Diamandis may resurface at TVSM

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Dec 1, 1991

The long-anticipated return of Peter Diamandis to magazine publishing will find him trying to take on TV Guide with a cable system-specific weekly, according to several reports. He is expected to be named CEO of a restructured TVSM Inc., which publishes The Cable GM and TV Time. The plan, bank-rolled by, among others, a consortium of cable operators and Chase Manhattan Bank, is to merge TV Time with a guide currently put out by Cablevision Systems, one of the proposed investors.

Since he left the business in September 1990 after a dispute with his bosses at Hachette, Diamandis has been consulting-without pay so as not to violate a non-compete severance agreement-with TVSM. Diamandis is working on behalf of Chase, which holds a major share of TVSM's $60 million debt. Chase hopes that the flamboyant Diamandis can pull off another miracle. The cable operators are trying to put some distance between themselves and Rupert Murdoch's TV Guide. Murdoch also owns Fox television, a major program provider.