Diffident Newcomer

On the FORTUNE-size cover brooded an unidentified Oriental, whom informed observers would recognize as Red China's Premier Chou Enlai. Chou was eventually identified in a footnote to the table of contents--and the Oriental influence continued. The first three stories concerned the Far East, specifically Communist China and South Viet Nam.

What was the purpose of this handsome magazine, born last week? Beyond giving its name, USA* 1, and a terse tag line--"Monthly News & Current History"--the newcomer did not say. An advertiser made the introduction. There it was on page 2, bought and paid for by the investment house of Kidder, Peabody & Co. "April, 1962," said the ad, "marks a moment of importance in the history of the U.S. press. It witnesses the first issue of ... this thoughtful new journal of news perspective written and edited for an educated, responsible audience."

USA*1 is an attempt to demonstrate that today's news can best be understood in the perspective of history. With rare exception, its lavishly illustrated contents take the long view. An article on Red China, for example, traces the Communist conquest all the way back to Sun Yat-sen -- a non-Communist revolutionary who toppled the 268-year Manchu dynasty in 1911. Caesar's Roman legions tramp through a lengthy examination of the U.S. Air Force's Strategic Air Command. The antecedents of Samos. the U.S.'s TV spy satellite, are tracked back across 100 years, when a balloon-borne camera produced an aerial view of Boston.

If the historian outshouts the reporter in USA* 1, the explanation lies in the person of the magazine's founder: British-born Rodney C. Campbell. 37, a confirmed history buff. Campbell's sense of history, maturing during seven years as a TIME writer, prompted him three years ago to start a magazine of his own. He rounded up $1,000,000 worth of support, gathered a staff from TIME (three reporter-writers) and the New York daily press (the Times, Herald Tribune, Post and Wall Street Journal).

Editor Campbell has set his sights am bitiously high. Except on an experimental basis. USA* 1 will not be sold on news stands, and will take full-page ads only ("more dignified"). Although the maga zine's opening subscription rate was a stiff $10 a year (it will rise to $15 in May), test mail solicitations pulled some 125,000 charter subscribers. Those who signed up should feel little pain as they pay the high price of news-plus-history: according to a recent survey, their average income exceeds $26,000 a year.

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