From the Publisher

By Elizabeth Valk Long

Readers who long to talk back to time writers and editors, and to the public figures we profile, will soon have the chance to do so through the magic of computer screens like the one above. On Sunday, Sept. 12, TIME will become the first newsmagazine to enter the interactive-network age, when it becomes available on America Online, the nation's fastest-growing provider of online services to households. For the price of an America Online subscription ($9.95 a month plus $3.50 an hour after the first five hours each month; phone 1-800-827-6364, extension 7758), computer users will receive the text of each new issue by 4 p.m. Sunday. Readers can browse through the magazine or scan back issues starting with the one published two weeks ago.

The service, called TIME Online, will be a two-way street. Whenever readers feel moved to fire off messages, they can do so with the click of a computer mouse. The communications will appear on an electronic "bulletin board," where our staff and other subscribers can read them and respond. (Messages can go directly to our Letters department as well.) As a regular feature, we plan to hold online forums to bring subscribers and newsmakers together. And as the service develops, we will also make material from our advertisers available. Says executive editor Richard Duncan, who will supervise TIME Online: "This brings all of us into the large and rapidly expanding interactive computer culture."

TIME has chronicled every aspect of the computer age, of course, from the vacuum-tube machines that filled entire rooms in the early 1950s to the cyberpunks we featured in a cover story earlier this year. Written by associate editor Philip Elmer-DeWitt, who helped design our new service and will also help run it, the cyberpunk article provoked furious comment from an interactive network that we invited to review the piece, and showed the potential for online response.

The article also caught the attention of America Online president Steve Case, whose pioneering four-year-old service has more than 300,000 subscribers. Case met last spring with assistant managing editor Walter Isaacson, and the two men subsequently hammered out a deal. Says Case: "TIME's arrival online is a landmark event in creating this new medium." I am delighted to offer this exciting service to our readers, and I look forward to seeing you all online.