MY NAME IS TONY JONES. I JUST QUIT MY JOB AS ASSOCIATE EDITOR OF HARPER'S MAGAZINE BECAUSE I HAD AN OFFER I COULDN'T REFUSE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01314R000100620007-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 25, 2004
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: February 1, 1975
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

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My name Isleffy,
as AssociatEditor
because I had an
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Iarper's Magazine
firer couldn't refu
You see, for some time now I've been hoping to start an
entirely new kind of publication. Now the opportunity is
here-if I can persuade you to help me make the most of
it:
No, not by 'subscribing. I need writers. Researchers. Editors.
Requirements: You are on your own.
And by you, I mean you. The new publication I'm asking
you to help get started will be produced by its readers.
By you, I hope.
As a matter of fact, the whole idea hinges on whether or
not you contribute. Let me give you some background:
I was proud to work on Harpers Magazine, and I worked
hard on it, but Harper's and other top magazines are
.committed to publishing the "best" writers in the world.
This is understandable. And I agree we need this kind of
source.
But this policy locks out communication of another, and
in my opinion just as necessary, sort-different, honest,
independent messages from the great numbers of intelli-
gent and involved men and women who don't happen to
be writers who know editors.
I want to offer a variety of communications from real
people about just about anything. Short and pithy. Or
longer if it plays that way. I'd have more by-lines than
any other publication in the world. If my readers really
did contribute.
In a real sense, this communication would be a collection
-of points of view. A swatch of our consciousness. An on-
going biopsy of our civilization.
When I announced my intention to Russell Barnard, the
publisher of Harper's, he pledged that if I could actually
develop the kind of magazine I wanted, he would pub-
lish it.
So I've decided to revive the famous HARPER'S WEEK-
LY, a national newspaper that flourished concurrently
with the monthly Harper's Magazine from 1857 to 1916.
The people who ran that old weekly had the temerity to
call it "a journal of. civilization." Well, that is exactly
what I have in mind for the new Harper's Weekly.
I want you, its reader, to write for it. I want you to write
about your point of view from where you are. If you are
a businessman and you want to talk about business, go
ahead. If you are a housewife and you want to write about
the effects of permissiveness on children, I think you are
highly qualified. If you are a doctor who wants to pick
up a pen and write a piece on your secret desire to be-
come a hod carrier, I think it would be interesting.
Do you see it? A magazine containing people's thoughts
and shouts. A kind of extended variant of the Op-Ed
page of The New York Times, the letters to the editors of
all times, hubbubby, and reflective of our civilization.
Frankly, many
have a chance.
really mean what I say about you writing for it or re-
searching for it.
Friend, I not only mean it, I mean it so much that my
main worry about this enterprise is that you won't con-
tribute.
I believe we need more exchange. We need more men
and women of letters. People who can sit down and think
something through and then write about it-not neces-
sarily for posterity bit to get the rest of us thinking. .
Look, I'm also going to go out and buttonhole a person
I think we should hear from who may not be a subscrib-
er. And ask him to write. And I'm thinking of challenging
some young artists to see if they can do as well with car-
toons as old Thomas Nast did. I reserve rights like that.
But once again, reader friend, the nub of the magazine
will be your contributions, clips, original writing, or re-
sponses to other writing.
I've always felt it was a distinctly American trait that W'C'
had something to say. All of us. And that we couldn't be
scared off or even bored off from saying it.
That when it came right down to it, we stood up and
spoke our minds and left it at: "That's my opinion, bub."
I believe this is still true. And I love it about us. As for
the reading, I believe we have a genuine and unfulfilled
hunger to talk to each other.
O.K.If you're interested, you can help us in any of 3 ways.'
1. Do research for us. As an active reader, you no doubt
scan a wide variety of publications such as your local
newspaper, specialized newsletters, professional, literary
and political journals. Clip and send us items you think
deserve attention. For each item we use, you'll receive a
credit line and a research fee of $10.
2. Write for us, especially about things in your immediate
experience that deserve sharing. Published contributions
will carry your name and hometown, and you will receive
an honorarium of 825.
3. Support Harper's, Weekly. Take a subscription.
Twenty-four issues for S6.
Harper's Weekly. "A Journal of Civilization." Or an in-
quiry into whether or not personal accountability is still
a real force in us.
Pa _ liea t am ;40" a mm we M M" s*".r" rur mel t o
p
er
y
n
fl Harper's Weekly for 24 issues for O.
(Regularly $12 at selected news- Address,_
stands.) I understand I'll get every
- kl
penny of it back, onytimo I say I'm City
dissatisfied. - -(
I SEND NO MONEY NOWT State Zip
"exerts" sa Harpers Weekly Harpers Weekly, 381 West Center St., Marion. 01-6D 433C2 2024
Reason?
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