Hello & Goodbye

On the newsroom bulletin board at the New York Herald Tribune appeared a notice of consuming interest to all staffers. "I'm stepping out as editor," it read. "I am sure you all know that the independence of the editorial department has always been one of my principal concerns. I am deeply grateful to all of you who gave me an earnest and honorable helping hand." Thus last week Editor John Denson, 59, abruptly ended his 19-month tenure on the Tribune.

Denson's vague hint that a jurisdictional dispute prompted his resignation was confirmed by Tribune Publisher John Hay Whitney in another bulletin board advisory that went up shortly after Denson's. "The management of the paper has found it desirable to propose certain organizational changes as well as changes in the operating procedure," Whitney wrote. "These proposals were rejected by Mr. Denson, and he is no longer with the Herald Tribune."

The departure again set in motion one of the most peripatetic newsmen in the U.S. press. Since 1921, Denson has filled slots on a press wire service, five magazines (including seven years as Newsweek editor), a radio network and five dailies in three cities. At the Trib, his splashy style, unorthodox headlines and capsule summations of the news made the paper sprightlier in appearance.

Whitney did not immediately replace Denson. Instead, he changed the title of James Gilbert Bellows, 39--whom Denson brought in from the Miami News last year--from executive editor to managing editor, and placed Bellows in editorial charge. With that, staffers on a paper that has changed editorial command four times in four years devoutly hoped that the Tribune would settle down for a while.

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