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Time - Man of the Year
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Time_Man_of_the_Year_Compact_Publishing_3YX-Disc-1_Compact_Publishing_1993.iso
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1992-09-10
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THE WEEK, Page 21SOCIETYMonitor Television Fades to Black
The Christian Science church, $235 million poorer, drops an
experiment
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, got out of the
cable-television business after running up $235 million in
losses over seven years. Shutdown costs -- including severance
packages for the 400 employees of Monitor Television who were
laid off -- will run another $45 million. While church officials
search for a buyer for the cable operation, the Monitor Channel
will broadcast reruns. The channel managed to attract about 4
million subscribers before its demise, a bantamweight entry in
the cable ring compared with the likes of the Discovery Channel,
which has upwards of 57 million homes.
The television fiasco has triggered deep schisms within
the Christian Science Church over the use and accountability of
church funds. Thus far, officials have borrowed $41.5 million
from the institution's pension fund to cover operating losses.
The three top officials of Monitor Television, including
chairman and chief executive officer John Hoagland Jr., have
resigned. Some influential church members are pressing Christian
Science leaders for a full accounting of church spending on the
television project. The move to television was controversial
within the church from the first. Many officials were critical
because it drained funds from the highly respected church
newspaper, the Christian Science Monitor.