British media magnate Robert Maxwell will seek...

British media magnate Robert Maxwell will seek more than half of Bell & Howell Co., a publisher and mail equipment manufacturer already the object of takeover attention, according to the company. Maxwell, who failed to take over U.S. publisher Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc. in May, reportedly is interested in Bell & Howell’s textbook business. The Skokie, Ill., company once manufactured movie cameras and slide projectors and now is involved in computerized database publishing, mail processing equipment, information storage and cassette dubbing for the home video rental market. Maxwell, who owns about 2.1% of Bell & Howell, told the company that his intentions were not hostile.