BY M. STUART LYNN
EIC YEARS JANUARY1969–MARCH1973
THE BATTLE OF THE
COVERS
The battle of the covers. That was the beginning.
I had just taken over as Editor-in-Chief of CACM in 1969. Don Madden was then
ACM’s Executive Director. With undoubtedly some justification, he was concerned that the
covers of CACM were too drab and were not attractive to an increasingly broad base of
membership. He wanted to brighten them up.

Gerry Salton was my predecessor as EIC but had moved over to edit Journal of the ACM

(JACM). He had suggested me as his replacement (I had been editor of CACM’s then “ Scientific Applications” department). I felt it was my duty—following in Gerry’s distinguished footsteps— to protect the prerogatives of the volunteer EIC as El Supremo and that I, not Don, should be making the decisions about CACM covers. After all, CACM was primarily a prestigious research journal (with ACM news thrown in), not some fly-by-night computer magazine.

Kelly Gottlieb chaired the Editorial Board, at the time the governing body for publications. He and the Board tried to referee this mother of all publications battles. Both Don and I were adamant in our positions.

Kelly and the Editorial Board

found the right solution. They settled on the notion (later endorsed by Council) that there should be an oversight Publications Board composed of broader representation—not just editors—who would bring both the business and the editorial perspective into consideration. That was the beginning of a process that eventually transformed ACM’s publications.

As a small palliative step, we did change CACM’s covers a bit during my editorship, attempting to bring some cohesion into the look and feel. The covers were attractively (but not garishly) designed, all in black and blue colors (see the accompanying examples). They were certainly more pleasing, but surely not as much as Don would have wanted.

In spite of the introduction of some materials of broader interest such as Forum (edited by Bob