Financial Briefs

By VARIETY STAFF

USA Network has selected Ahern New York to handle its $ 2 million consumer account for the Sci-Fi Channel, on top of the channel's trade account won this year. The campaign, Welcome to the Edge, kicks off in July with TV, print, radio and outdoor ads.

Standard & Poor's Corp. said it assigns its BB+/BB- rating to Turner Broadcasting System Inc.'s $ 1.1 billion shelf registration of senior or senior subordinated debt and raises its ratings on about $ 1 billion subordinated debt to BB- from B+. S&P removes these ratings from CreditWatch, where they were placed April 12.

Jefferson-Pilot Communications Co., a unit of Jefferson-Pilot Corp., has signed a definitive agreement with G.E. Capital to purchase WCSC Inc., owner and operator of WCSC-TV, a CBS affiliate in Charleston, S.C. The closing is subject to various conditions, including consent from the Federal Communications Commission.

Pulitzer Publishing Co. said its revenues for May increased 2.5% to $ 32,677, 000 from May 1992. The company said May publishing advertising revenues fell 5.2 % to $ 13,086,000 from a year earlier. Publishing circulation revenues rose 2.3% to $ 6,063,000. Pulitzer said May broadcasting revenues rose 7.8% to $ 10.1 million.