Short Takes

> Not since 1949, when the Red Chinese ordered all American organizations to "discontinue news activity," has there been a permanent U.S. press presence in mainland China. But recent Ping Pong diplomacy and presidential summitry have brought American newsmen back for brief visits. Last week A.P. President Wes Gallagher and Board Chairman Paul Miller arrived in Peking to negotiate an exchange agreement with the Chinese news agency Hsinhua that would re-establish a regular news and photo channel between the two countries. They hope the exchange will be the first step toward opening an A.P. bureau in Peking.

> CBS is much more than meets the TV eye, more even than records, radio and the New York Yankees. Its publications division has gathered a small stable of specialty magazines for the leisure market: Field and Stream, Road and Track and Cycle World. Last week CBS announced it would start publishing in November a food-oriented quarterly called Epicure, costing $1 a copy and pitched to those in the 25-to-45 age group who earn more than $15,000 a year. Publisher Michael J. O'Neill promises that the new Epicure will "not be just another food magazine. It will showcase dining as a focal point of living, with wit and warmth." Planned circulation: 250,000.

>His hair is long, his politics hip, and he is a purposeful dropout from the University of Michigan. But Guerin Scripps Wilkinson, 19, also happens to be a great-great-grandson of Detroit News Founder James E. Scripps and owned $60,000 worth of News stock. In an obvious move to embarrass the paper, Guerin announced plans to turn over his shares to an amalgam of underground outfits for sale to blacks, poor whites, Indians and Chicanos so that underprivileged citizens could be represented at News stockholder meetings. Envisioning vociferous claques disrupting the normally decorous deliberations, the News quietly offered Guerin a handsome overbid for his 400 shares, and Guerin just as quietly accepted. Both sides profited; Guerin made money and the News kept its closely held stock out of alien hands.

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