Although AC received a variety of interesting reports from its various Correspondents around the world, limitations of space in the Premier Issue regrettably forced the Editor to sharply reduce this month's column. (The material provided by our Correspondents will be printed in future issues.) However, one report was so timely that we carved out a little space to make room for it.

    From our Correspondent Itay Chamiel in Jerusalem, Israel came an excellent detailed translation of a local newspaper article originally published in Hebrew. It was from the Business Section of the Ma'ariv Daily dated August 8, 1992, an article entitled "Atari Lost the Game".
    The article went to some length describing the decline of Atari Corporation and was especially critical of the company's penny-wise/pound-foolish style of management. It was the old familiar litany of Sunnyvale absurdities we 8-bitters have all grown accustomed to.
    As our Managing Editor perused the translated text submitted by Itay, the content of the Ma'ariv article assumed even greater familiarity. After a little library work, it became apparent that in fact the Ma'ariv piece was basically a summary of the highly critical article that appeared in the August 3, 1992 issue of Forbes business magazine, an American publication. That article was titled, "Cheap Didn't Sell", by Dyan Machan.
    Imagine poor Itay's chagrin when the Editor informed him he had spent all those hours of hard work translating an article that wasn't even original!
    Still, the very fact that a relatively obscure foreign-language newspaper would have taken the trouble to read the Forbes article, translate it, and publish it in condensed form as a news feature is significant, especially in a country where Atari's sales must be vanishingly small. It may well be that the intention of the Israeli publisher was to present the piece not so much as a business brief, but rather more of a human interest story for businessmen.
    On this side of the Atlantic, it's difficult to envision a place a like Jerusalem without making some sort of Biblical association. If there is one, perhaps it would be "How the Mighty Have Fallen".
    Atari Classics would like to add more Correspondents to its rolls. We are presently seeking representatives in the Australia/New Zealand area, Canada, Great Britain, and northern Europe. The primary requirement is that you have access to the Internet.