New Man for the Trib

Since 1921, when Louisiana-born John Lee Denson broke into journalism at 16 on the Washington Herald, he has shown an itch to stay on the move. Along the years, Denson has drifted through assorted editorial posts on five magazines, a press wire service, a radio network and five newspapers in Chicago, Washington and New York.

In January 1953, he went to work as special writer for Newsweek, within ten months was managing editor. He rose to editor in 1956, seemed to have settled down for the first time in his career. But last week lean and peripatetic Denson, 55, moved once more. His new assignment: editor of the New York Herald Tribune. "Like coming home," said Denson, who in his 20s worked in the Tub's Washington bureau.

Denson's appointment was a surprise to Trib staffers, although his name had come up nearly two years ago, the first time Multimillionaire John Hay Whitney, then U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James's, went hunting for an editor for the paper he had just bought. He passed over several prospects to pick Robert M. White II, 45, co-publisher of the Mexico, Mo., Ledger (circ. 9,122). White, who never quite mastered the transition from Mexico to Manhattan, resigned last November.

Denson, a gentle fellow beneath an irascible exterior, goes for splash in editing. At Newsweek he was generally credited with the makeup technique that makes lavish use of arrows, circles and boxes, as well as pictures that make their point by having Xs drawn across faces (to indicate a man has lost power) and the unsettling practice of blowing up a man's features by cutting off his ears or his hairline. Said Denson: "Naturally, I regret leaving Newsweek after so many satisfying years."

On the Tribune, Editor Denson may find his love for daily journalism put to a stern test, though he doesn't say so: "There has already been too much talk about 'saving the Tribune.' The Trib has a very sound base to operate on." Still a good daily, the Trib has fallen into an unprofitable trough between the towering New York Times (circ. 644,175), which has most of the class circulation, and the tabloid Daily News (2,021,395). The Sunday Trib is even more in need of rehabilitation -- which may be one reason Whitney picked a magazine man.

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