From the Publisher

By Robert L. Miller

Journalism has tended to redefine itself in time of war. Radio covered World War II with unprecedented immediacy; television did the same in Vietnam a generation later. Now, in a less dramatic but still significant way, computer technology is getting into the act, and I'm proud to say that TIME is heavily involved. This week we, together with our corporate cousins at Warner New Media in Los Angeles, are releasing a history of the Persian Gulf war that combines text, images and audio accounts of the conflict -- on a tiny 5-in. disc.

The technology is called CD-ROM, for compact-disc read-only memory, and the disc can be "played," with the help of an attachment costing $400 to $900, on most personal computers. The TIME newsdisc, titled Desert Storm -- The War in the Persian Gulf, will include TIME stories and charts, scores of unpublished photographs, sound recorded from radio and TV, and files from our correspondents in the field. Users can call up different pieces of information at the click of a mouse. Says executive editor Dick Duncan: "It gives the reader-viewer a first raw cut of history."

Duncan and Warner New Media president Stan Cornyn initially conceived of putting the war on CD-ROM on Jan. 17, and within 24 hours Warner producer Linda Rich was in New York, collecting material and introducing our staff to the world of multimedia digital publishing. Working with TIME director of development David McGowan and researcher Nina Barrengos, she drew up a plan for the disc, began conversion of files and war photos to computer format and even tapped deputy chief of correspondents Barrett Seaman's telephone line to the gulf. In one conversation between Seaman and correspondent Scott MacLeod, the reporter explains that he hopes to drive into bomb-ravaged Baghdad -- where CNN's Peter Arnett has promised him the use of his telephone line. But in exchange for phone privileges, Arnett wants 25 gal. of gasoline. The two men calmly discuss the wisdom of carrying a carload of explosive fuel into the heart of a virtual fire storm. "It certainly gives you a sense of the danger involved," says McGowan.

The disc is available in computer stores for $39.99.