Friends, Esteemed Recipients,

As you may have heard, we are taking a nine-month break to rethink dispatches. We are determined to see it flourish, as publisher Simba Gill wrote to subscribers, and we need some time to make it better.

Among the generous responses was this: "It is such a wonderful publication. I LOVE the format - the layout, size and look...and the content is so critically important - and accessible. My advice would be not to change a thing."

But another touched on the problem: "These are difficult times and your business model is as challenging as it is refreshing."

Our build-a-good-mousetrap approach is tricky in these tough times. Resources go to authoritative journalism and quality production rather than marketing. As a result, we are still a well-kept secret. (www.rethink-dispatches.com.)

Balance sheet aside, we need a wider reach to achieve our purpose: to print a journal that examines issues that really matter and to stimulate discussion among decision makers and a broad global audience.

Some, like Tim Sullivan, prefer the words: "As a writer, I read Dispatches for the great reporting contained in the essays."

Others focus on the images, as per this excerpt from McNally Jackson's Book Notes:

"Dispatches is quickly growing to be one of the favorite magazines of our staff... Part of that has to do with their excellent design sensibilities, and part to do with the sustained focus of the thing. Each issue is dedicated to a different topic... The essays are personal and strikingly written. They leave you full of facts and impassioned... But the real thing that sets dispatches apart, particularly among digest-sized political magazines, is the space given to extended exercises in photojournalism ... and what photography it is. A variety of photographers display such acumen and subtlety here, you'll barely wince at the price tag."

That is our starting point. However the news business evolves, we believe a solid core of readers want this up-close look at human events that matter against a backdrop of culture and history. We want to reach these readers.

With money scarce and people's attention fragmented, marketing is crucial. We welcome your thoughts on this and any other aspect: content, design, format, and approach.

We produced five issues as a quirky family affair kept on the rails by operations manager Amber Maitland. Gary Knight and I, weathered veterans of big media, believe in handmade craftsmanship. Simba is one of those vanishing no-fear-or-favor publishers with patience and a conscience.

Now it is time for us to grow. The world badly needs something like dispatches. Please help us get it right.

Pete Rodman, a student at Western Kentucky University, kindly writes: "I look forward to the next issue and hope more people out there realize the rare quality of your quarterly."

So do we.

Thank you for your confidence and support.

Mort