Press: A Power Shift Within the Kingdom

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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."