Editors of major United States news magazines have been criticized for reducing the amount of space these magazines devote to international news. According to these editors, however, readers are wholly to blame for the reductions. After all, the editors point out, sales of magazine issues that prominently feature international news stories have declined significantly, and declining sales reflect declining reader interest. Yet even if true, this evidence does not refute the contention that editors should bear some of the blame for the reductions, unless editors are merely passive instruments responding to reader interest. And that is clearly an untenable view, since editors can often intensify reader interest in a news topic by giving it frequent coverage.