Session: 1234567891011121314151617         Page 601602603604605606607608609610611612613614615616617618619620621622623624625626627628629630631632633634635636637638639640641642643644645 of 824

Why did you decide to test this one?

Well, because we were hoping that this was going to be mainly a newstand magazine and if it were mainly a news--the reason for wanting a news stand magazine is that the we have plenty of subscribers to the other magazines and if you have a successful news stand magazine, it is very successful because the margins are better.

I insisted on a low price, thirty-five cents; most magazines were fifty cents or sixty cents, or something. And we launched in the ten cities with full promotion back up. The same as you would have if you had made a national launch. But obviously the advantage here was that the cost was lower. And if it had been a failure, the failure would have been less noisy.

Well, surprise! surprise! it sold out, I don't know, eighty, eighty-five percent on the one test issue. So I said, “Well, that's great.” A lot of people were still very dubious about it in infra-dig, not part of the Time family, and so on, so on.

Why not?

It's always been the attitude ever since I've been there. When we launched Sports Illustrated, I think it was, they called it Muscles, or Sweat, something. How inconsequential can you be. A bunch of, you know, an awful lot of intellectual snobs in this field. These are the dumber ones.