Cowles of the Times

In the publishing world, spiraling production costs and recession-stricken advertisers have drained profits from scores of newspapers and periodicals. Riding out trouble requires original and, to the uninitiated, drastic tactics. Instance: last week Cowles Communications, the owner of 29 trade journals and magazines (among them Look), three newspapers, three radio stations and three television stations, found it necessary to sell some of its most profitable holdings to the New York Times Co. for stock worth approximately $50 million and the Times's assumption of a $15 million Cowles debt.

For at least three years, Cowles has been sinking deeper into financial troubles. Losses in 1968 were $888,000; in 1969, they were $1,883,000. Last year Cowles closed down its Long Island daily Suffolk Sun (a reportedly $5,000,000-per-year loser). Earlier this year, it sold the San Juan Star in Puerto Rico to the Scripps-Howard chain.

Since Chairman Gardner Cowles will join the Times's board of directors and the company itself will acquire a 23% interest in the Times, the influx of cash and prestige to Cowles Communications should also lessen dissidence from stockholders in his own company. A contented group of stockholders should mean a more powerful Gardner Cowles, who will be able to focus his attention on the languishing Look.

The Times should profit, too. Among its acquisitions: the third largest U.S. women's magazine (Family Circle), seven well-established professional magazines, station WREC-TV in Memphis, three daily newspapers in Florida and a textbook-publishing company. Of all the properties, only Family Circle reported a drop in profits in 1969.

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