Millennial moments

Through a thousand issues, a bond with readers has developed | Joel Belz

Illustration by Krieg Barrie

It took a little research—taking into account the week in 1993 when a record snowstorm forced us to cancel an entire issue and double up the next week. But a diligent count says that yes, this is the 1,000th issue of WORLD magazine.

A thousand covers, a thousand cover stories, a thousand columns like this one. But only 999 collections of letters from readers like you, because obviously, there was no "Mailbag" column in Issue No. 1.

But there have been letters ever since; you readers have made sure of that. No need to manufacture phony letters from imaginary readers just to make it look as if the magazine has a following—and yes, I've known Christian magazines that have resorted to that.