ABC YA, ROONE

By Richard Zoglin

Asked a few months ago about the challenge of keeping ABC the top-ranked network in TV news, Roone Arledge reached for an example from his old days in sports. "One of my heroes was Casey Stengel," he said. "He used to rebuild while still winning pennants."

ABC News has won a lot of pennants in its day, but for the first time in many years, some rebuilding may be in order. Yet Arledge, after nearly 20 years as news-division president, may not be on the field to guide the team to a comeback. Last week ABC announced that Arledge, 65, will ascend to the newly created post of chairman of the news division. Replacing him as president--and eventual successor--is David Westin, 44, currently president of the television-network group, but a man with no news experience. (Westin will report to Arledge--who previously reported to Westin. Both jobs were described as promotions. Isn't television wonderful?)

Arledge insists the move does not mean he is yielding the reins at ABC News. "I am not stepping down," he told TIME. "I am not changing my duties at all. David Westin is joining us as a bridge to the future." But for close readers of network tea leaves, the move had more resonance than a mere juggling of titles. By giving up the job he has held since 1977, Arledge is acknowledging that retirement is in sight and that the Arledge era is nearing an end. And by laying the groundwork for his succession, ABC bosses are taking the sort of bold action needed to revitalize a news organization that seems to have passed its best days.

ABC News has hit troubles on several fronts. After eight years of ratings dominance, Peter Jennings' evening newscast, World News Tonight, has been overtaken in recent weeks by the snazzier, more cleverly packaged NBC Nightly News. Creatively too, ABC's flagship newscast seems adrift, first softening the show to combat NBC, more recently retrenching a bit and trying to reassert its hard-news credentials. Good Morning America, the No. 1-rated morning show for much of the '90s, has slipped into second place, well behind NBC's Today show. Of course the network still has the indispensable Nightline, which frequently beats both Letterman and Leno in the late-night ratings; two successful prime-time magazine shows in 20/20 and PrimeTime Live; and the most impressive array of news stars in television. But one of them, Diane Sawyer, could use a window in her contract to jump to CBS, while several others--Jennings, Barbara Walters, Sam Donaldson, Ted Koppel--are getting a little long in the tooth. "It's no secret that there's been a certain malaise at ABC News," says Brit Hume, former chief White House correspondent, who left ABC for Fox News in December. "There's an unmistakable sense of gradual decline."

Though Arledge's move upstairs was carefully couched with paeans to continuity and the sort of praise due a network-news titan, TIME has learned that the executive shift was accompanied by considerable angst. Arledge's contract includes a clause that allows his network bosses, if they wish, to move him this June into the largely ceremonial position of chairman and to appoint a new president who would not report to Arledge. But when Robert Iger, president of ABC Inc., decided he wanted to make such a change, Arledge fought it, arguing that he was still at the top of his game. By some accounts, Michael Eisner, chairman of ABC's parent Walt Disney Co., intervened on Arledge's behalf (the two worked at ABC at the same time during the 1970s). In the end, Arledge prevailed upon Iger to let him retain at least nominal power for another year, until June 1998--with Westin reporting to him.

A spokesperson for Iger denied this scenario. Eisner, in an interview with TIME, denied the reports of his involvement, calling them "totally and completely wrong." The Disney chief went on to praise Arledge and to discount any suggestion that ABC News is seriously troubled. "I wish the rest of our company were in as good shape as ABC News," said Eisner. Arledge, meanwhile, insists that no timetable has been set for his retirement. "I have a contract that goes well beyond the year 2000," he says. "Whether I'll be as active two years from now as I am now, we'll see."

Whenever he actually does step down, it will mark the end of one of the most storied and influential reigns in television news history. After virtually inventing modern TV sports coverage as the head of ABC Sports, Arledge was seen as something of an interloper when he took over ABC News in 1977. He brought a showman's flair to his new job, as well as a seemingly bottomless purse, hiring big stars like Sawyer, Chris Wallace and David Brinkley away from other networks. But he also proved to be a fierce and innovative advocate for hard news. During the Iran hostage crisis, he created Nightline, establishing a fresh beachhead for news in late night. In prime time he launched 20/20 and PrimeTime Live, each of which got off to a rocky start but was nurtured to success. He beefed up ABC's corps of producers and reporters; stabilized the skittery evening newscast and made it the highest rated on TV; and across the board made ABC the most watched and respected network for news.

With his cherubic appearance and unpretentious, rambling speaking style, Arledge never fit the classic image of a news president. He occasionally rankled network executives with his free-spending ways, and those under him sometimes complained about his "chaotic" management style. Some insiders say Arledge's focus was wandering increasingly in recent years; day-to-day operations were mostly handled by Paul Friedman, executive vice president of news, who was passed over for the top spot. Still, Arledge is widely revered by ABC News veterans, who toss around words like genius when referring to him. "He's the best news president I've ever worked for," says Tom Bettag, executive producer of Nightline, who saw plenty of them come and go at CBS before joining ABC in 1991. "When you compare him, not to perfection, but to other human beings, there's nobody better."

Arledge disputes any notion that ABC News is floundering. "The only area of ABC News that is what we would consider in trouble is Good Morning America," he says. "It clearly needs to be fixed, and we're doing that." Yet insiders say Arledge is more concerned than he lets on. Two months ago, at a regularly scheduled morning meeting in which the day's work plans are laid out, Arledge blew up when he heard that new White House correspondent John Donvan was unavailable to cover President Clinton that day because he was busy helping his family move. Arledge used it as an excuse to lecture the troops about complacency, citing as examples the established N.F.L. teams that had been beaten in the playoffs by the upstart Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars.

Westin's appointment came as a surprise to many in the news division. While both NBC and CBS have recently opted for news presidents with substantial producing experience (CBS's Andrew Heyward and NBC's Andrew Lack are both former newsmagazine producers), Westin is a lawyer who joined ABC in 1991 as general counsel. He moved up quickly, becoming head of the network's in-house production units and then president of the network, overseeing news, sports, entertainment and other operations. Yet Westin, caught between strong division chiefs and his immediate superior, Iger, found his duties constricted, and he jumped at the chance to take over news, despite the fact that it is a step down on the organization chart. "I regard it as a promotion," he says. "It's news, which I think is one of the highest callings you can have."

Those in TV news are often suspicious of outsiders, but Westin gets good initial marks from ABC staff members. He has been a vocal defender of the news division in legal matters, like the recent battle against the Food Lion supermarket chain over a PrimeTime Live hidden-camera report on allegedly unsanitary practices. "He's a really strong supporter of the division, including financially, which is where the real test is," says political analyst Jeff Greenfield. "I like him enormously," says special correspondent Cokie Roberts, who got to know Westin while he was ABC's Washington-based counsel. "He respects Washington news."

Yet some wonder whether the inexperienced Westin will have the skills to manage the news division on a day-to-day basis. (He'll have an even tougher time if executive vice president Friedman, whom Arledge reportedly opposed as his successor, decides to leave.) "I have a passion for news and a respect for what has been done here at ABC News," says Westin. "That doesn't mean I don't have things to learn. But I have Roone, who is the best teacher." He's learned one thing already: how to treat a legend.

--With reporting by Kim Masters/Los Angeles and William Tynan/New York

With reporting by KIM MASTERS/LOS ANGELES AND WILLIAM TYNAN/NEW YORK