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The recent launch of Total TV, a complete weekly channel guide, marks a return to the limelight for Diamandis, who headed CBS Magazines in the mid-’80s and made a handsome sum by selling the titles to Hachette in 1980.
For the past two years, Diamandis has been working behind the scenes at TVSM, the ailing publisher of the 5.5 million circulation monthly Cable Guide.
As chairman of both Total TV and Cable Guide, Diamandis plans to emphasize the former at the expense of the latter. He has managed to pull in some $70 million in funding and has lined up an equity agreement with multiple system operators that also makes each book system-specific. But he still faces an uphill climb. Total TV’s circulation of 425,000 (the goal is 5 million) is considerably below TV Guide’s 14.5 million, and its copy hasn’t got people talking.
‘There’s the opportunity for another guide if they do it quickly and do it well,’ says Roberta Garfinkle, senior vp/print director at McCann-Erickson. ‘But it’s not just a matter of listings. It has to have editorial content.’ To reach its goal, Total TV will also need an inspired effort from Diamandis, who one media pundit calls ‘one of the great salesmen of all time.’
Stay tuned.
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