TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/081390/0813222.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 5.3 KB | 113 lines

                                                                                PRESS, Page 59

Shifting to a Post-Bradlee Post


A cautious top man emerges at the Washington paper

By NANCY TRAVER


    In every dynasty, a moment comes when the painful,
potentially disruptive question of succession must be faced.
At the Washington Post, that question has loomed for some time
over the tenure of executive editor Ben Bradlee. Bold and
aggressive, Bradlee instilled a notable sharpness and drive
into the paper after becoming executive editor in 1968. Under
him, the Post at its best bristled with scoops -- especially
during Watergate -- and was written with acerbic flair. It
achieved national prominence with searching, provocative
coverage that invigorated readers as much as it discomfited the
White House and much of official Washington. But in recent
years Bradlee, 68, has been easing off his earlier pace,
prompting speculation about his retirement and causing open
jockeying among his would-be replacements.

    Now the answer to the succession question is clear: it has
already happened. Although Bradlee retains his title,
day-to-day management of the Post has passed into the hands of
managing editor Leonard Downie Jr., 48. Bradlee confirms that
Downie is the chosen heir. His performance during six years as
managing editor has provided an answer to the inevitable
question about how Downie compares with Bradlee: the cautious
and bureaucratic Downie would not even want to match the older
editor's riverboat-gambler style. In contrast to Bradlee's
instinct for the jugular, Downie is such a stickler for
down-the-middle objectivity that he refuses to vote in any
election. Whereas Bradlee was autocratic, Downie prefers to
reach decisions by consensus. He sees his job as "setting
priorities and settling fights" rather than conceptualizing and
leading the Post toward new frontiers.

    To many inside and outside the Post, Downie's avowed attempt
to make the paper more credible and authoritative has also made
it duller and more predictable, less willing to take on the
powerful and needle the pretentious. "There was a time at the
Post when its creative talents were pushed to move forward,"
says Kathleen Hall Jamieson, dean of the Annenberg School for
Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. "That time has
passed." Concedes Bradlee: "We're less concerned with taking
risks now that we're successful and 25 years older. There's a
certain conservatism that has set in."

    Downie has won applause from his reporters for making
fairness a crusade. But he has also aroused some resentment in
the newsroom by enforcing fairness in ways that more activist
staffers consider stultifying. After he learned that some of
his reporters had joined in a pro-choice abortion rally last
year, Downie rightly reminded the staff that they had forfeited
the right to protest when they chose to work in journalism.
Earlier this year, he sent an uncharacteristically stinging
memo to his top editors charging that the Post's coverage of
the abortion issue had been lopsidedly biased against the
pro-life side.

    The shift toward a more staid Post was set in motion by
Donald Graham, who in 1979 succeeded his mother Katharine as
publisher. While Mrs. Graham took pride in Bradlee's hard-edged
approach and backed him when he drew criticism, the young
Graham is more attuned to Downie's wariness. He has turned the
Post's focus more toward local news, opening four suburban
bureaus in the past five years. Says Graham: "We want to be the
paper for everybody in this area -- people with key federal
jobs and, we hope, the people who clean their offices."

    Perhaps Bradlee's greatest innovation was the Post's Style
section, which led papers around the U.S. to drop their dowdy
women's sections and mimic the biting profiles and flashy
features by Sally Quinn, now Bradlee's wife. But the section
that was once all snap and vinegar has gone flat under Downie.
A profile of Senate majority leader George Mitchell, one of the
Democratic Party's harshest critics of President Bush, devoted
only a sparse paragraph to his romance with Janet Mullins, a
senior Bush Administration official. Laments a Post reporter:
"The old Style would have published a whole story of
speculation on what they talk about and how they keep party
secrets from each other."

    To try to breathe new life into Style, Downie is bringing
in Miami Herald Sunday magazine editor Gene Weingarten, a
self-described "shock journalist" who once enlivened a story
on the federal budget deficit by illustrating it with photos
of naked men and women. Weingarten's hiring, says Downie, is
an example of his goal of surrounding himself with visionary
editors: "I hire lots of people who are smarter than I am, and
I act as a catalyst." Still, the final question that will have
to be answered by the Downie regime is whether the Post can
flourish without a single controlling vision at the top. Says
Robert Kaiser, 47, who came in second to Downie in the race for
Bradlee's spot and will become deputy managing editor in
September: "Ben is the only editor in your time and mine who
will appear in our grandchildren's history books. Life after
Bradlee is daunting. It's hard to imagine operating without
him."