Schanberg served as the "Times" metropolitan editor (1977–1980) before he joined the editorial pages as a columnist specializing in metropolitan New York in 1981. Although he was initially considered to be a leading candidate to succeed executive editor A.M. Rosenthal after receiving his Pulitzer Prize, their relationship was soon strained by Schanberg's innovative approach to local coverage (including a proposed 1977 series on upper middle class gay professionals that was ultimately suppressed by Rosenthal) and increasingly vitriolic critiques of New York's real estate industry. In September 1985, Schanberg's column was cancelled by Rosenthal after he criticized the paper's coverage of the Westway Highway development. He refused a proposed writer-at-large post at "The New York Times Magazine" and resigned from the "Times".