The Age of Reasoner

Choosing TV news anchor men by Nielsen ratings may seem like the next worst thing to letting Agnew do it. But last week ABC in fact picked its man through a survey, and the choice made excellent journalistic sense. The network hired away CBS's Harry Reasoner to replace Co-Anchor Man Frank Reynolds.

Though deeper in correspondents and smarter in production during the last 18 months, the ABC evening news has never been able to command more than about 20% of the three-network audience. All that was missing, ABC News President Elmer Lower concluded, was what he called a "box office value" anchor man. A national survey commissioned from an audience-research firm showed that CBS's Walter Cronkite was America's favorite; No. 2 was not NBC's David Brinkley or Chet Huntley (he was still around then) or even Reynolds' fellow commentator, Howard K. Smith. It was the CBS back-up man, Reasoner.

ABC had never thought it had a chance of getting Harry until his agent called two weeks ago. Though he was Cronkite's No. 1 fill-in and was, at 47, seven years younger than Cronkite, Reasoner felt that he might have to wait for years to succeed Walter--and at that the succession was uncertain. Moreover, Reasoner was piqued at being relegated to radio for CBS's election-night coverage, and upset that CBS was offering to renew his expiring contract for another seven years without a raise above his estimated current annual $150,000. ABC offered a five-year contract, at something close to $1 million overall.

In his new job, which he takes over next month, Reasoner will be based in Manhattan, and Smith will continue in Washington. Judging from Reasoner's past form, he will be empathic, bemused and, in the nonpejorative sense of the term, Middle American. His style is a mellow mixture of an Iowa boyhood, a Stanford and University of Minnesota education, newspapering in Minneapolis, the World War II Army, a stint with the U.S.I.A., the demi-sophistication of CBS plus the vicissitudes of fathering seven children.

Even a whimsical and gentle man like Harry Reasoner does not kid himself that his tenure at ABC depends on anything but his future ratings. Frank Reynolds, who will become a "special correspondent," was ABC's ninth anchor man in eight years.

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