Awards, circulation increases and scooping a competitor on a major story are among the professional satisfactions of a news organization. But journalists also take a special kind of pleasure in hearing about the impact of their stories on readers. TIME stories often cause a variety of such reactions. On the day that last week's issue was published, for example. Cover Subject Ted Turner, the founder of Cable News Network, began his regular Monday-morning meeting by reading the story aloud to his staff, skipping none of the parts that criticized him. In that same issue, a story about a former model acting as her own lawyer and winning a $1 million lawsuit prompted calls from two producers about movie possibilities.

But the biggest reaction to a recent TIME article came after the cover story two weeks ago on herpes. Many readers were eager to send the article to others. A U.S. Marine Corps officer at Cherry Point, N.C., asked for (and received) permission to photocopy the story for his troops. Eileen Ford, who heads the biggest New York City modeling agency, was concerned about her troops too. She sent copies of the herpes story to all her models. Novelist John Irving mailed copies to his children, who were away at summer camp.

Many readers began swamping the phone lines of groups that were mentioned in the article. The Herpes Resource Center asked those who could not get through to write. (The address: H.R.C., Box 100, Palo Alto, Calif. 94302; include stamped, self-addressed envelope.) Busy signals were not the only problem. Some readers saw a phone number in one illustration, but did not note that it was for Philadelphia only. The Chicago pizzeria of Anthony Di Crescenzo happened to have the same number. "I was getting about 50 calls a night from people wanting my help," says Di Crescenzo.

"It almost gave me a nervous breakdown." The dairy store Len Timberlake manages in Los Angeles had that number as well, and he had 30 to 40 herpes calls a day. Calls seeking advice also came to the offices of TIME and were referred to doctors, many of whom reported an increase in inquiries about herpes. Readers also apparently recommended the issue to friends. Said a manager of Atlanta's Eastern Newsstand Corp.: "The following week people were still asking for it."

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