Watergate Editor Will Fill Herald Post

Harry M. Rosenfeld, the former Washington Post assistant managing editor who supervised the paper’s Watergate coverage, was named interim editor Wednesday of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner.

Rosenfeld, 55, said he will serve in the post only until the Herald Examiner completes an internal study about its future direction and selects a permanent editor. The process is expected to take three to four months, said John McCabe, the Herald’s general manager. Rosenfeld said he is not a candidate for the position permanently.

Rosenfeld replaces Mary Anne Dolan, who is resigning effective today. Dolan will remain a consultant and weekly columnist for the 237,424-circulation paper.

Rosenfeld will also continue to serve as editor of the morning Times Union and the evening Knickerbocker News in Albany, N.Y. Like the Herald Examiner, the two Albany papers are owned by the Hearst Corp.

Rosenfeld was assistant managing editor for metropolitan news for the Washington Post from 1974 to 1976, during which time he had day-to-day charge of the paper’s Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of Watergate. He also was depicted in the book and film of that period, “All the President’s Men.”

Rosenfeld joined the Hearst papers in Albany as editor in 1978. Before Watergate, Rosenfeld served as foreign editor and metropolitan editor of the Post. Before that, he was foreign editor of the defunct New York Herald Tribune and managing editor of the Herald Tribune News Service.