From the Publishers

By Elizabeth P. Valk

One of the most important people at any magazine is the advertising sales director. It's not just that the director supervises selling the ad pages that help us to exist and prosper, but the good ones -- and TIME has been blessed with a string of them -- must have an instinctive feel for the editorial purpose of the magazine and for its role in the marketplace. That's why I'm so pleased to have Cleary Simpson join my publishing team. She knows this magazine inside and out, and she's an accomplished strategic thinker.

In fact, when it comes to promoting TIME, few of us can match Cleary's zeal. "It might sound corny, but working for TIME was always on my wish list," she says. Nevertheless, she began her career in a roundabout way. A Phi Beta Kappa at Connecticut College, she graduated in 1975 and spent a year in Japan as a Fulbright fellow, then worked at the Bank of Toyko as a liaison and operations manager. In 1978 she got her wish, when she was hired as an assistant marketing manager, preparing material for sales presentations, at TIME in New York City.

Cleary chafed a bit at the desk job. "I wanted to be on the front lines. I wanted to do the presenting. I thought I was the most persuasive in convincing people of TIME's value." She got her chance in 1980, when she moved to sales. She quickly proved her mettle by persuading AT&T to use TIME for its "Reach out and touch someone" campaign. Then she moved steadily on to divisional sales manager, marketing director and associate advertising director, stopping only to get married -- her husband George owns a public relations firm -- and to have a child, Will, who is five months old.

Simpson moves into the job just as the sales staffs of the major Time Inc. magazines are being grouped together to achieve better combined and coordinated results. They are organized into four geographic regions, and her predecessor, Stephen Seabolt, is becoming regional advertising sales vice president for the West Coast. So we're not losing an ad sales director but / gaining an ad sales director and a vice president. The new setup suits Cleary fine because she can spend less time on administration and more time with clients. I suspect, given her preference, I won't find her behind her desk very often.