The editor of Thunderbolt said one or more of three “local” subscribers to his newspaper sponsored its mailing last week to NIU students.

In a telephone interview Sunday from Marietta, Ga., Dr. Edward R. Fields said, “We mail sample copies of Thunderbolt every week to people. Someone locally has to sponsor this distribution.”

Fields said the newspaper has three subscribers in the DeKalb area whom he did not wish to identify. Of the local subscribers, “one is an older person and two are younger, of college age.” He said he was unsure whether the college-aged persons are NIU students.

“Someone has to pay for the distribution of sample copies,” Fields said. He said sponsors can have Thunderbolt mailed to three people for the price of $1.

Sponsors of sample distribution supply Fields with the names of people to whom Thunderbolt is sent, he said.

Fields said the newspaper is sent to “quite a few universities” throughout the United States and has subscribers in “every state of the union.”

He said his mailing practices are legal. “We’ve been doing this for years,” Fields said.

“The people who receive Thunderbolt can subscribe to it or throw it away. We hope they look at it with an open mind. We want them to see the other side of things,” he said.

Fields said he is a chiropractor and received his doctoral degree from Palmer College in Davenport, Iowa. He said he also attended the University of Georgia for two years.