To Our Readers

By James R. Gaines Managing Editor

Every so often we play a kind of musical chairs with our sister TIME Inc. publications, sending editors off for temporary duty at other magazines while their counterparts do stints here at TIME. The practice is useful for the editors, who get a chance to try out a different variety of journalism. And it's good for us, since these occasional guests invariably bring along new ideas that invigorate our own approach to reporting and writing. The latest such swap is just coming to an end; for the past three months, FORTUNE executive editor Ann Morrison has held a comparable job with us.

By all accounts, the experiment was a smashing success. We got the benefit of Morrison's energy, enthusiasm and 17 years of experience at FORTUNE; most recently she covered the automotive and other basic industries. She got to work with a new team of writers, editors and correspondents. Don't tell her, but we think we got the best of the bargain. From almost the moment she arrived, in the middle of a busy week, she was put to work, deftly and energetically editing copy -- not only in TIME's Business section but also in science and in world affairs, beats she specifically requested. Says Morrison: "If this was going to be a learning experience, I figured I should deal with breaking news." During her brief tenure she oversaw cover stories on such varied topics as the impending collapse of Castro's Cuba, human cloning and America's job crisis. Her most recent big assignment was especially apt: a cover story on the new generation of leaders at the Big Three Detroit automakers. And she made it all look easy. Says assistant managing editor Christopher Porterfield: "She has not only handled everything with skill and aplomb, but has emerged unruffled and serenely smiling."

Morrison found working at a weekly magazine to be a little frantic compared with the biweekly FORTUNE, but also terrifically stimulating. "You have to react to constantly shifting news, but you still have to provide plenty of analysis," she says. Fortunately, one thing was familiar: the names, if not the faces, of her temporary co-workers. Morrison's husband Donald was at TIME for years (he's now an assistant managing editor at ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY and, coincidentally, Ann's current stand-in at FORTUNE). Good things rarely last forever, though, and so next week she will be heading back, while we'll have to figure out how we did it all without her. So long, Ann, and thanks.