Many of you have written me to ask how TIME happened to find and report some of the stories which never made the headlines. Recently I put the question to a few of TIME'S U.S. correspondents. Said Ed Woods, in St. Louis:

"Stories for the most part are like mules. Sometimes you can tell them a long way off, by their ears. Sometimes they back up and kick you. In either case, recognition is immediate."

Al Wright, in San Francisco, suggested a further breakdown: 1) the big, obvious news story, 2) the comprehensive situation story, with preparations made long in advance, 3) the local offbeat story which can grow out of a small newspaper squib, and 4) "the TIME type of exclusive, like a new business starting up, or a spectacular operation by a surgeon or troubles within some church parish . . . They are the news dividends of the week." Bill Johnson, in Dallas, checked back on his last 23 stories, found one originated with a press conference, one tip came from a press agent, seven from newspaper stories and 14 from personal contacts.

When TIME'S Midwest correspondents met for a conference in Chicago last week, the odd sources of stories were favorite topics of conversation at formal and informal sessions. A revised edition of our correspondents' manual, written by Lawrence Laybourne, general manager of TIME Inc.'s U.S. and Canadian News Service, was distributed at the meeting. Its first sentences: "Long ago we coined an adjective--'TIMEworthy'--to describe a news story for TIME. This is a matter which has significance and interest not merely to the community or region where it happens but to all TIME readers everywhere."

Detroit Bureau Chief Fred Collins told of one story that began when he was leafing through a University of Michigan bulletin. He noticed a short item about a professor just back from an archeological expedition to the Middle East. An interview resulted in the story about the Urartu language stone (TIME, Oct. 15).

In Santa Fe, an ad for a new cow-scratching device in the New Mexico Stockman caught Al Rosenfeld's eye and turned into an item for the BUSINESS section (TIME, April 9). A full-page treatment of a cowboy camp meeting in the RELIGION section (TIME, July 30) started with a casual remark made while Rosenfeld was interviewing an artist. San Francisco Correspondent Serrell Hillman was covering a professional women's golf tournament at Carmel, Calif, when a friend mentioned the Army language school at Monterey, which was covered in TIME'S EDUCATION section (TIME, July 23).

Correspondent Johnson compares many TIME stories to "coral reefs which keep building until they stick out of the water." He investigated reports of oil finds in Texas' Spraberry trend for a year before he felt they had built up enough significance to be reported in TIME (Oct. 8). The news break on "Weedhead," the narcotics agent who posed as a high school student (TIME, Dec. 3), "gave us a chance to use in formation on narcotics we'd long been storing up," said Johnson. Once, while he was standing at the top of the University of Texas tower admiring the view, a member of the school's staff happened to mention Henry Dunn, the caretaker who sends books to needy libraries overseas. Result: a full column in the EDUCATION section (TIME, Aug. 20).

Woods tells of being as signed to a story which seemed to have neither long ears nor a mule's kick. It was the Second International Gerontological Congress, a group which is concerned with the troubles of the aging. He found his story, however, by attending a session when the venerable baseball pitcher, Satchel Paige, turned up. Correspondent Woods's report: "For two solid hours, Ole Satch held the scientists spellbound with inside tips on how he maintained his terrifying 'nuthin' ball' despite his advanced years. Samples of his anti-old age prescriptions: don't fill up on chicken livers ; don't inhale when smoking--blow it out your nose." (TIME, Sept. 17).

A "nose for news" has always been considered a major part of a good reporter's equipment. To that, TIME'S correspondents seem inclined to add: an eye on the mule and a feel for the coral reef.

Cordially yours,

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