Yalie Takes Over Harvard Magazine

As alumni of an unknown New Haven school descended on Cambridge yesterday in preparation to watch their football team lose to the Crimson, one of the number, strangely enough, took over Harvard's alumni magazine.

John S. Rosenberg, a 1975 graduate of Yale College, was named the 13th editor of Harvard Magazine yesterday. He will be the first non-alumnus to serve as editor of the 96-year-old bi-monthly.

Editor John T. Bethell '54, who has served as the magazine's editor for 28 years, announced his retirement late last year. A search committee, formulated early in the summer, selected Rosenberg.

Rosenberg has never been formally affiliated with the University, and said in an interview yesterday that he's never actually stayed on the campus for more than a week.

Bethell, for one, said he found it curious that the magazine chose an outsider--a Yalie, even--to succeed him.

"I think it's very interesting," Bethell said. "If you look at Harvard history over the past couple of decades, Harvard administration has tended to look outside to fill positions."

Despite Rosenberg's Bulldog pedigree, magazine staff members said they were enthusiastic about the appointment.

"I am very pleased with our choice, and I am confident that John Rosenberg will continue the splendid leadership the magazine has enjoyed for so many years," said Daniel lves, president of the magazine.

Rosenberg said he didn't see the lack of a Harvard degree as a problem.

"I have been part of a--perish the thought--similar community," Rosenberg said. "The specific traditions are different, but all the great ideals about liberal and professional education and scholarship and research are the same.

There are no sweeping changes planned for the magazine, Rosenberg said. "Without seeming like waffling, I'm not there yet and I don't know all the staff yet," he said.

In general, Rosenberg said, "the magazine covers and should cover the life of the University community--its faculty and students, its scholarship and its research."

"I think that in most cases, the magazine does a lot of that stuff," he added. "How it does that will change because I'm a different person than [Bethell]."

Specifically, Rosenberg said he wanted to bring the magazine closer to "the people."

"I'm very interested in talking to students in the community and have them tell their story in their own words," he said. "That may be a little more journalistic."

Rosenberg has been editor of Vermont Magazine since 1991. He has also worked as a corporate editorial consultant and has covered business and economic news as a freelance reporter for the New York Times.