Breaking Molds

A Texan comes to Newsweek

When the senior editors of Newsweek assembled for a meeting last Wednesday morning, foreboding filled the room. For several weeks rumors had circulated that Editor Lester Bernstein would be replaced by someone outside the Newsweek fold. Bernstein strode into the room and began complaining good-naturedly about the sluggish air conditioner. Then he quipped: "Oh, my God, do I sound like Nixon before the speech, talking to the technicians?" When the nervous laughter subsided, Bernstein confirmed what much of the staff had suspected. He had been dismissed as editor and, effective Sept. 7, would be replaced by William D. Broyles Jr., 37, editor in chief of Texas Monthly and California magazine. Broyles will be the fifth top editor at Newsweek in ten years.

Bernstein, 61, became editor in 1979.

Gracious and well liked, he had a reputation for running the magazine with a cool and steady hand. His tenure was marked by a number of notable achievements, including last year's award-winning special issue, "What Vietnam Did to Us." But from the outset his appointment was thought to be transitional, and before long, staffers were complaining about excessive editorial reserve. "He was fine on the routine," says one former Newsweek editor. "For anything bigger, he had to be coaxed along."

From this perspective, a trio of Newsweek cover stories in the past three months seemed to be setting out in a different direction. An April article on poverty in the U.S., with a controversial combination of cover billings ("Reagan's America"; "And the Poor Get Poorer"), was castigated in Newsweek's own pages by Columnist Milton Friedman for giving a "most misleading impression." The following week's cover billed the "final days" of Leonid Brezhnev, and based the story on an unconfirmed report of a stroke supposedly suffered by the Soviet President. Said an upset Newsweek staffer recently: "The guy's still alive and planning to go to summit meetings, but weeks ago we buried him." Newsweek's June 7 cover called attention to a significant school of contemporary painting, realism. But the illustration, by distinguished Artist William Bailey, was a portrait of a half-naked woman, a cover selection that raised eyebrows and criticism.

Though the recent covers had nothing to do with the change of editors, they were evidence of editorial ferment. Said Katharine Graham, chairman of the parent Washington Post Co.: "I was not displeased with any of those covers." Indeed, Graham's decision to fire Bernstein was more likely motivated by the bottom line, not cover lines. Newsweek (domestic circulation 2.95 million, compared with TIME'S 4.4 million) has been losing advertising pages and advertising revenue (the latter is down 6% for the first four months of this year; TIME'S is up 2%). News-Editor Bernstein week's U.S. newsstand sales have also been dropping, compared with TIME'S.

Broyles will bring a sharply different editorial personality to Newsweek. In a memo announcing the appointment, Graham praised his "proven creativity in editorial direction ... and his innovation in editing and graphics." Graham's description may be apt. Colleagues depict Broyles as an editor with panache, drive and moxie. He is no child of the counterculture. A student-body president at Rice University and a Marine Corps combat officer in Viet Nam, he is more middle of the road in his politics than in his aggressive editing instincts. In 1972 he became editor of the fledgling Texas Monthly and helped turn it into a major success, thanks to a mix of investigative pieces (e.g., "Why Teachers Can't Teach") and colorful features ("In Search of Rural America"). When the Texas Monthly corporation purchased New West (which was later renamed California magazine) in 1980, Broyles became its editor in chief. There he converted the magazine to a monthly from a biweekly and employed large, thematic cover ideas (e.g., "Waiting for the Big One," about earthquakes) to help mold the magazine's identity to middle-class California. Now, leaving two monthly magazines for a weekly, Broyles looks forward to the challenge. Says he: "I have a great many ideas and plans." -

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