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In our "Fortune 500" review last year (min, April 21, 1997), we noted that cable companies alone among the media organizations in our spotlight had mostly minus signs in the profit-ability column. Although that remains true for this year's "500" (published in the just-released April 27 Fortune), most cablers--sparked by Microsoft {MSFT} co-founder (1975)/chairman Bill Gates' billion-dollar Comcast {CMCSA} infusion last summer--rose dramatically in the rankings. (Microsoft's other co-founder, investor Paul Allen, last week used some of his proceeds from the sale of Ticketmaster {TKTM} and Starwave to buy Marcus Cable for $2.8 billion.) In terms of profitability, 1996 frontrunner "Entertainment" (+61.9%) this year placed third, but "Publishing/Printing" transformed last year's grim -37.8% mark (#34) into a +37.7% grade (#7) in 1997 results (which, by virtue of Fortune's meshing industrial and service sectors for the fourth year running, actually tracks 1,000 companies). Apparently staff reductions, better circulation management, tougher paper price negotiations, and, especially, booming ad numbers, are having their effect. (Exhibit A for the latter is Fortune's "500" issue--its largest folio ever {514}--with 329 ad pages.) * As for one-year return on investment, "Entertainment" (+46.1%) improved markedly, rising from #30 to #9, while "Publishing/Printing" (+38.4%) held steady at #14 (but with a much higher ROI than last year's +24.6%). Meanwhile, "Telecommunications"--which includes cable--soared to tenth place in one-year ROI (up from #34).
TB "FORTUNE 500" MEDIA/ENTERTAINMENT COMPANIES# Media Fortune rank Rank Company 1997 1996 1. Gen'l. Motors (DirecTV) 1 1 2. General Electric (NBC) 5 5 3. Walt Disney Co.* 51...