A Letter From the Publisher

By Robert L. Miller

Though his name is rarely on any single story in the magazine, the signature of TIME's managing editor is on every issue. As supervising architect, he shapes and coordinates the mix of elements that go into our pages, from the design and photographs to the reporting and writing. That demanding task is now changing hands. Last week Time Inc. Editor-in-Chief Henry Anatole Grunwald, who will retire at year's end, announced that the company's board of directors has, on his recommendation, chosen as his successor TIME Managing Editor Jason McManus, 53. Taking McManus' place beginning May 4 and becoming the magazine's twelfth managing editor will be Henry Muller, 40, currently TIME's chief of correspondents.

During McManus' all too brief 19 months in command at TIME, the magazine was particularly praised for last year's American Best special issue, the creation of an Ethics section, the pioneering application of new technology to provide late coverage of the breakdown of the Iceland summit, and the remarkable use of photography in the Statue of Liberty Centennial issue, including the largest picture ever to appear in TIME, a four-page foldout of the fireworks over New York harbor. For such achievements last year, the magazine is again one of the five finalists for a National Magazine Award for general excellence, having won the award only two years ago.

Muller, who has directed TIME's reporting under McManus and frequently sat in editing for him, first worked for the magazine as a stringer, when he was an undergraduate at Stanford University. Reared in Switzerland until age 6, when he and his family moved to San Francisco, Muller joined TIME in 1971 as a correspondent in Canada. He next served in Brussels as European economic correspondent and in Paris as bureau chief before coming to New York as a writer in 1981. He became senior editor of the World section and, last year, chief of correspondents and an assistant managing editor. Presiding over the much acclaimed 1985 special issue devoted to immigrants, Muller brought the personal insight afforded by his heritage, and he now becomes the second immigrant, after the Vienna-born Grunwald, to lead TIME.