Media baron Rupert Murdoch buys Harper and Row for $300 million.

Experts estimate that 43.2 million households have cable television, an increase of 2 million from the previous year.

Harcourt Brace Jovanovich successfully repels a $1.7 billion takeover bid by British publishing entrepreneur Robert Maxwell.

The baby-boomer melodrama thirty something debuts on ABC.

13 Mar.

On appeal a $2 million libel judgment against the Washington Post is overturned.

24 Sept.

The A. C. Nielsen Company introduces a new means of measuring television viewing audiences. A new system of push-button "people meters" replaces its old-fashioned television diary system.