From the Publisher

By Robert L. Miller

For the past four months, TIME has had a special guest. Unlike most guests, however, he's had to work hard during his stay. Since early February, Geoffrey Colvin, a member of the Board of Editors at FORTUNE, has been sitting in as editor of TIME's Business section. His visit is part of an exchange among the publications of the Time Inc. Magazine Co., intended to give selected editors a taste of new environs.

Colvin has made the transition to TIME with ease and elan, overseeing the Business section during an especially busy period. Two cover stories -- on the nuclear-power industry and on the Scientology cult -- appeared on his watch. He edited two major stories on shady dealings at the Bank of Credit & Commerce International as well as perceptive articles on the rebounding housing industry and on Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer.

"I've had a terrific time," says Colvin. After 12 1/2 years at FORTUNE, he admits that TIME's different style and approach required some adjustment. The two magazines, for example, are aimed at largely different readerships. "FORTUNE's readers are managers," he says, "while TIME's readers are consumers." TIME's more hectic, weekly schedule also took some getting used to. "I'm impressed with the speed with which things happen around here," he says. His staff was equally impressed with Colvin's speed at adapting. "He handled an unusually heavy crunch of covers and major breaking stories without missing a beat," says associate editor Janice Castro.

A native of South Dakota, Colvin, 37, majored in economics at Harvard. While still in school and just afterward, he worked as a disk jockey for classical- music radio stations. (He still puts his radio voice to good use, as a commentator on business for CBS Radio.) Colvin spent three years as a ghostwriter for CBS Inc. chairman William S. Paley's autobiography, As It Happened, before joining FORTUNE as a reporter. An editor there since 1984, he has worked on virtually every kind of story the magazine covers, though his primary responsibility is the Managing section.

As his TIME assignment nears an end, Colvin is not leaving without some regrets. Says he: "Four months is enough time to feel like you know the job." It was enough time for us to feel like we know the guest -- and to realize that we'll miss him.