A Letter From the Publisher: Oct. 21, 1985

For me, this is a week summed up by the words of a Beatles song: “You say goodbye, and I say hello.” The goodbye is for Ray Cave, managing editor of TIME for the past eight years, who becomes Time Inc. corporate editor. In that capacity, he will serve as a deputy to Henry Grunwald, editor in chief of the company’s seven magazines. The hello is for Jason McManus, who after 21 months as corporate editor returns to TIME as its eleventh managing editor.

Cave, 56, joined TIME after 17 years at SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, where he rose to executive editor. A quintessential professional with an instinct for hard news and a flair for graphics, Cave presided over a period of great innovation in TIME’s look and content. He increased the amount of illustration and expanded editorial color, from two or three pages an issue in 1977 to 40 or more today.

At the same time, Cave paid meticulous attention to the 50,000 or more words that go into each issue. He recruited and trained talented writers and opened the magazine to their distinctive voices, introducing the use of bylines on news stories in 1980 (until then, only criticism and commentary were signed). To improve and broaden coverage, Cave started six new sections: American Scene (1978), Video (1981), Design (1981), Computers (1982), Food (1984) and two weeks ago, Health & Fitness. He commissioned special sections on the 1984 Olympics, the 40th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, and the Children of War, and devoted virtually entire issues to the Soviet Union (1980), Japan (1983) and Immigrants (1985).

During Cave’s tenure, TIME won hundreds of journalistic citations, including most top photography prizes and last year’s National Magazine Award for General Excellence. He also impressed readers: TIME’s circulation jumped by 500,000, to 4.6 million in the U.S. and nearly 6 million worldwide. Notes Grunwald: “Under Cave’s leadership, TIME reached new heights of journalistic excellence.”

McManus, 51, joined TIME in 1959. Among other assignments, he wrote for the World section, served as a correspondent in Europe, and edited the Nation section. He became an assistant managing editor in 1976 and executive editor two years later. “Every TIME managing editor contributes something of himself to the magazine,” says Grunwald. “I am sure that, like Cave’s, McManus’ contributions will be remarkable.”