Press: Position Filled: A new editor at U.S. NEWS

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To some Washington press watchers, the man and the magazine seemed to have little in common. Shelby Coffey III made his name at the Washington Post as editor of the paper's Style section, noted for its trenchant, sometimes biting features. U.S. News & World Report, by contrast, has been a sober, conservative weekly that prides itself on a straightforward approach to events. But to Mortimer Zuckerman, the wealthy real estate investor who bought the magazine last June for $182 million, Coffey is "an ace and a treasure-house of ideas." Last week Zuckerman named Coffey, 38, as the new editor of U.S. News, replacing Marvin Stone, 61, who is retiring after 25 years.

Zuckerman, who has reinvigorated the Atlantic Monthly since buying it in 1980, interviewed several candidates for the U.S. News job over the past few months. But he insists that Coffey was always the first name on his list. While the search went on, Zuckerman brought in Harold Evans, 56, the former editor of the London Sunday Times, as "editorial director." Evans will return full time to his post as head of Atlantic Monthly Press but will continue to advise Zuckerman on U.S. News.

Coffey joined the Post in 1968 fresh from the University of Virginia. After a four-year stint as editor of the paper's Sunday magazine, he took over the Style section in 1976. Coffey won a reputation as an imaginative editor who had a deft hand with journalists as well as copy. An intense worker who sometimes called writers late at night to discuss stories, Coffey shook most of the fluff out of Style's pages and introduced more late-breaking news. Named an assistant managing editor in charge of national news in December, Coffey was considered a contender to succeed Executive Editor Benjamin Bradlee, 63.

The new editor stressed last week that his changes at U.S. News will be "evolutionary," thus echoing Zuckerman's pledge not to alter the magazine precipitately and risk alienating longtime readers. With a circulation of 2 million, U.S. News runs a distant third behind TIME (U.S. circ. 4.4 million) and Newsweek (2.8 million). Ad pages dipped slightly last year, but revenues rose 8%, to $101 million. One sure change will be the magazine's look: Zuckerman has hired Designer Walter Bernard, who worked with Coffey on new graphics for the Post last fall, to restyle U.S. News.