After fighting long and hard against the strong groundswell of the publishing business, Scribner's Magazine last May crashed on a reef and foundered. But too old and honored was Scribner's to be abandoned utterly. First, Publisher Dave Smart of Esquire went salvaging on the spot where it had disappeared (TIME, Sept. 4), dredged up its 80,000 circulation at a reputed cost of $11,000. Then Publisher Charles Shipman Payson of The Commentator set out to salvage Scribner's itself.
Last week the old hulk was raised from its grave, renamed Scribner's Commentator, and put to sea again. It kept the Scribner's format virtually unchanged. Editor and general manager of Scribner's Commentator is Francis Rufus Bellamy, onetime executive editor of The New Yorker.