The Late Afternoon of PM

The eight-year-old tabloid PM, Manhattan's youngest newspaper, was still dying last week -- but not quite dead. At the last minute Owner Marshall Field gave PM a two-week reprieve. He still hadn't found anyone to buy it (PM is losing $15,000 a week, and its circulation is falling), but there had been "a number of nibbles."

Field's asking price was high: $1,250,000, plus an assurance that the buyer had $500,000 in working capital and was "a decent fellow." Would he sell to someone who didn't share PM's Left-Field politics? Said Field: "Out of respect to the name PM,I would not sell to a known Communist." Apart from that, he added, the future owner's political convictions are "none of my business."

The week's hottest prospective purchaser: Eleanor Gimbel, one of PM's original backers, cousin-by-marriage of the department-store Gimbels, national chairman of Women for Wallace. If she bought it, there'd be some changes made: PM has al ready declared against Wallace.

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