Anchor

The death of newsman Peter Jennings from lung cancer could affect the future of television news programs on every network and cable station, as well as test ABC's resourcefulness and judgment as it moves toward naming his successor as the anchor on its flagship World News Tonight. Jennings, whose death on Sunday came only months after the retirement of both CBS' Dan Rather and NBC's Tom Brokaw, was the last network anchor to have been welcomed every evening into tens of millions of American homes, and whenever national emergencies arose.

Tired of the weekly commute from New York to his Phoenix home, Joe Garagiola is stepping down as co-anchor of NBC's "Today" show.The avuncular former major-leaguer, brought back to "Today" 20 months ago to try to stop the show's ratings hemorrhage, has a new assignment as of Monday: correspondent-at-large. He'll specialize in sports and human-interest stories."The travel got stale," Mr. Garagiola said yesterday of his "Today" stint. "Now I've got the best of both worlds. My frequent-flier miles will go down, but I won't spend so much time in airports.

It's offical As of yesterday, Donna Hamilton and Virg Jacques became the newest news team on WBAL-TV (Channel 11). The partnership starts tomorrow when they co-anchor the 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. weekend news. This assignment will continue until management decides when to begin the new 5 p.m. weekday news show, which is rumored to be sometime in March.Hamilton became well-known on "Evening Magazine" on WJZ-Channel 13 from 1982-1990. After that show left the air, she worked on projects for the Learning and Discovery channels, wrote a book, "Gracious Country Inns," made a documentary with the Mockingbird Co., which she owns with her husband, David Paulson; and did a stint as a Saturday talk show host on WBAL-radio with her husband.

The first major change in local television for the new year was confirmed yesterday, when WBAL-TV (Channel 11) said that Pat Minarcin will no longer be at the 11 p.m. anchor desk starting tomorrow."

Rudy Miller will return as a Baltimore television news anchor, at least temporarily, when Sally Thorner, the co-anchor at Channel 2 (WMAR) goes on maternity leave.Miller, a 10-year mainstay at Channel 11 (WBAL) until an acrimonious parting of the ways in 1989, will anchor Channel 2's weekend newscasts when the current weekend anchor, Mary Beth Marsden, replaces Thorner on weeknights, according to the station's general manager, Arnie Kleiner.Thorner is expecting her baby in about a month, and Kleiner said that she will work as long as possible but that the length of her absence has been left open.

Sally Thorner, co-anchor of the 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts on WMAR-TV (Channel 2), began maternity leave yesterday and will not return to the air until the end of June, a station spokeswoman said.To fill in for Ms. Thorner, weekend anchor Mary Beth Marsden will move to the 5 p.m. weeknight newscast and former WBAL-TV anchor Rudy Miller will become weekend anchor.Ms. Marsden will work alongside Stan Stovall on the early evening newscast until Ms. Thorner's return, said WMAR spokeswoman Maria Velleggia.

Each night at 6:30 sharp, three men deliver the news. They are competent, experienced, and authoritative -- all those things a big-time anchor must be. They are usually with us in times of great urgency, and even act as voices of reason.But they are also what nightly network anchors have always been, with very few exceptions. They are white, male and middle-aged.And so, beyond the headlines, posturing and anger of Connie Chung's ouster as co-anchor of the "CBS Evening News," there lurks a bona fide issue.

Mary Beth Marsden yesterday went from the relative obscurity of weekend newscasting to co-anchoring the most-watched show in all of Baltimore TV. WMAR (Channel 2) picked Marsden, 32, to replace the departing Sally Thorner as co-anchor of its 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts starting Dec. 1.With the 5 o'clock news period becoming so lucrative and fiercely competitive that WJZ (Channel 13) is paying Thorner $250,000 next year to keep her off the air at Channel 2, the selection of Thorner's replacement is a major play in a high-stakes game.

Fifteen years ago, the Lakes Mall in Lauderdale Lakes, Fla., was a showplace. It isn't anymore.Instead, it is a stark example of a decline in suburban enclosed malls. The decline is expected to continue far into the future.Back in the middle to late 1970s, the Lakes Mall was like popular, modern malls everywhere: One or more big "anchor" stores owned by giant department store chains, a multi-screen movie theater, a food market, a sizable pharmacy and dozens of smaller specialty shops. The place was crowded each day from the moment it opened to the moment it closed.