A Power Shift Within the Kingdom

By Richard Zoglin

Every reporter at the New York Times, newspaper wags like to say, remembers two birthdays: his own and Abe Rosenthal's. Next May 2 the Times's powerful executive editor reaches the paper's mandatory retirement age of 65, and speculation about who will succeed him at the helm of the nation's most influential newspaper has been intense. Now, more than six months before Rosenthal must step down, the long-anticipated transition is at hand. On Nov. 1, the newspaper announced in its Sunday issue, Rosenthal will be replaced by Max Frankel, 56, editor of the Times's editorial page.

After 17 years of determining "all the news that's fit to print," Rosenthal will begin writing a twice-weekly column, ending an era in which the Times reached new heights of success and prestige. Under Rosenthal, the Times won nearly two dozen Pulitzer Prizes, introduced new sections and a more contemporary look, and reversed its financial fortunes to become one of the nation's most lucrative newspapers. "The Times changed more under Abe than under any editor in its history," says Benjamin Bradlee, executive editor of the Washington Post. "It burst full-blown into the 20th century."

Frankel's selection came as no surprise to insiders. In breaking the news to his editorial-board colleagues last Friday, Frankel joked, "Let me be the last to tell you. The rumors are true." A 34-year veteran of the newspaper, Frankel is well regarded by newsmen and is close to Publisher Arthur Ochs ("Punch") Sulzberger, 60. He is described as a cautious editor unlikely to make drastic changes in the newspaper. His two chief deputies will be holdovers from the Rosenthal era: Deputy Managing Editor Arthur Gelb, 62, who is being promoted to managing editor, and Assistant Managing Editor James Greenfield, 62. Deputy Editorial Page Editor Jack Rosenthal, 51 (no relation to Abe), will replace Frankel as chief of the editorial page. His new deputy will be Leslie Gelb, 49, the Times's widely respected national-security correspondent.

Rosenthal's retirement closes a chapter in one of the most extraordinary success stories in American journalism. The son of a Belorussian-born house painter, Abraham M. Rosenthal grew up in the Bronx and attended City College of New York. He started working for the Times as a $12-a-week campus stringer in 1943 and went on to become one of the paper's most celebrated foreign correspondents. His sensitive, flavorful dispatches from India, Poland and Japan made A.M. Rosenthal a familiar byline and won him a Pulitzer Prize in 1960.

In 1963 Rosenthal returned to New York City as metropolitan editor and moved to overcome the long-standing criticism that the Times slighted local news for national and international affairs. Says Gay Talese, a former Times reporter who chronicled the newspaper in his book The Kingdom and the Power: "He brought prestige back to the New York staff."

Rosenthal climbed quickly: to assistant managing editor in 1967, the top job of managing editor in 1969 and the newly created post of executive editor in 1977. At the helm of the newspaper, he stressed good writing, brought such fiefs as the Washington bureau and the Sunday staff under his control and, in landmark cases like the 1971 publication of the Pentagon papers, became a strong crusader for the press's First Amendment rights.

Rosenthal guided the newspaper away from its stodgy image by emphasizing a broader range of lively feature reporting. Beginning in 1976, the Times introduced sections on entertainment, living, home and science. The changes attracted both advertisers and readers (current weekday circ. 1,035,426). Veteran Times Correspondent and Editor Harrison Salisbury insists that Rosenthal "did not like the four-section paper--he fought it tooth and nail. But when the die was cast, he threw himself into it with enthusiasm and inventiveness." Says Rosenthal: "We were on the way out of business. What I had to do was change the paper without changing it--before it atrophied."

For all Rosenthal's achievements, however, his autocratic management style caused increasing internal strife. Staffers describe him as an emotional, capricious and sometimes vindictive boss. When Science Reporter Richard Severo tried to sell a book based on his Times reporting to an outside publisher, he suddenly found himself handling minor stories; that, he claimed, was Rosenthal's retaliation for Severo's not selling his work to Times Books. Others charge that as Rosenthal has grown more conservative politically, he has become skittish about criticizing Establishment figures in print. When Sydney Schanberg, a 1976 Pulitzer prizewinner for his Cambodia coverage, began frequently attacking the city's power brokers in his local column, it was abruptly dropped.

"Abe feels that everybody should love him," says Salisbury. Asserts a former employee who incurred Rosenthal's wrath: "He demands absolute, complete loyalty, and when he doesn't get it, there's trouble." Yet even this reporter tempers his criticism with praise: "Abe Rosenthal is an extraordinary journalist. He asks the best questions I've ever heard."

Rosenthal says the timing of the announcement was his idea: "I was itching to get on to writing the column." Some Times veterans wonder how well Frankel, who has been removed from day-to-day news coverage for 13 years, will handle the rough-and-tumble of the Times's third-floor newsroom. Yet his journalistic credentials are impeccable (he won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of President Nixon's trip to China in 1972). Some predict that Frankel will nudge the Times away from Rosenthal's more feature-oriented approach and back toward a more traditional hard-news emphasis. "I would expect the paper to be a little more steady on the line," says Salisbury. "It would not dart and jab as much as Abe's paper has."

A patient, low-key man, Frankel (whose relations with Rosenthal are said to be cool) is expected to calm the newsroom waters. "Consensus is his middle name," says a colleague. His selection, Times watchers say, was a politic one for Publisher Sulzberger. "I think it turned on whom Punch knew best," says one Times executive, "and who would go down well with the rest of the stockholders in the family."

Some staffers fret that Frankel may have difficulty putting his stamp on the paper as long as such key Rosenthal lieutenants as Gelb and Greenfield remain in place. Both, however, face mandatory retirement in less than three years, enabling Frankel to select his own deputies from a younger cadre of Times-men. Among the candidates: Assistant Managing Editor Craig Whitney, 43; Foreign Editor Warren Hoge, 45; and Metropolitan Editor John Vinocur, 46, who is expected to become editor of the Paris-based International Herald Tribune, which is partly owned by the Times.

The younger generation's climb to the very top may not be far down the road. Within five years, Publisher Sulzberger will reach retirement age, and many assume that his son and heir apparent Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr., 35, will put his own team into place. But that may not happen immediately, and at 56, Frankel could still enjoy a longer tenure than a two-term U.S. President. Meanwhile, Times staffers will have to start memorizing a new date. Frankel's birthday is April 3. --By Richard Zoglin. Reported by Bonnie Angelo and Frederick Ungeheuer/New York

With reporting by Bonnie Angelo, Frederick Ungeheuer/New York