Fifteen years after James A. Moss set out to become president and publisher of a newspaper, he finds himself at the helm of Centre County's largest daily paper.

Moss is the new president and publisher of the Centre Daily Times, a Knight-Ridder-owned newspaper with a daily circulation of 25,412. He succeeded Chris M. Harte in December. Harte is now publisher and president of the Akron Beacon Journal in Ohio.

With his feet propped up on his desk, the 47-year-old Moss said the climb up the corporate ladder was long and treacherous, but he never diverted a step away from his ambition.

"I set my sights, and goals, and career objectives on moving in the direction of someday running a newspaper," Moss said. "That became my goal probably 15 years ago and everything I have done since then has really been with that goal and objective in mind."

Moss, a Virginia native, has an extensive background in newspaper management, but his career started by chance.

"I basically started in the newspaper business at The Washington Post," he said. "I guess I ended up, not only at The Washington Post, but in the newspaper business sort of by accident."

Moss, an American University graduate, was teaching social studies at a local high school in Washington, D.C. in 1969 when The Post, a Pulitzer Prize-winning paper, offered him a part-time job coordinating a Newspapers In Education program for junior and senior high students.

As part of the program, Moss gathered past articles from the newspaper to design classroom assignments to teach history through the media. After a year the job became full time and Moss was promoted to director of the NIE program, part of a national organization.

It was not until Moss was promoted to personnel manager in 1971 that he considered newspaper management as a career.

"I guess my interest in newspapers as a career, rather than as just a job, which in all honesty it started out being, probably was sparked by my experience in the personnel area," Moss said.

The personnel department, Moss believes, gave him an understanding of the complete newspaper business.

"Personnel, probably in any company, but certainly in the newspaper business, really does give you a birds-eye view of the entirety of the operation," Moss said. "You had to develop some sense of what those departments did."

He held the position for 11 years.

In 1981, Moss joined Knight-Ridder newspapers working for an advertising and marketing division in New York. He transferred to his most recent job at the Miami Herald in 1987.

At the Herald, Moss was a student of the executive development program, where he was educated in all aspects of the newspaper business from news writing to production.

"I found it to be a terribly fascinating business," Moss said.

After 20 years in the newspaper business, Moss is still astonished by the every day production of a paper.

"Having seen all the component parts of a newspaper, I am still a little bit in awe of a newspaper on the doorstep every morning, because I know all of the processes that have to go into getting that paper there. I still think it is a modern miracle," Moss said.

Moss believes the experience he received through the development program at the Herald will be a benefit to the employees at the CDT.

"There is no division or department of the newspaper that I don't feel at least conversant on the major functions that take place there," Moss said. "I would hope, at least, that it would make the people that I have to work with . . . a tad more comfortable with me."

"Personally, I like him a lot," CDT Vice President and Executive Editor Robert H. Ashley said. "Professionally, I respect him."

Moss has sat in his chair at the CDT for only five weeks, but new objectives have been established and projects started.

"The goals I am concentrating on at the moment are to get around the building as much as I possibly can, getting to know all the employees," Moss said. "My goal is to know every single one of them by name."

The CDT employs about 140 people.

"The second goal and objective is to start to get out-and-about in the community," he said.

Back in the office, Moss said he wants to study employee relations and problems that may exist.

"I certainly want to work to address and resolve any internal problems and issues that we might have as a company, and that certainly includes employees," Moss said.

For two years, several CDT production staff employees have been negotiating with management for a contract that includes union security. Under Harte, the company did not favor unionization.

The union representing the employees, Graphics Communications International Union, presented management with a proposal last week that included union security. That proposal was quickly rejected.

Moss has decided not to attend contract negotiations between the management and its production staff employees. He said he is reviewing the history of the two-year stalemate before he becomes involved.

He says comparing the CDT with the other papers he has worked for is extremely difficult because each paper is unique.

"Every single newspaper that I've ever seen, whether it was a Knight-Ridder or an independent newspaper, really has a personality of its own," Moss said. "I look at the Centre Daily Times within the context of the community that it serves."

Moss, the father of Bradley, 3, and Kelsey, 18 months, thinks he can make a difference at the CDT.

"We are giving this community a extremely good newspaper. Not as good as it should be, and not as good as it will be, but an extremely good newspaper," he said. "My job will be to find ways to improve on that; that is my goal and my mission."