Surprise at the Times

Aside from the topmost titles on the editorial masthead, two of the most coveted and important positions on the New York Times are Sunday editor and Washington bureau chief. The Sunday boss presides over the prestigious Book Review, Magazine and News of the

Week in Review, along with specialized sections on travel, the arts and real estate. The bureau chief in Washington supervises 39 reporters, who turn out a huge daily news file averaging 15,000 words that is read with respect in high places all over the world. Last week the Times announced two unusual appointments to those posts: Washington Bureau Chief Max Frankel will succeed Daniel Schwarz early next year when Schwarz retires as Sunday editor, and E. (for Elbert) Clifton Daniel, who now holds the largely honorific title of associate editor, will replace Frankel.

Trade gossip had it that Times Managing Editor A.M. Rosenthal wanted the Sunday spot for his close friend Arthur Gelb, now metropolitan editor. But top management has in recent years preferred some separation between the daily and Sunday operations, and Rosenthal quickly hailed Frankel, 42, as "the best man for the job." An enterprising, thoughtful reporter who served as a foreign and White House correspondent before taking over the Washington bureau in 1968, Frankel was clearly marked for higher things. But the appointment of a political specialist to the primarily cultural Sunday job occasioned mild surprise.

Good Grace. The real eye opener, however, was the selection of Daniel, the suave, courtly son-in-law of Harry Truman. Daniel turned 60 last week; the newspaper of record omitted his age both in its press release and its published story. Toward the end of his five-year tenure as managing editor, in 1968-69, Daniel chafed at having to operate in close proximity to James Reston, the Times superstar who outranked him at the time as executive editor. Sidetracked to speechmaking and a variety of special projects, Daniel took his transfer with typical good grace and has lately spent much of his time moderating a 30-minute news-analysis program for WQXR, the Times-owned radio station in New York.

Daniel once served with distinction as foreign correspondent for the Times in Europe and the Middle East, but has had limited experience in Washington. He will bring a headquarters viewpoint to a bureau that has traditionally been autonomous and has sometimes operated with more independence than New York liked. But bureau reaction seemed favorable to Daniel's appointment. Gay Talese, the former Times reporter who chronicled the paper's turbulent executive infighting in The Kingdom and the Power, thought the choice a good one. "Daniel understands reporting," said Talese. "He has the experience, the diplomatic background. When things weren't going well, he took his lumps like a gentleman. He's a Times man."

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