Into the Lists

Time Inc. 's TV-cable guide

Not so long ago, picking what shows to watch on TV was an easy flick of the dial. There were three networks and scattered independent stations to choose from. Today, especially in the nation's 31 million cable-TV households, up to dozens of alternative channels can be available. To help the viewer keep track, numerous directories have been put out by cable-system owners, specialized pay-cable channels and independent entrepreneurs. In addition, many newspapers now carry cable channels in daily listings and Sunday TV supplements, as do some regional editions of TV Guide.

Last week an ambitious new entry joined the growing field: TV-CABLE WEEK, a four-color, 96-page weekly magazine to be published by Time Inc. starting in the first quarter of 1983. Its key feature is that it will be "system specific," meaning that in each cable area where it is distributed, the magazine will list every significant program channel that the viewer can get and none that he cannot. Said Time Inc. Editor-in-Chief Henry Anatole Grunwald: "Some people have told us that they need four program guides just to tell what is on."

Preparing separate listings for each cable system means, in a sense, publishing many small magazines rather than one large one. To accomplish such an elaborate task, TV-CABLE WEEK will rely on computers. Time Inc. executives estimated that start-up and development costs could total $100 million over a four-or five-year period. That would be an unprecedented magazine investment, but, Time Inc. President J. Richard Munro explained, "TV-CABLE WEEK has the potential of becoming our largest magazine both in terms of subscribers and of revenue." Time Inc. is the country's biggest magazine publisher; its current largest publication, TIME, last year had a circulation of 5.7 million and revenues of $340.8 million

Editorially, TV-CABLE WEEK will be "as fast-closing and newsy as PEOPLE," said Managing Editor Richard Burgheim, a founding editor of PEOPLE. Wrapped around the listings will be up to 32 pages of news, profiles and features "strongly pegged to that week's programs," Burgheim added. "There may be critics or columnists, but the staff will be young, of the TV generation, less snobbish than the reflex print writer reacting to television."

The editorial section, which will be the same in all editions, will carry national ads; the listings will carry local ads. Subscriptions to the magazine (at a cost of 700 per issue) will be marketed jointly by Time Inc. and cable-system owners, with both sharing in the revenues. Because of that arrangement, and because Time Inc. is itself a major supplier of cable programs through its Home Box Office and Cinemax movie channels, some competitors raised questions of potential conflict of interest. Peter Funt, editor and publisher of On Cable, characterized the plan as "sort of like inviting the fox in to give a lesson to the chickens." Said Merrill Panitt, editorial director of TV Guide: "Our feeling is that if we became a marketing tool for cable companies, it could compromise our editorial integrity." Replied Grunwald: "TV-CABLE WEEK will maintain complete editorial independence and provide straightforward, unbiased information."

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