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- <text id=93TT2216>
- <title>
- Sep. 13, 1993: From The Publisher
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1993
- Sep. 13, 1993 Leap Of Faith
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- FROM THE PUBLISHER, Page 4
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p> Readers who long to talk back to time writers and editors,
- and to the public figures we profile, will soon have the chance
- to do so through the magic of computer screens like the one
- above. On Sunday, Sept. 12, TIME will become the first newsmagazine
- to enter the interactive-network age, when it becomes available
- on America Online, the nation's fastest-growing provider of
- online services to households. For the price of an America Online
- subscription ($9.95 a month plus $3.50 an hour after the first
- five hours each month; phone 1-800-827-6364, extension 7758),
- computer users will receive the text of each new issue by 4
- p.m. Sunday. Readers can browse through the magazine or scan
- back issues starting with the one published two weeks ago.
- </p>
- <p> The service, called TIME Online, will be a two-way street. Whenever
- readers feel moved to fire off messages, they can do so with
- the click of a computer mouse. The communications will appear
- on an electronic "bulletin board," where our staff and other
- subscribers can read them and respond. (Messages can go directly
- to our Letters department as well.) As a regular feature, we
- plan to hold online forums to bring subscribers and newsmakers
- together. And as the service develops, we will also make material
- from our advertisers available. Says executive editor Richard
- Duncan, who will supervise TIME Online: "This brings all of
- us into the large and rapidly expanding interactive computer
- culture."
- </p>
- <p> TIME has chronicled every aspect of the computer age, of course,
- from the vacuum-tube machines that filled entire rooms in the
- early 1950s to the cyberpunks we featured in a cover story earlier
- this year. Written by associate editor Philip Elmer-DeWitt,
- who helped design our new service and will also help run it,
- the cyberpunk article provoked furious comment from an interactive
- network that we invited to review the piece, and showed the
- potential for online response.
- </p>
- <p> The article also caught the attention of America Online president
- Steve Case, whose pioneering four-year-old service has more
- than 300,000 subscribers. Case met last spring with assistant
- managing editor Walter Isaacson, and the two men subsequently
- hammered out a deal. Says Case: "TIME's arrival online is a
- landmark event in creating this new medium." I am delighted
- to offer this exciting service to our readers, and I look forward
- to seeing you all online.
- </p>
- <p> Elizabeth Valk Long
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
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