MONEY Matters

There are many more problems connected with money than simply not having enough of it for the next rent payment. Both the affluent and the aspiring need to know not only how to make more but also how to handle what they have. Working on that hypothesis, Time Inc. this week introduces a new monthly magazine: MONEY.

The aim, as spelled out to readers in the first issue, is to "help you to gain a greater measure of control over your personal finances...and increased enjoyment of your money and possessions." Managing Editor William Rukeyser, 33, a former member of the FORTUNE board of editors, emphasizes that MONEY is "not a technical guide. It involves reportage on a subject close to everybody and not abstract. We believe that the material is not only important but inherently interesting. What we have to do is convey the fascination that we find in it." The magazine is largely staff-written, and will also use contributions from other divisions of Time Inc.

Family Finances. The first issue features a national survey on the cost of 50 leading prescription drugs, revealing manufacturers' markups and wide price variations from place to place. A story on working wives concludes that most of the additional earned family income is actually eaten up by such new expenses as child care, extra clothes, transportation and lunches out. "How the Chairman of Merrill Lynch Invests" shows that he got rich, but not by following the advice that Merrill Lynch gives its odd-lot clients.

Other articles deal with real estate syndicates, borrowing power and car insurance. Regular features include "One Family's Finances," a detailed look at how households in varying income brackets can spend their money more efficiently, and a travel article that describes with an auditor's precision trips that two can take for less than $500.

The first new Time Inc. magazine since SPORTS ILLUSTRATED appeared in 1954, MONEY will carry a comparatively high cover price of $1.50 on newsstands, in line with the current trend toward asking the reader to pay a higher share of publishing costs. It will depend less on advertising for its profitability than do such large-circulation magazines as TIME (5.6 million) and LIFE (5.5 million). Using a promotion technique new to Time Inc. magazines, MONEY is offering potential subscribers a free look at its first issue before requiring any payment. "We want to let them look without feeling the instant obligation to buy," says Publisher Peter Hanson, 33. The first issue will be sent to 350,000 people who indicated interest. The advertising rate base is 225,000.

The TIME-size monthly carries 48 pages of advertising in its 104-page first issue, and already has 50 pages in hand for the second, a performance Hanson calls "exceptionally strong." If MONEY succeeds, former TIME Managing Editor Otto Fuerbringer, who heads a new-magazine development group, is prepared to proceed with one or more other monthlies. Tentative subjects: still photography, family health, and the world of television and film.

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