Time Out for Reasoner on ’60 Minutes’ : Television: The veteran correspondent appears less frequently in his new role as editor emeritus.

CBS News correspondent Harry Reasoner, 67, will take on a new and less-demanding role on “60 Minutes” after the end of the current television season, CBS announced Thursday.

At his request, Reasoner will become editor emeritus and contributing correspondent on “60 Minutes.” He and Mike Wallace were the original correspondents for the news magazine when it debuted in 1968.

In his new job, he will not be a regular contributor to the program but will appear as a correspondent from time to time.

“After 53 years in the workplace,” Reasoner said, “I wanted to take it a little easier . . . but I am delighted that my connection with ’60 Minutes’ will be altered and not ended.”

Don Hewitt, executive producer of the program, said:

“Everybody who comes into broadcast journalism should make even one-tenth the contribution Harry has made, not only to ’60 Minutes’ but to every facet of CBS News.

“I could say, ‘He will be missed,’ but he won’t be. He’ll be right here, looking over my shoulder and keeping us on the straight and narrow.”

Reasoner, who grew up in Dakota City, Iowa, joined CBS News in New York in 1956. In 1970, he moved to ABC News, where he co-anchored “ABC Evening News” with Howard K. Smith until 1975, when he became sole anchor.

A year later, ABC News lured Barbara Walters away from NBC and teamed her with Reasoner, making her the first woman anchor of a network evening news show. The chemistry between them was bad, on and off screen, and in 1978 Reasoner returned to CBS and “60 Minutes,” the most successful show of its kind in television.