06-26-86 Agenda & Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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6 tatsurekdoatiNgest June 16, 1986 Wm Morrow publishing house, and Hearst Publishing stocks have become a favor- Books. The company has spent $1 billion ite of Wall Street for several reasons: in the past seven years adding and de- revenues are rising faster than costs, veloping a dozen properties. Last yr, and proposed tax revisions on rates to the company purchased a Boston tv sta- cut the 461 corporate rate to 33% helps tion and now owns 6; it is the second- this industry in which many companies largest owner of network-affiliates are at the maximum level. Gains could (after Westinghouse Broadcasting)_ . run between 20%-25%, according to First * * * * * * * Boston Corp. analyst Kevin Gruneich. On Wall Street, the industry group has in- creased in value 31.6% on Standard & MEDIA AND PUBLISHING Poor's index. * * * * * * * Two big deals last month saw Gannett More than 12,000 stores nationwide have Co. , the largest newspaper group in the stopped selling Playboy; publishers say country, pay $300 million for Louisvil- 1 the stores were coerced by a letter le's Time Company and Courier-Journal; from the Justice Department, and a ma- the Times Mirror Company (L.A. Times) jor First Amendment battle is shaping bought Baltimore's Sun and Evening Sun up. The American Library Assn. , the just as Hearst folded the city's News American Booksellers Assn. , the Maga- American. The Baltimore purchase was zine Publishers Assn. and groups repre- put at $450 million, a record. The Gan- senting distributors have joined Play- nett purchase was about 22 times the boy in its suit against the department 1985 cash flow; the Times Mirror paid and its pornography commission. That about 16 times cash flow. The industry commission's report on its year-long group's price-earnings ratio has been study is to be released next month; about 17 for the past year. drafts now are circulating. The letter * * * * * * * * was sent Feb. 11 by the commission to The Christian Science Monitor Syndicate 23 companies--including 7-11's South- announced late last month that it would land Corp. , People's Drug, Dart Drug, buy an independent tv station in Bosto and other chains. (for $7.5 million) and begin a nightly newscast. The Monitor expanded into Other magazines--such as American Pho- radio 10 years ago with several shows, tographer, Texas Monthly, and Cosmopol- and last year began a monthly TV news itan--also have been taken off news show which goes weekly next month in 60 stands, as the so-called "censorship" cities Intl Thomson Organization movement snowballs. The suit is in paid more than $200 million last month federal court in Washington, D.C. for Cordura Corp. , an L.A. publisher of * * * * * * * * auto-repair manuals. The company moved f The manufacturing clause of the U.S. corporate offices from London to N.Y. copyright law seems to protect foreign last year; U.S. publishing profits of publishing efforts more than U.S. If the publishing/oil/travel concern may hit $90 million this year. an American work is published abroad, , the copyright protection ends. The clause comes up for renewal July 1, and the Senate has a proposal to make the Books on tape sales grew 100% last yr legislation permanent. Adopted almost over 1984; it's still relatively small 100 years ago (1891) , the copyright law as a market, in part because audio con- was modernized 10 years ago to permit tracts have not been part of standard 1 imports of U.S. copyright works. publication rights of publishers. At 9 the American Booksellers convention in * * * * * * * * New Orleans over Memorial Day, a newly Circulation is moving up at The New formed Audio Publishing Assn. held its Yorker since its purchase a year ago first meeting. by the Newhouse publishing company, but There are an estimated 300 million aud- ad pages continue to slump. So far this io cassette players in the U.S. , inclu- year, they are down 16% from 1984--tho that was a good year for magazines gen- ding car tape decks and "Walkmans." A erally, it was not good for TNY. The rare audio cassette will sell 35,000 magazine had not done a major circula- units--Iacocca, however, sold 50,000 i� i tion promotional for 15 years until '85 a few months. * when a direct mail/TV/print ad campaign * * * * * * * picked up 50,000 new subs. The median age was lower than the magazine's 43.4 years of average previous subscriber.