Delicate Balance

Last month, Connie Chung did the seemingly unthinkable: She decided to give up the hard-earned luster of a weekly prime-time news series for the chance to become a first-time mother. Since her debut 20 years ago on a station in Washington, D.C., Chung had worked her way up through the ranks of TV journalists, from CBS Washington correspondent and L.A. anchorwoman in the 1970s to weekend anchor on NBC. Just last year she achieved her crowning success by returning to CBS with her own show, and now she was going to leave the fast track behind. ''Time is running out for me when it comes to childbearing,'' said Chung, who turned 44 on Aug. 20. ''I (have) asked CBS News, for the time being, to lighten my workload.'' Her statement came dressed up with an unusual set of supportive comments from her bosses-the implicit assumption being that skepticism would greet any woman who stepped away from a high-profile on-air job.

The struggle to make time for home life and a career is familiar to millions of women who don't have the financial and professional clout of TV journalism's working mothers. The perks of stardom can make things easier, of ! course. But like other working mothers, newscasters with children face long days and tough balancing acts — and they have a nation of viewers checking up on them.

In recent months, a number of such women have started fighting to reshape and repace their careers. Jane Pauley has departed the daily grind of Today for a promised weekly series based on this summer's Real Life specials. Maria Shriver has quit Sunday Today to spend more time with her family and create four prime-time specials. These acts of independence may signal a change in the rules for women in TV news. Here is a progress report from five of the best-known: Today's Faith Daniels, former network newswoman Linda Ellerbee, Good Morning America's Joan Lunden, Lifetime's Jane Wallace, and CBS This Morning's Paula Zahn.