Last week, Managing Editor Henry Grunwald announced a major departure in TIME. I am happy to share with our readers his memo to the staff.

WITH this issue, TIME takes a step that breaks a long-standing tradition. At the same time, it is only the logical outcome of a gradual and I think inevitable evolution. Henceforth, our cultural criticism, the TIME Essay, and occasionally certain other stories will be signed by their authors.

We have generally avoided bylines for one major reason: most of our stories are the result of a collaboration among many individuals, so that credit is difficult if not impossible to apportion. We have followed this method not out of any abstract devotion to what has sometimes been called group journalism, but because of TIME'S basic function, which is to organize the week's news and to interpret it in a systematic, orderly and relatively concise fashion. To carry out that function, we cannot simply print a collection of dispatches from various reporters. A TIME story is usually the work of one skilled writer who blends many contributions from correspondents, researchers and editors.

Another reason for the traditional absence of bylines in TIME has to do with responsibility. Some publications feel, legitimately enough, that they can separate themselves from what their writers or correspondents say by the byline that appears over their work. In contrast, we have always felt that TIME must be collectively responsible for everything in its pages. Our writers and correspondents are highly trained and expert. But they are backed by a system of research, editing and checking that gives their work the authority and endorsement of TIME as a whole. This basic function of TIME and this view of collective responsibility will not change, of course. That is one rea son why the majority of our stories will still be unsigned.

Within its format TIME has always insisted on variety. The days when TIME tried to sound as if it were written "by one man for one man" are long gone. For years, the names of our correspondents have appeared in our columns when we felt that this added something to the reader's appreciation of a report. The TIME Essay has often been the work of many collaborators, like other TIME stories; but recently it has become more and more the work of single individuals. Hence, several Essays have carried their writers' names. Our reviews in Theater, Cinema, Books and other cultural fields--as distinguished from the news stories that sometimes run in those sections--are invariably the work of one critic, and the names of our critics are familiar to many readers through mention in the Publisher's Letter.

Thus the more formal introduction of bylines for criticism and, usually, for the TIME Essay is a logical extension of something TIME has practiced for years. There will also be occasional signed pieces in other sections of the magazine when the writer's personal tone or presence is important, as in certain interviews or eyewitness accounts.

TIME will remain responsible for what the signed stories say and has no intention of becoming a compendium of contradictory views. In introducing bylines, we merely wish to recognize more broadly the fact that TIME contains many styles and many talented individuals. We want to give them the credit they deserve and make the readers aware of their contributions. TIME'S credibility and authority rest on the magazine as a whole; but we feel that to identify more of our contributors can only deepen our readers' already lively, personal involvement with the magazine.

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