New Cash, New Faces

Three U.S. magazines spent some new money to buy themselves a new look:

Scientific American (est. 1845), lately a haven for publicity handouts, dressed up to become, once more, a magazine for scientific Americans. With a new editorial board, headed by Gerard Piel, former LIFE science editor, and backers who included Lessing J. Rosenwald and Bernard Baruch, Scientific American hoped to bring science into 100,000 armchairs. Inside the sleek, four-color cover of its May issue were well-illustrated articles on such topics as Vesalius, founder of modern anatomy; the Amazon River; the "dust cloud" theory of the formation of planetary systems. First press run: 100,000 copies, including 40,000 for subscribers.

United Nations World, launched by former Yank Boss Egbert White with the aid of Michael (New Republic) Straight (who later dropped out), was spending some of its $400,000 in new capital on an expanded business section (up from three pages to 16). Under ex-WPB Adviser Herbert Harris, United Nations World (circ. 85,000) will run special stories on basic industries and commodities, and more pictures in a streamlined format.

Script, once a magazine for Hollywood intellectuals, was revived 14 months ago by bouncy Robert L. Smith, carnation-sporting general manager of the Los Angeles Daily News. As a regional monthly it grew from a circulation of 913 to 53,000, but was losing $15,000 an issue, having set its contract ad rates too low. Bob Smith signed up two new angels: Moviemaker Sam Goldwyn and Manhattan's Webb & Knapp, Inc., run by William Zeckendorf (TIME, Oct. 14, 1946).

Owlish Ik Shuman, who had made his mark as a crack editor on the New Yorker and Holiday, signed on for three years as publisher. His prescription: raise the rates to contributors, get better cartoons, "try for a civilized point of view."

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