To Our Readers

By ELIZABETH VALK LONG President

Good business reporting, believes senior editor Priscilla Painton, is the most challenging of all types of reporting. "There is the paper trail," she says, "and then there are the personalities and moods of the people making the tough decisions. And that's difficult to capture well and consistently." Painton's adroitness at capturing both the hard facts and the human texture is well established. In her five years as a TIME correspondent, writer and editor, she has covered the contradictions of Atlantic City, New Jersey, and the complexities of Bill Clinton's presidential campaign, and she has profiled figures from media mogul Ted Turner to gambling czar Steve Wynn. Now her grasp of such reporting will be put to more comprehensive use as Painton, 35, becomes the magazine's new business editor.

TIME will continue to report such core business stories as the national economy and major corporate moves. But Painton also intends to seek out fresh subjects, and she gives three examples: "The new subcultures of business, like the quants of this week's cover story about Wall Street; matters of interest to consumers about the things they buy; and subtle changes in the workplace." The last particularly intrigues her. "It's in the workplace that a society really changes," she maintains. "If you want to talk about everything from gender issues like sexual harassment to political issues like health care, it all begins and ends with the workplace."

A "journalism brat," Painton is the daughter of Fred Painton, who retired as a TIME senior writer in 1991. She was raised (bilingually) in Paris, where her family has lived for the past 32 years. She worked briefly as an editorial secretary at TIME after graduating from Mount Holyoke College, but wanted to earn her credentials outside the fold. This she did, impressively, with the Washington Post and the Atlanta Constitution. She carried on the family tradition by marrying another journalist, Tim Smith, now an editor at the Wall Street Journal. (Their latest collaboration: Isabel, three months, who joins 3 1/2-year-old Anthony.)

It is a record that prompts high expectations, which is exactly what Painton's colleagues have. "What Priscilla brings to the table," says White House correspondent Michael Duffy, "is the relentless attention that you want in an editor about every paragraph, as well as a reporter's eye for the new detail. It's quite a mix." Indeed it is, and with Painton in charge of business coverage, we look forward to a lot more than a paper trail.