Harold T. P. Hayes (? — 1989) was a main architect of the New Journalism movement and an editor of Esquire magazine, from 1963 to 1973. Hayes was promoted to editor over Clay Felker, who left Esquire and founded New York magazine.
Hayes subsequently authored three books on Africa -- The Last Place on Earth, Three Levels of Time, and The Dark Romance of Dian Fossey, the last developed from a November 1986 essay in Life magazine and later the basis for the 1988 film Gorillas in the Mist.
Hayes and Australian Robert Hughes were recruited in 1978 to anchor the new ABC News (US) newsmagazine 20/20. His only broadcast, on June 6, 1978, proved so disastrous that, less than a week later, ABC News president Roone Arledge dumped him and Hayes and replaced them with veteran TV host Hugh Downs.
He died in 1989, leaving a widow, Judy Kessler Hayes.