Bylines   

Network News: Stephen Weis-wasser , an executive at Capital Cities/ABC, becomes executive vice president of ABC News. He'll be in charge of daily operations and budgets but has no say in editorial content, according to an ABC spokesperson. ABC News President Roone Arledge has been without an assistant since 1988, when longtime aide David Burke left to become president of CBS News. ABC News also dismisses John Armstrong , deputy Washington bureau chief, after eliminating his position in budget cutsm and names David Bohrman as executive producer of "ABC News Overnight," scheduled to debut in January...NBC begins its overnight news program, "NBC Nightside," this month. Sara James moves from anchor at Charlotte's WBTV to become anchor, with others to be named. NBC also merges its weekend and weeknight evening news programs into a single operation and names Steve Friedman as executive producer of both programs and Rod Prince as weekend senior producer. At the network's central news desk, Alex Benes takes over as director and David Verdi as his assistant. The network's special reports unit disappears during the shuffling, with special reports now handled by individual shows..Meanwhile, at CBS, former CNBC business anchor John Stehr becomes money editor of the "CBS Morning News" and "CBS This Morning"; Patrick Tague leaves as senior producer of ABC's "Good Morning America" to join "CBS This Morning"; and Susan Zirinsky moves from "CBS Evening News" senior producer to the same position for Olympic and election coverage... DonRheem , formerly a correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor 's "World Monitor" newscast on the Discovery Channel, moves up to Washington bureau chief for Monitor Television. Despite reports that the church could lose $80 million this year on its media properties, Rheem insists "a lot of that is press hype" and that Monitor TV has no money problems. Based in Boston, the cable network recently began a nightly business program anchored by Linde McCormick . "We're probably the only news organization that's hiring, not firing," Rheem says...CNN Business News in New York hires Helen Whelan as assignment manager. She was formerly bureau chief for PBS's "Nightly Business Report." CNN International names Phil Vercammen , formerly a reporter and anchor at San Francisco's KEYT, as business anchor.

Around the Dial: National Public Radio launches a two-hour afternoon show, "The Talk of the Nation," with hosts John Hockenberry in D.C. and Ira Flatow in New York... Ernie Harwell , the voice of the Detroit Tigers for 32 years, completes his final season after a controversial decision by management not to renew his contract.

On the Tube : At KSDK in St. Louis, weekend producer Chris Sheridan takes over as producer of the 10 p.m. news. He replaces Dixie Platt , who becomes night news manager. Nancy Adams of KMTV in Omaha takes Sheridan's spot, and Tony Villasana leaves WMAZ in Macon, Georgia, to become executive producer of the 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. broadcasts... Richard Saxton , formerly a commentator for Financial News Network, becomes an anchor at KWHY in Los Angeles...Time Warner's 24-hour New York cable news channel names Paul Sagan as V.P. of news and programming. He had been news director at New York's WCBS... Tom Bowman , formerly an NBC Sports producer in New York, joins Louisville's WLKY as executive producer...WLNE in Providence, Rhode Island, dismisses 22 staffers and cancels its 6 a.m. and noon weekday and 6 p.m. weekend news... William Bolster , president of Multimedia Broadcasting Co., which operates five TV and eight radio stations in the Midwest and South, resigns to pursue interests in management and ownership.

Newsprint Notes: Juan Palomo , who left The Houston Post recently in a dispute over whether he could reveal his homosexuality in his metro news column, was rehired a week later to join the editorial board and to write an op-ed column. "When I was hired, I had to go out of my way not to be seen as the paper's 'Hispanic' columnist," Palomo says. "Now I have to work not to be seen as the 'gay' columnist.".. George Edmonson becomes an M.E. at the Omaha World-Herald in Nebraska. He leaves the Atlanta Journal and Constitution , where he was assistant to the M.E., to replace the retired Bob Pearman . The paper also names Jim Bresette as its first entertainment editor and Anne Henderson , formerly at The New York Times metro desk, as city editor... Vladimir Sukhoi , one of Pravda 's U.S. correspondents, has returned to the Soviet Union after running out of money. Others may follow... Jack Miles joins the editorial board of the Los Angeles Times , where he writes editorials and two monthly columns. Sonja Bolle , his assistant as book editor, drops the 'interim' from her title... The Sun in Baltimore names Dudley Clendinen to its new position of assistant managing editor for writing. Clendinen is a former assistant M.E. at the Atlanta Journal and Constitition ...The Roanoke Times & World-News pulls the plug on its afternoon edition on November 29. Only about 30 newspapers continue to publish all day, including the San Diego Tribune and The San Diego Union , which will merge in early 1992 but publish both a.m. and p.m. editions. The afternoon Richmond [Virginia] News Leader and the rival morning Times-Dispatch also plan to merge in June into an a.m. paper...Gannett Co. completes its buyout of the Times Journal Co., a group of five daily and 10 weekly suburban D.C. papers, and names Kathy Kozdemba as editor. Formerly a Gannett news executive, she replaces Ben Cason ...

