME'S five international editions increased their sales in May by better than 10% over last year, and add another 645,100 subscribers to our circulation, another record.

There are two other circulation statistics that are gratifying to us. One is the 250,000 younger subscribers on the nation's campuses. The other is the quarter-million families who have given us their continuing vote of confidence by subscribing for five-year terms.

THE Soviet Union last week finally and formally broke silence on where Major Yuri Gagarin was sent into orbit (Baikonur), and where he returned to earth (Smelovka). TIME'S Mapmaker R. M. Chapin Jr. hit it on the button in the April 21 cover story on Gagarin (see cut).

How did he do it? Chapin knew that Russia's Canaveral is in the area around Tyuratam, east of the Aral Sea, and that the angle of orbit of the shot to the Equator was 65DEG in the direction of Siberia. From this he could construct the orbit once around the earth. He also knew that the elapsed time of the flight was 89 minutes, and could thus figure that the earth rotated on its axis 22 1/2DEG in this time. Using these figures and constructing the orbit on a transparent globe, Chapin, a trained architect and self-trained geographer, decided that Gagarin had to land in the vicinity of Smelovka. Q.E.D.

TIME's cover this week is the second by Rene Bouche, who painted the recent Jean Kerr portrait. President Kennedy allowed him two short sittings ("not quite two hours") at the White House a few days before he took off for Paris. Bouche usually counts on three sittings of seven hours. "Of course," said he, "there were always people talking, and he never sat still." Bouche, who finished the portrait in his Manhattan studio, had met the President before. He painted Jackie three years ago, and did a portrait of her sister Lee at that time. He has sketched Mrs. Joseph P. Kennedy for Vogue. This was his first portrait of J.F.K.

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