Rosenthal began his career in journalism in 1961 as a reporter and editor at
The Oregonian in Portland, Oregon, and served in the U.S. Army. He then went to Washington D.C. to serve in the
U.S. Department of Justice as the assistant director of Public Information from 1961 to 1964, the Director of Public Information from 1964 to 1967, and in the
U.S. State Department as the Executive Assistant to Under Secretary
Nicholas Katzenbach from 1966 to 1967. Rosenthal was a Kennedy Fellow at the
Harvard Institute of Politics from 1967 to 1968. During his fellowship, he served as principal editor of the
Kerner Commission Report on urban riots. Rosenthal joined
The New York Times in 1969. At the
New York Times, Rosenthal was national urban affairs correspondent in the Washington bureau (1969–1973), assistant Sunday editor (1973–1976), deputy editorial page editor (1976–1986), editorial page editor (1986–1993) and editor of
The New York Times Magazine (1993–2000). In 1982, he won the
Pulitzer Prize for distinguished editorial writing on national politics and social policy. Rosenthal was the president of
The New York Times Company Foundation from 2000 to 2009. Thereafter, he was a senior fellow at
The Atlantic Philanthropies from 2010 to 2014. From 2014 to 2015, he was interim director of Roosevelt House, a public policy institute at
Hunter College. Rosenthal was the founder and chairman of ReServe, an award-winning nonprofit that connects skilled older adults with work at public and nonprofit service agencies. It has made 3,000 placements in New York, Miami, Baltimore, Boston and Newark. ==Awards==