Press: Newsweek's Outsider Bows Out

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The incident that may have soured Parker's prospects was the handling of diaries purportedly written by Adolf Hitler. Last April Newsweek and other organizations bargained unsuccessfully for U.S. publication rights from the West German photo weekly Stern. Under Parker's supervision, Newsweek then ran an all but breathless cover story, synopsizing the memoirs, which included the memorable lines "Hitler's diaries—genuine or not, it almost doesn't matter in the end." After they had been exposed as forgeries, Newsweek ran a second cover suggesting that it had played a major role in uncovering the fraud. Says one Newsweek veteran: "That episode killed Parker. There were expressions of high-echelon support, but it was poor judgment, and everyone knew it."

Broyles' era included other questionable decisions. In September 1982, an obituary for Grace Kelly remained as the cover story even after hundreds of Palestinians had been massacred by Lebanese Christians in refugee camps in an Israeli-controlled section of Beirut. Broyles' explanation: he did not know he could switch covers on a Saturday, as TIME did. Last August a provocative story on the impact of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) on the gay community was illustrated by a cover photograph of two men in an embrace.

But amid the occasional misadventures, Broyles brought a number of achievements to the magazine. Newsweek produced a special issue in February that looked at 50 years of U.S. history through the lives of five ordinary families in Springfield, Ohio, and stretched the newsmagazine concept with a 25-page special report on a killer's road to the brink of execution. Broyles successfully sought to have stories be more "rooted" in the nation's basic concerns, a concept he expressed by using the word America, in some form, 14 times on twelve covers in 1983. Broyles, says a Washington correspondent, "won support for his idea that the news grew out of long-term trends, and that Newsweek should spot and report those trends before anybody else." Smith credits Broyles with shrewd hiring, including 25% of the magazine's correspondents. He also supervised a long-heralded redesign of the magazine, which has received Graham's approval but has not yet been put into use. Because of Broyles, says Smith, "we are not in a period where Newsweek has to be radically redefined."

Smith's sudden promotion was as big a surprise to him as to anyone else: the 6-ft. 5-in. outdoorsman was on vacation near Brattleboro, Vt., and had just come home from a flying lesson when he got a telephone call from Broyles, summoning him back to New York. Smith asked, "Can I come back to Vermont after the meeting?" Replied Broyles: "I don't think you are going to want to." Next morning Graham gave Smith the good news over breakfast, and he took charge as soon as the decision was announced. Said the exuberant Smith: "Why not start at the Start?" — By William A. Henry III.

Reported by Marcia Gauger/New York and Hays Gorey/Washington