"I just hope that no one holds him to different standards, whether they be higher or lower," Williams said. "But he is going to need a chance to find his way."

Alter said Whitaker's work ethic will help him with his new position.

"Mark works very hard," he said. "He is a combination of tremendous intelligence with a tremendous sense of discipline."

Alter said he remembers Whitaker as a student who was as devoted to The Crimson as to his academics.

"I remember that while we were at Harvard, Mark took the class Space, Time, and Motion in the Natural Sciences Department during his freshman year," he said. "He did so well in the class that during his sophomore year, Mark was a section leader for the class."

"I thought that the class was too hard for me to take, and Mark was teaching it," Alter said.

But Whitaker said his real love at Harvard was The Crimson.

"I always thought that I would become a lawyer or an academic like my parents," he said. "But when I fell in love with journalism at The Crimson, I realized that I could do what was really fun for me as a profession."

Whitaker began working for Newsweek as an intern in 1977. When he won a Marshal Scholarship to Oxford for two years of graduate school, Whitaker reported for Newsweek in London and Paris. In 1981 he became a full-time reporter in New York City, working in the magazine's international section. He became a business editor in 1987.

Whitaker was assistant managing editor from 1991 to 1996 and became managing editor three years ago.