A survey of our new subscribers has just been completed and I would like to tell you about our freshman class.

Almost three out of four of these new TIME subscribers (73 per cent) are married. Exactly the same percentage have college training. Their median age is 34 years and their average family income is $7,270 a year. Four out of five are gainfully employed. (Housewives make up more than half of those not gainfully employed. The rest are students, retired, etc.) Of the employed, 68 per cent are in business, the rest in professions, government and armed forces. Of those who are in business, 19 per cent are owners, partners and top executives, 21 per cent are department heads, superintendents, etc., 18 per cent salesmen and 14 per cent engineers, technicians and other professionals.

Before becoming subscribers, 95 per cent of these newcomers had been TIME readers. Almost half of them had bought their copies at newsstands. The rest had read other copies delivered to their homes or borrowed them from libraries, offices and friends. Five out of eight had received letters from TIME inviting them to be subscribers.

A similar study was made two years ago. At that time there were a lot of G.I. students in our readership and the new subscriber then was three years younger, received $743 less as average family income. ( Only 63 per cent were married, but 79 per cent were college-trained, compared with 73 per cent for both figures now.

These figures, of course, apply to a relatively small fraction of TIME subscribers.

The latest we have on the great majority of our readers (the old TIMErs) is from a 1950 survey by Dun & Bradstreet, not strictly comparable because it asked about the head of the family, who is not always the family subscriber.

The median age was 41 years (still younger than the 44-year median for all family heads in the U.S.). Average income was $9,535 and 40 per cent were in the $5,000 to $10,000 bracket, the same figure as in our survey of new subscribers.

TIME subscribers, old and new, all seem to have a big stake in their communities.

Cordially yours.

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