Publisher’s Letter, Sep. 19, 1955

DearTIME-Reader: pOLLEGE students generally like ^ TIME. On U.S. campuses, a majority of students read TIME regularly. As a result, we have set up special programs to keep the colleges informed about the magazine. This summer we tried an experiment designed to let students learn for themselves about TIME from inside out. We invited some editors of college dailies to work through the summer at TIME Inc.

From among the leading college dailies, we chose the Cornell Daily Sun, which is also Ithaca’s morning newspaper; the Yale Daily News, “the oldest college daily” in the U.S., and the University of North Carolina Tar Heel, a training camp for such writers as Thomas Wolfe and ColumnistNovelist Robert Ruark. From Cornell came Keith Johnson, 20, of Ithaca; from Yale, Edward A. Kent, 22, of Farmington, Conn. The Tar Heel, it turned out, had co-editors, Edwin Yoder, 20, of Mebane, N.C., and Louis Kraar, 21, of Charlotte, N.C. At first Yoder and Kraar thought that they would have to toss a coin for the job; instead, we invited both.

The four editors buzzed through TIME Inc. like a close formation of gadflies. At lunches with TIME President Roy Larsen, corporate vice presidents and top editors, they had a volley of sharp questions about TIME’S policies as they saw them.

It was a refreshing experience, much like “renewing our own youths,” as Vice President C. D. Jackson put it. We let the students find the answers to their own questions by switching around in jobs on TIME, LIFE, FORTUNE, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED and HOUSE & HOME. By doing so, they learned something about advertising and magazine merchandising, as well as about writing promotion and editorial copy.

Last week, ready to return to college, the editors had their answers. They agreed that TIME bases its policies on thorough reporting and pro and con discussion. “TIME leaves room for an exceptional amount of dissent among its writers,” said Yoder.

What seemed to surprise the students was TIME’S informality. Said Yale’s Kent: “I had expected a sophisticated bang-bang operation, and instead I found everything friendly and on a first-name basis.”

Kraar, currently honeymooning with the former Ebba Freund, also a Tar Heel staffer, was so delighted with this first-name informality that he is looking forward to the day when he will return — job-hunting — to TIME and, as he says, proudly introduce his bride: “Ebba — meet Jim.”

Cordially yours,