Bylines   

On Television

Fox nabs a big hitter, naming Joseph Peyronnin , until recently the number two at CBS News , as president of its news operation. In his new position as number one, Peyronnin's mission is to develop and oversee news programming and news gathering for the Murdoch network, focusing primarily on adding news programming for Fox affiliates that currently have none. Though no nightly network newscast is in the works for the foreseeable future, Peyronnin will be trying to make Fox News a major player by expanding the network's recently launched joint venture with Reuters ... Meanwhile, Peyronnin's predecessor at Fox, Van Gordon Sauter , a former president of CBS News , moves into public broadcasting after a network career that spanned 30 years. With public broadcasting increasingly coming under fire from House Republicans, it might seem like an odd time to make the switch, but Sauter says this only makes his new job as president and general manager of KVIE in Sacramento more interesting. Sauter says he looks forward to the "unique challenges" of fundraising for his new station. And besides, he says, his new job "is in a pleasant community that is two hours from some of the better trout streams, which themselves are a justification of almost anything in life."

Opening a Window

Bill Gates' Microsoft Corp ., much to the chagrin of many journalists, gets ready to launch its own electronic news service. Though company executives vow that Microsoft News Service will not create original content, but merely repackage news feeds, many newspeople express concern about the software colossus entering the business of news distribution. A cacophony of complaints erupted on online journalism forums after the venture was leaked online recently by a Microsoft employee. Most complaints focused on conflicts of interest should the news service attempt to cover the computer industry, and many journalists presume censorship of articles critical of Microsoft would be inevitable. In spite of the controversy, several editors have already been hired for the project, which is to start up this summer.

Time Passages

Time magazine recruits three blue-chippers. Wall Street Journal White House correspondent Jeffrey Birnbaum joins the newsweekly's Washington bureau as a senior correspondent covering national politics, with an emphasis on the White House, lobbying and the presidential campaign. Also leaving the Journal to join the ranks is Erik Larson , who becomes a senior writer. Finally, Doug Frantz departs from the New York Times , where his story on USAir's safety record last November led to major changes in the airline's safety procedures. Frantz becomes a Time senior correspondent.

On the Ethics Front

Lesher Communications, owner of the Contra Costa Times and several northern California papers, issues a new ethics code in the pages of its four dailies. The policy outlines the newsgroup's positions on anonymous sources (never, unless there is a clear and prevailing reason), conflicts of interest (no covering or editing stories in which a family member or friend has a financial, political or personal interest) and gifts from outside sources (send them back immediately). Clayton Haswell , executive editor of the news group, says the policy followed a series of meetings and debates focusing on the lack of trust in the media by news-paper readers... New Bedford, Massachusetts' Standard Times scraps its four-year-old policy of publishing the pictures of accused drug dealers. The demise of the controversial "Drug Watch" feature, started by the paper's late editor, James Ragsdale , was announced by the paper's new editor, Ken Hartnett , in a front page column. "In my view," he wrote, "Drug Watch does nothing to combat the problem while getting in the way of serious coverage."

Cruisin' the Infobahn

Bruce Koon , former associate editor at the San Francisco Examiner , is named managing editor of the Mercury Center , the electronic extension of the San Jose Mercury News . Koon will direct a staff of seven journalists who will work on the Mercury Center's services on America Online and the World Wide Web, as well as on News Call , the center's audio and fax service. Koon replaces Susie Kamb , who joins ESPN as a producer in the sports network's multimedia operation... USA Today announces the launch of a subscription-only electronic news service on the World Wide Web, using software and facilities provided by CompuServe. The service will provide readers with up-to-the-minute news and game scores, along with an opportunity to interact with USA Today reporters and editors via E-mail. The fantasy baseball package costs extra... ABC News hires Mitch Davis , a producer for the news division's special events unit, as editorial producer for online services.... Omni magazine bids farewell to paper. Beginning in October, the 17-year-old science monthly will publish exclusively online, save for special quarterly print editions that will support the online content.

Around Magazines

Congressional Quarterly , celebrating its 50th anniversary, broadens its online presence with their new interactive service, CQ Forum on America Online. The Capitol Hill chronicler also names David Rapp , assistant managing editor for legislative affairs, to the new position of editor of new media... Craig Unger, former deputy editor of the New York Observer, is the new editor of Boston Magazine ... Newsprints debuts as a bimonthly compilation of stories, editorials and cartoons selected from over 100 local newspapers around the country. The magazine is a project of the nonprofit group Essential Information, an organization that sponsors investigative journalism conferences.

Around Newspapers

With fewer than 500 days left until the opening ceremonies of the 1996 games in Atlanta, the Journal and Constitution launches a weekly Olympics section.... Another one bites the dust: the Providence Journal merges with the Evening Bulletin , a paper founded to give readers updates on the Civil War. While the merger makes Providence the latest one-cycle town, the impact on readers will be relatively small: The two papers had common ownership, and the Evening Bulletin was essentially the morning Journal with a few updates. The consolidated Providence Journal-Bulletin , a morning paper, cites much-bewailed newsprint prices as one reason for the move... Update on the much-publicized departures of former Des Moines Register Editor Geneva Overholser and her number two, avid Westphal : Overholser succeeds Joann Byrd as the Washington Post 's ombudsman, while Westphal becomes deputy Washington bureau chief for the McClatchy Newspapers .

Batten Steps Down

Knight-Ridder 's chief executive, James K. Batten , announces with regret and sadness that he will step down from his post because of physical weakness from his ongoing battle with brain cancer. While the widely respected Batten will still serve as chairman, he has already selected the company's president, P. Anthony Ridder , the great grandson of the founder of the Ridder news empire, as his successor. Ridder says, "it is humbling to be following in the footsteps of Jim Batten...a primary architect of the forward-looking, customer-conscious company that Knight-Ridder is."

Cheap at Half the Price

China's 49-year-old Communist Party newspaper, the People's Daily , preserves its first 46 years on CD-ROM. The archive, which Deputy Editor Zheng Mengxiong says was not created for profit, will be contained on 92 discs, and will be available for the bargain-basement price of $19,800.