Small Change at CBS

CBS without William S. Paley? Archie Bunker should sooner be sans scowl, Kojak minus his shiny pate. True, last week the company's founder and guiding presence did say, as he promised last fall, that he would step down as chief executive officer May 11. Paley also named his successor: John David Backe, CBS's president, whom the chairman installed in October after firing Arthur R. Taylor (TIME, Oct. 25). But Paley will remain chairman and will still hold 6% of CBS's stock. He took care to tell shareholders at the annual meeting in Los Angeles, where he announced the switch, that he would keep a hand in "such areas as policy questions, acquisitions, planning and creative activities" --a pretty fair definition of a chief executive's interests. Said one CBS insider: "Paley has given up every position except emperor."

Even so, Backe (rhymes with hockey) undoubtedly will take over the day-to-day running of the company. Paley spent 50 years building up CBS from a tiny string of radio stations, knows what he wants and is not given to golfing away his last years. But he does need more time to relax and travel, especially since his wife Babe has been ill. Says a CBS executive: "Remember that Paley is 75 and can't work 18 hours day after day. He is like Zeus without the quiver full of lightning bolts. But you've still got to keep your ears open around here for boulders crashing through the fog. Paley can still throw them."

And throw them he will, if often from afar. "There will be phone calls from wherever he is," says Backe. The new chief executive, who is 44, seems a perfect choice for tandem harness with Paley. Brash Arthur Taylor had a homing instinct for the limelight; he could not be trusted to refrain from redecorating Paley's castle. But Backe is unassuming, efficient, extremely bright and content to be an inner-sanctum manager. "It isn't a matter of my letting Bill influence me," says he. "I do take his advice and we agree on most things." Backe cannot be called a CByes-man, adds one executive, "but he'd be insane if he'd start bucking Paley."

Cool and Competent. Sane Backe is. He also is cool and competent, traits going back at least to his days as a Strategic Air Command pilot in the 1950s (he still flies around on weekends in his private Cessna). After receiving his M.B.A. from Cincinnati's Xavier University, he worked for General Electric. In 1966 he joined Silver Burdett Co., the publishing arm of General Learning Corp. (then owned jointly by GE and Time Inc.); General Learning was set up to explore new teaching techniques. Two years later Backe was running Silver Burdett, then he became chief executive of General Learning. In 1973 he moved to CBS to head its publishing group; profits rese from $3.2 million that year to $24.3 million in 1976. Right after becoming president of CBS, he handled the $50 million acquisition of Fawcett Publications, making CBS one of the nation's top publishers.

"I have no plans for major developments in the way of acquisitions," says Backe. "I am more interested in internal development." There is plenty to develop. Though first-quarter profits were a record $33 million, the company has been stung by ABC's taking over the lead in prime-time TV ratings. Backe has scant experience in broadcasting --which can only accentuate Paley's continued indispensability--and is the kind of manager who lets division heads run their own shops. Trouble is, the CBS network and programming chiefs are both so green that they have never scheduled a whole new TV season.

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