Editor David Gergen Gets a New Post at U.S. News

After weeks of rumors that one was antsy and the other was angry, real estate magnate Mortimer Zuckerman abruptly announced Wednesday that senior writer Roger Rosenblatt will replace David Gergen as editor of U.S. News & World Report.

Gergen, former White House communications director, will stay on with the title of editor at large and will expand his role as a writer at the news weekly and as a commentator on public television.

The change at the nation’s third newsweekly was apparently as much Gergen’s choice as his ouster, and it came as no surprise to staff members. Rumors of a move had circulated widely after it leaked out that Gergen was talking with ABC about succeeding its executive vice president for news, David Burke, who left to become president of the news division at CBS.

After newspaper accounts of the ABC talks, Gergen met with Zuckerman to clear the air, and it was decided that Gergen would step down, one highly placed source said. Staff members also said they believe that Gergen was chafing under the intrusive style of Zuckerman, the Canadian-born real estate executive who bought U.S. News in 1984. In a meeting late Wednesday at which Gergen explained his move to the staff, the outgoing editor even seemed to cast aspersions on how much real power he had as editor by saying he was exchanging “quote authority for freedom.”

“I have been restless,” Gergen said, “and wanted to have an opportunity to find my own voice in journalism.”

Rosenblatt just came to U.S. News in May, after eight years at Time magazine. Rosenblatt is also a Fulbright scholar, the author of three books, former director of education at the National Endowment of the Humanities and a columnist and member of the editorial board of the Washington Post.

Rosenblatt, 47, also holds a Ph.D. in English and American literature from Harvard, where he taught literature and creative writing from 1968 to 1973.

Gergen, who is a commentator on the public television’s “McNeil-Lehrer News Hour” and National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered,” will now write “regular, major pieces for the magazine,” a statement said.

Staff members privately described Gergen as a popular though somewhat hands-off editor. Rosenblatt, who will move from the New York bureau to Washington for the job, is largely an “unknown quantity,” as one writer put it.

Gergen replaced as editor Shelby Coffey III, who left to become editor of the Dallas Times Herald and is now executive editor of the Los Angeles Times.