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A French sociologist once remarked that the New York Times newsroom is a symphony orchestra, while the Post's is a jazz band. That blaring, brassy, improvisational quality is most evident in the Style section, a much imitated feature that may lead with a book review one day, take a gossipy look at Embassy Row cock tail bashes the next, then weigh in with an exhaustive account of an unknown couple throwing a party to celebrate their divorce. The section, although sometimes self-indulgent and verbose, attracts much of the best prose in the Post, especially from Columnist Henry Mitchell, Feature Writer Myra MacPherson, Book Critic Jonathan Yardley and TV Critic Tom Shales. Nonetheless, the paper's culture coverage is spotty and seems driven more by the tastes of particular Post writers than by the interests of the reader.
Like the majority of the ten best papers, the Post faces the prospect over the next several years of replacing the man who guided it to its present eminence. Executive Editor Benjamin Bradlee, 62, has run the Post since 1965 and has given it much of its personality. The eventual change of command may relieve the paper of some of its combative impetuosity. With luck, it will retain its vivacity and panache.
—By William A. Henry III.
Reported by Marilyn Alva/Miami, Marcia Gauger/New York and Don Winbush/Chicago, with other bureaus