From the Managing Editor

By Henry Muller

Producing TIME is a little like running a marathon every week. For instance: it's blazing a clear trail through the ethical questions surrounding Patricia Bowman's decision to reveal her identity as William Kennedy Smith's accuser. And it's searching through the cheers and tears of audiences for the next movie hit of this holiday season. It's a physically exhausting but exhilarating race to keep on top of the news and issues that animate the world around us, and to get the results to press on time.

So we're lucky to have someone like Oliver Knowlton, TIME's editorial operations director, to keep the pace. An avid runner (he logs 70 miles a week and has competed in 12 marathons; best time: 2:30:16), Oliver is the keeper of THE SCHEDULE -- a color-coded flow chart that tells our editors, writers, art directors and designers when their individual tasks should be complete each week. But the world of journalism has a funny habit of not cooperating with | anybody's flow charts. As a result, for the past 15 months -- through Desert Storm and the Soviet coup -- it's been Oliver's responsibility to ensure that no matter what, the magazine gets to the printers on time.

It's the kind of work that requires this father of two to be part policeman, part troubleshooter, part juggler and very much a diplomat. "I walk a beat," Oliver explains, "talking to editors, checking in with the art department, seeing where the snags are in the week's flow." If a late-breaking story requires us to work on some pages later than usual, he makes certain that others are finished ahead of time so the magazine closes on schedule.

Oliver has shown that rare ability to stick to a schedule in his own life as well. After graduating from Kenyon College with an English major in 1980, he started working for a Pennsylvania company that printed many different magazines, including TIME. He proceeded to work his way up the paper trail from printer to engraver to plant operations manager, finally joining the editorial ranks in 1990. That kind of perseverance, plus the good-humored but relentless way he hounds us toward our deadlines each week, is one reason we somehow win the news marathon 52 times a year.