David Bailey , formerly the projects editor at the Memphis Commercial Appeal , becomes editor of the Hattiesburg American in Mississippi. A native, Bailey told his new readers, "I'm glad to be back in God's country."..Alfred A. Knopf Publishers names Washington Post book critic Jonathan Yardley as editor of the next volume of H.L. Mencken 's autobiography... Sharon Peters , a features editor at USA Today , becomes M.E. at the Lexington [Kentucky] Herald-Leader ...The Institute for Alternative Journalism names Don Hazen , former publisher of Mother Jones , as its first director... Barbara Gamarekian retires to freelance after 25 years at the Washington bureau of The New York Times . Serving under seven bureau chiefs, she covered everything from White House dinners to tear-gassed anti-war demonstrations. "Being a journalist in D.C. is the best job in the world," she says.

Magazines : Despite widespread gloom over Time Warner's decision to dismiss 105 editorial staffers at six of its magazines, the cutbacks at Time (believed to include 19 correspondents, eight writers and 12 reporters) don't have everyone gnashing their teeth. One less-than-disenchanted employee told The Washington Post : "There are a lot of people at Time who have not done an honest day's work in years and will not be missed if they're eased out.".. Newsweek names Frank Deford , former editor of the National sports daily, as contributing editor and media critic Jonathan Alter as senior editor...Deputy M.E. John Podhoretz leaves Insight , to be followed later this year by Assistant M.E. David Brock ; Senior Editor Richard Starr replaces Podhoretz. The magazine also dismisses Contributing Editor John Holmes and 14 other editorial staffers in budget cuts, leaving M.E. Kirk Oberfeld with a staff of just 30 to put out the weekly, 440,000-circulation magazine and a second, scaled-down edition for the Sunday Washington Times ... Anthea Disney takes over as editor of TV Guide . She replaces Joe Robinowitz , who moves up to V.P. of the magazine. Disney had produced Fox TV's "A Current Affair."..Oxford-educated, 28-year-old Andrew Sullivan takes over as editor of The New Republic . He had been filling in for Hendrik Hertzberg , who took leave to complete a book about the pitfalls of the U.S. Constitution but will soon return as senior editor. "Delightful as it was to read large numbers of bad manuscripts, a decade of that was enough," Hertzberg says...Cleveland-based Penton Publishing dismisses 31 staff members in the first layoffs in the trade company's 87-year history. Chairman and CEO Sal Marino offered 1,025 of the company's remaining 1,300 employees a 3 percent pay raise to "show them we love them."

On the Wires : A beleaguered UPI has now dismissed at least 85 employees, including Senior V.P. for Foreign News Michael Keats and longtime Baton Rouge Bureau Chief Roy Brightbill . The 84-year-old service also plans to sell its radio networks, has hired a contractor to handle most sports reporting and recently reassigned six top editors: Midwest Editor Robert Kieckhefer to M.E. over domestic editorial, with Washington Bureau Chief Steve Geimann as deputy; Chicago Bureau Chief Marci Kreiter to editor for the Midwestern and Plains states; Deputy Midwest Editor Tobin Beck to Southeast editor; L.A. Bureau Chief Bob Martin to West and Pacific editor; and Carolyn Click , previously Virginia editor, to Mid-Atlantic editor. UPI also moves its D.C. headquarters to suburban Virginia later this year..AP in New York names writing coach Barbara King as director of editorial training and Terry Taylor , formerly a sports editor at The New York Times , as assistant bureau chief...The Knight-Ridder/Tribune service, based in D.C., promotes Margaret Alford from news editor to assistant M.E.; Tracey Trumbull , formerly at Florida's Boca Raton News , becomes photo editor.

In Memoriam : Russell Lynes , M.E. of Harper's from 1947 until his retirement in 1967, died at age 80 of apparent heart failure. He was best known for his satirical "Highbrow, Middlebrow, Lowbrow" column and several books in which he deflated the stuffed shirts of American culture. "I'm not a critic," he once said. "The public thinks of a critic as someone who's against everything, and I'm not. I'm amused by a lot of things.".. Joe Bartelme , 61, a retired NBC News executive who at WCCO-TV in Minneapolis pioneered the news magazine format used by the networks today, died of lung cancer... Allan W.McMillan , 91, longtime Amsterdam News writer and the nation's first black syndicated columnist, died of prostate cancer. He began his reporting career in 1933 at The Chicago Defender with an interview of Al Capone.