Press: Should the Dial Be Turned Off?

A new magazine raises questions about nonprofit status

First copies of the Dial, a slick new monthly about television, were winning rave reviews from charter subscribers this month. Billed as a program guide to public television, the Dial also features articles by first-class writers: Wilfrid Sheed on sports, Auberon Waugh on Alec Guinness, Stanley Kauffmann on acting. But the magazine was unexpectedly panned by the House of Representatives, then by the U.S. Postal Service. Reason: the Dial— which will be sent to 650,000 PBS-TV supporters in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., as part of their $25-minimum contribution—is bursting with ads, $580,000 worth in the first issue alone.

Such an impressive debut would normally be cause for bouquets. But the Dial is not just another magazine. It is published by the Public Broadcasting Service through a new nonprofit corporation, Public Broadcasting Communications Inc. If PBS stations continue to print advertising in the Dial, the House voted, they will lose their federal funding. Explained Maryland Republican Robert Bauman as he introduced the measure: "I do not believe that the Federal Government should be in the commercial publishing business."

The House decision followed months of controversy over PBS's ambitious plans to pack high-tone ads—Tiffany & Co., Cuisinart, Merrill Lynch—into its new nonprofit publication and use any "surplus" revenues, a euphemism for profits, for public-TV programming. Last July Washingtonian (circ. 101,000) magazine Publisher Philip Merrill asked the Federal Communications Commission to stop the Dial's four sponsoring stations —WNET in New York, KCET in Los Angeles, WETA in Washington, WTTW in Chicago—from giving the magazine free on-the-air promotion. The Dial, he argued, will compete against other magazines at an unfair advantage.