Roone Arledge Gives Up Daily Oversight of ABC News

After a storied 21-year tenure that allowed ABC to proclaim “More Americans get their news from ABC News than any other source,” ABC News Chairman Roone Arledge will yield daily oversight of that division Monday to David Westin, who became its president in March, 1997.

Arledge is generally credited as the mastermind behind such venerable network franchises as “Monday Night Football” (introduced during his tenure running ABC Sports) and the award-winning late-night news program “Nightline.”

Yet despite such accomplishments, some have questioned whether ABC News has kept pace with the times under Arledge’s stewardship, having seen both “World News Tonight With Peter Jennings” and “Good Morning America” lose their No. 1 standing in evening and morning news, respectively, to NBC.

ABC stressed that Arledge, 66, is not retiring, a point he echoed in a telephone interview Friday. Arledge retains his title and will continue to be consulted on “all major decisions,” according to the network.

“David’s going to run it, but I’m going to be here,” Arledge said of the change.

Arledge has also been named senior vice president at ABC Inc., a corporate designation with no specific responsibilities. According to Arledge, his task will be to find new business approaches, based on a sense at ABC that “there was no one with a creative background who was sitting back and thinking of new ways to do things at the network.”

News is just one area of concern to ABC’s affiliates, who will meet with network brass next week in Orlando. ABC’s prime-time ratings have also fallen dramatically over the last two seasons, despite pledges by Michael Eisner, chairman of ABC’s parent, the Walt Disney Co., that the slide would be halted.

ABC management tried on various occasions to curtail spending at the news division, though Arledge outlasted several executives assigned to rein him in.

Cost reduction is now a top priority at ABC to offset its ratings decline, with some of the discussed cuts including the elimination of certain news programs, such as ABC’s overnight news and the Sunday edition of “Good Morning America.”

While acknowledging that such moves were being considered, Arledge said, “If we cut back, it will be in areas that are peripheral. It would not be our main news programs.”

Westin added that ABC would try to grow by pressing into new areas, including the Internet and production of news and documentary programs for cable networks such as A&E; and Lifetime--both channels in which the network owns a minority stake.

Arledge underwent surgery for prostate cancer in 1992, fueling brief--and as it turned out, ill-founded--speculation at the time that he might scale back his duties.

ABC officials have tread cautiously in terms of supplanting or diminishing Arledge’s authority, in part because of the loyalty he commands from high-powered news anchors such as Ted Koppel, Peter Jennings and Barbara Walters.

Westin, 45, a former lawyer, joined ABC as its general counsel in 1991 and was later named president of the network. Among those mentioned to join ABC News under Westin is Shelby Coffey III, the former editor of the Los Angeles Times, who left the paper in October.

ABC will air three prime-time editions of “20/20” next season, absorbing “PrimeTime Live” under that umbrella. The goal is to put a unified face on ABC’s news programming, as NBC has done successfully with “Dateline NBC,” which expands to five nights in the fall.