Major stories can be elusive, deceptive, difficult to trace. So it seemed last week as TIME'S staff set to work examining the situation in Spain for our story in this issue. Early in the week Madrid Bureau Chief Gavin Scott alerted TIME editors in New York that Generalissimo Francisco Franco had suffered a mild heart attack during a Cabinet meeting. By the time government officials had reluctantly acknowledged Scott's report, he was already busy trying to penetrate the secrecy that enshrouds Franco. He later joined Photographer Eddie Adams for an exclusive photo session with the Generalissimo's hand-picked successor, Prince Juan Carlos. The Prince is no stranger to Scott, who, when he began his first tour in Spain in 1966, found that even then one of the major issues was the problem of succession.

The files from Madrid went to Associate Editor Burton Pines, a seven-year veteran of TIME'S news bureaus, who wrote the story in New York. Reporter-Researcher Sara Medina spent most of her week poring over histories, TIME files and clippings going back to pre-Civil War days. Meanwhile, Staff Writer Le Anne Schreiber prepared a profile of Heir Apparent Juan Carlos.

"It was a cover story that my subject never even read," smiled TIME Senior Writer Michael Demarest. His cover subject happened to be a young beagle. Still, Demarest's study of "The American Pet" (TIME, Dec. 23) earned him a Penney-Missouri Award this month from the University of Missouri School of Journalism. Demarest joins more than a score of others who have been recognized so far this year for work appearing in TIME. Among the most recent honors:

> A John Hancock Awards special citation to Associate Editor James Grant for his overview of world inflation, "Seeking Antidotes to a Global Plague" (April 8,1974).

> The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Award for our cover story on alcoholism (April 22, 1974), assembled by Senior Editors Ruth Brine and Leon Jaroff, Associate Editor Gerald Clarke and Researcher Jean Bergerud.

> The Morris Gordon Award for Outstanding Achievement in Visual Communication to Picture Editor John Durniak.

> The South Carolina Education Association's special award for "distinguished service in the promotion of America's Bicentennial."

In addition, several of TIME's 1975 covers have already been honored. Art Directions magazine singled out Jim Sharpe's painting of Chou En-lai (Feb. 3) and Richard Avedon's photograph of Cher (March 17). It also cited the editorial design of TIME's special 1776 issue. Art Director David Merrill was honored by The One Show, published by the Art Directors Club, for his design of a 1974 cover on Middle East massacres (May 27,1974).

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