DEATHS IN THE FAMILY [Newsweek, 27 November 1978]

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01314R000300290011-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 1, 2004
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: November 27, 1978
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

Approved For Release 2004/09/28 : CIA-RDP88-01314R00030
NEWSWEEK
27 November 1978
with each issue and the circulation, at
350,000, had not increased in the past
.~T year. In desperation, Hirsch,. Larsen and
associate publisher Nicholas H. Niles
weaths in the Family. considered issuing New Times as a
monthly and even changing the name,
shake-out was inevitable: with new 'ing and Cheryl Tiegs-and that's just not but in the end they decided that there
magazines being born virtually where we're at," was no alternative but to stop publishing.
every week in the past few years, they One problem was that the magazine Tearfully, Hirsch delivered the news to
simply couldn't all survive. And last never really decided where it was. With his stunned writers and editors, who had
week, when both New Times and Viva its slick graphics and somber articles had no inkling of the magazine's demise.
announced they would suspend publi- about the environment and cancer, New Only eleven months ago, New Times was
cation at the end of the year, it looked Times wavered between being a seri- acquired by the gigantic entertainment
as if it might already have begun. ous journal and a counter-culture sheet. company, MCA Inc., which paid several
The two magazines John FLCa,a--Neweweep
And sometimes it even
illi
d
ll
f
m
on
o
ars
orthepropertyandprorn- t
joined a growing list of fa- slipped into sloppy jour- ised to "accelerate the growth" of the I
talitiies. Horizon et?acerlM.P F ,.i....,
publishing as a cover story about the John the publishing business, the Los An-
cultural ma
azine wh
g
en F. Kennedy assassination geles-based MCA was also clean nter-
was bought in September r? . X i
esoea in me ubiishingex-
by the publisher of An- w f s ;~ ? perience of Hirsch, the.,.
tinuE>c Monthly Af4ar lnc_ r~ ,.. *1 r
i ri
O
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g tone a
uwaue r^. s r
continuehise loratioriof+
cv;tc moot bacon lack -4-
tine a
--- 'r"'_ sitions for lbaC
cll as.
cati on. Mariah. The tats-
laid Politicks folded last pubusn pis new magazine,
The - Runner under the
snririo nFtor nnh, i-m"Mm
~?+~??, ? +... +n a~Yjaf atlG 4 crisis. The siblin of ub.. `
for neonle in their 9_0Q WAT e4 by #,o lack g p
was
a
wViva
hlore-wentoutofbusiness last summer. uy renonouse
~.
~
agazine #or
omen
writ-
Magazines have always been a risky,
'businnesC Stark_,.> costs are high --A ten from a man's point of
mass media for audience and advertising photo sex and Luscious
photographs of nude men.
dollars, must offer their readers a unique 1
Not surprisingly, Viva ap-
perspective and have enough capital to pealed more to men-gay
blanket the market. The more special- and otherwise-than to
iaPrl rf?ltlinalin>e l,a.,o ' ?,. .,-...,...1 4,. f . - fi
enough readers and advertisers- to sur- women, and not at all. to
. magazine distributors. Su-
- -- - z,~ _ permarkets dis
interests in the '703 most of the new Hirsch (top), Larsen: reiused to -
p th
ventures have preferred to go this route An identity crisis or lay e provocative book,
and newsstands tucked it
To make,. it these. days, says: New...' the end of an, eras R I I in.with their other girlie.
Time, publisher. George A. Hirsch a" magazines
magazine moist have a built-in constitu- which wa is Ion on specu x ;Subsequently, Viva got.
ency and a generic advertising base. lation 'and short on fact dr
5r
s
d
es
e
and redirected it-
Impact: New Times had - neither A ::Two.years ago, Hirsch :self to na rec intelligent
product of the Watergate rage of investi- and Larsen attempted to working woman," but it
gative reporting, the biweekly attracted a invigorate, the magazine was never more than a -
stable of young and hungry writers
and `and b
ght
h
,
rou
Jo
n Low- half-hearted effort De-
the impact: of - some of their articles r'_bakdi from Chic as execu- John Fteara-_New3week. - .l spite- its striking fashion
reached far beyond the magazine's mod .`five editor. New, Times, began.- to run photographs- and layouts; the magazine-
est readership. It was a New Times piece li
hter
n
ti
l s
g
, more se
s
ona
tories. on sub- continued to run concupiscent covers
that reported the racial slurs that eventu- jects ranging from skateboarding. to and a collection of articles ranging from
ally forced Earl Butz to resign as -Secre- -. "Soap"-with a cover featuring a bare- salacious to kinky. Viva never did man-
tary of Agriculture. The magazine's in breasted woman popping out of a televi r age to find its market, and, as aresult, the
vestigation of Peter Reilly, a young man sion screen. It was a period of internal circulation plummeted from an original
convicteed of killing his mother, helped to chaos, and staff loyalty to Larsen's issue- press run of I million to 300,000.
overturn the verdict, and an exclusive oriented approach was waning. At one "I blame it on the prejudices of the
jailhouse interview with William and point last year, when he was away on 'bloody distributors," says Kathy Keeton,
Emily Harris turned up a key piece of, vacation, there was nearly an in-house Viva's editor and Guccione's girlfriend.
evidence used in the Patty Hearst trial. revolt against the editor
"Th
l
.
~ey a
ways thought it was aL dirty mag-
Unfortunately,~i~S Vin- f 1 Cl1 P R000~iHe?9O(QBarrt n, despite our expensive - ffi
ism outlasted tha s rep ers eop a l
r
d
. p
o ems overs a
owed its advertising campaign to reposition Viva
used to read about politics"and national editorial conflicts. A victim of increasing on the newsstands. Viva meant so much
affairs," lamented editor Jonathan Z., postal rates and declining readershin_ - to Rnh and ,.,o D. r-1; M-
__._?__ , _