STRINGER NAMED HEAD OF CBS NEWS

Howard Stringer, a British-born Vietnam veteran who rose through the ranks at CBS News to become its acting president after the resignation last month of Van Gordon Sauter, was named Wednesday as the division’s permanent chief.

“I’m obviously excited and honored,” said Stringer, who got word of his appointment shortly before lunch Wednesday. “To run this happy band, have the best producers, the best correspondents--what more could you ask for?”

The appointment of Stringer, 44, was generally praised by current and former staffers at CBS News, which over the last several years has been troubled by cutbacks, low morale and dissension in its ranks.

“I think it’s terrific,” said Robert (Shad) Northshield, executive producer of “The CBS Sunday Morning News.” Northshield was among a group of CBS News executives, producers and senior correspondents, including anchorman Dan Rather, who gathered at Stringer’s office to toast him with champagne when the appointment was announced by CBS Broadcast Group President Gene F. Jankowski.

“I’ve never seen a group that happy around here in the last five years,” Northshield said, “and I think that’s the general feeling. It’s a feeling of ‘finally it’s done, and now let’s get back to work,’ ”

Retired CBS senior producer Burton R. Benjamin, who had reportedly been considered as an interim president of CBS News following the resignation of Sauter a day after the forced resignation of CBS board chairman Thomas H. Wyman, said he was “delighted” with the appointment of Stringer, who early in his career worked for Burton on the “CBS Reports” documentary unit. “It’s just great,” Benjamin said. “I think he’s a competent man and he’s the right age.”

Stringer, who reportedly enjoyed the support of Dan Rather, whose “CBS Evening News” program Stringer had produced for three years, had actively campaigned for the job, sources said. Acting CBS Chief Executive Officer Laurence A. Tisch and acting CBS Board Chairman and founder William S. Paley in recent weeks had “spent a lot of time with him,” a source said.

The timing of Stringer’s appointment surprised some industry observers. Although Stringer always had been considered a leading candidate, many at CBS had speculated that a new permanent president of CBS Inc. would be named before the permanent CBS News president was picked.

Stringer began as a CBS News researcher in 1968 after returning from Vietnam where he served as an Army military policeman. Jankowski, in a prepared statement, praised him as having “demonstrated the leadership, creative and personal skills that are critical to the continued growth and success” of CBS News.

When he was named acting president of CBS News on Sept. 11, Stringer was one of several prospective candidates for the job. And while rumors constantly circulated about other prospects, a CBS corporate source said Wednesday that “there really was no other candidate” than Stringer.

Stringer, now a naturalized U.S. citizen, began his rise at CBS News in 1973 when Benjamin assigned him to produce and direct a two-hour profile of the Rockefellers that later won an Emmy Award.

Three years later, he was named executive producer of the “CBS Reports” unit and oversaw the production of a string of generally well received documentaries, including “The People vs. Gary Gilmore” and a five-part “Defense of the United States.”

Stringer, who first came to the United States in 1965 and began his broadcasting career as a low-paid log clerk here, had risen to executive vice president of CBS News when tapped to succeed Sauter on a temporary, and then permanent, basis.

Regarded within the division as a hands-on executive and credited with the idea for last month’s high-rated documentary “48 Hours on Crack Street,” Stringer will be in charge of a unit that employs 1,200 persons worldwide.

The new CBS News president, who holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in modern history and international relations from Oxford University, has won nine Emmys and three Peabody Awards for writing, directing or producing CBS News broadcasts.

A tall, genial man who was born the son of a Welsh coal trimmer, he has been married for eight years to Dr. Jennifer A. K. Patterson, an assistant professor of dermatology at New York University Medical Center.