Editor's Notebook

So modesty and brevity seem in order as Government Executive this month observes its 30th birthday. In January 1969, when our first issue appeared with Richard Nixon on the cover, the federal government's workforce was near its peak. It is much smaller now, at least in terms of direct employment. So one accomplishment we might celebrate is simply survival. Many other magazines have not been so lucky.

Survival implies utility. Would it be immodest to claim that we remain a valuable source of information for the 60,000 federal managers and executives who subscribe? Strong demand for subscriptions would suggest that the magazine is filling a need by keeping up with the huge change that sweeps through government. Trying to understand and report on the tides of change is one thing we've done for you lately, both in print and, on a daily basis, on the World Wide Web, at www.govexec.com.

As for the future, it is here, in this issue. We have indulged our need to celebrate the anniversary by inaugurating a new design. Say goodbye to the red box that contained our logo for the last decade, and welcome a new logo and cover design created by our art director, Maire McArdle. This, along with a new, two-page table of contents and other changes, updates our look and conveys the message that Government Executive is a serious business magazine for the people who run the huge institutions of national government. Like Business Week or Fortune in the private sector, our magazine helps managers put their experiences into a larger context, and charts a path toward more successful work. We hope we bring a little humor to the subject as well.

We begin our fourth decade of publishing with three new columnists. Paul Light of the Brookings Institution will write about life in the bureaucracy. Dick Kirschten, a longtime colleague at National Journal, will cast an ironic eye on Congress and its myriad means of making executive agencies toe the line. And our own executive editor, Tom Shoop, undertakes to explain the vagaries of the media that are now such an influence on government's work.

Our columnists will be saying some provocative things about the institutions they're covering. We would like to encourage more discussion about how government is working, and invite you, our readers, to contribute by letter or e-mail to letters@govexec.com. Debate certainly should surround this month's cover story, also by Paul Light, examining "The True Size of Government." Anyone tempted to believe that "the era of big government is over," as President Clinton declared in 1996, will be disabused of that notion by Light's research. The civil service may be shrinking, but the number of jobs attributable to federal spending and regulation total some 17 million, says Light, or roughly one in every seven jobs in the American economy.