THIS space is usually devoted to reporting what's going on at TIME, and often specifically to the people who worked on the principal stories in the current issue of the magazine. This week we reach outside TIME itself to report on a major venture by Time Inc., in partnership with General Electric Co., in the expanding field of education.

The two companies will form a new (and yet to be named) enterprise that will create and market educational materials, systems and services geared to, and exploiting the technologies of, the age in which we live. It will be a mutually owned but independently operated entity with headquarters in Manhattan.

The new company is valued at $37.5 million. Time Inc. will have a half-interest through inclusion of the Silver Burdett Co., a wholly owned, educational-publishing subsidiary of Time Inc. G.E. will also have a half-interest through supplying $18,750,000 in working capital. Silver Burdett, an 80-year-old concern that publishes textbooks and other instructional materials for elementary and secondary schools in the U.S. and abroad, will continue its operations as part of the new enterprise.

In announcing the venture, G.E. President Fred J. Borch and Time Inc. President James A. Linen said that the new company would be able to make significant contributions to education that neither parent company could make separately.

The joint enterprise will create a wide range of instructional materials --some conventional, such as books, periodicals, and motion pictures; others new, such as video tapes, educational games, electronic learning devices, and information storage-and-retrieval units. These instructional materials and systems will be designed initially for use in schools, but ultimately will be extended to programs for colleges and universities, industrial organizations, government training programs and family education in the home. The complementary capacities of the two companies to serve education--the 42 years of editorial and publishing experience of Time Inc. and the technological and manufacturing experience of G.E., including wide experience in industrial-educational programs--will be put into play. The company is now assembling a staff with wide experience in education, communication and technology.

In their announcement, Presidents Borch and Linen said: "We believe that the explosive revolution in U.S. education calls for new relationships between the private and public sectors of society. Accordingly, the joint enterprise will work in close cooperation with educators in schools and universities, and with governmental authorities at local, state and national levels, to assure maximum coordination in the pursuit of excellence in the educational world.

"Our objective will be to help educators achieve new methods of instruction. One hope is that we can make some contribution toward helping educators and government solve the problem of the school dropout and the chronically unemployable citizens who have become lost in an environment of high job availability and widespread affluence.

"Education and training are essential keys to this country's expansion, and we hope and expect the new enterprise will assist the American educational system to meet today's urgencies and prepare for the staggering commitments and challenges of the next decade and beyond."

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