The Press: $600,000 Cracker Barrel

Manhattan’s Town Hall had been hunting a sponsor for its nine-year-old weekly forum, America’s Town Meeting of the Air. The New York Stock Exchange, Newsweek and Reader’s Digest were all interested. Last week the rich Digest, Town Hall’s first choice, made up its mind. Beginning Sept. 7 it will pay “Town Meeting’s” way on 170 Blue Network stations (estimated cost for 39 weeks: $600,000).

“Town Meeting” is devoted to the unrehearsed, give-&-take discussion of public affairs by assorted experts, is somewhat weighted on the conservative side. “Town Meeting,” said the Digest’s editors, will “implement the Digest’s confidence in ‘cracker-barrel’ discussion … as an essential part of the democratic process.”