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As expected, Tribune just announced that it's merging the Washington bureaus of the Los Angeles Times and its other papers and placing the bureau under Cissy Baker, vice president/news operations for Tribune Broadcasting since 2003. Longtime LAT bureau chief Doyle McManus becomes an Op-Ed columnist for the Times. Here's a cheerleading memo from Times editor Russ Stanton and the news on McManus from Jim Newton, editor of the editorial pages.
Colleagues:As you have seen, the company is making some changes to the operations of our Washington office, beginning with the naming of Cissy Baker to the new position of vice president of the Washington News Bureau of the Tribune Co.
More details will be unveiled in the coming days, but one thing that will not change is the mission of the bureau: to continue to break news and deliver unique and high quality enterprise, investigative and analytical stories to our readers -- in print, online and over the airwaves.
Most of the staffing for the new operation will come from the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune and we will continue to give our readers the top-notch journalism that they have come to expect from us.
Russ Stanton
Now the McManus memo:
From: Newton, Jim
Sent: Friday, November 07, 2008 10:44 AM
To: yyeditall
Subject: doyle mcmanus, washington columnist
Colleagues,
Doyle McManus, one of Washington’s best known and most respected journalists and a treasure of the Los Angeles Times, will soon bring his work to the Op Ed pages as The Times’ newest columnist.
Doyle’s keen analysis and graceful writing have been hallmarks of our Washington coverage for years. None of that will change with his new assignment. Now, however, he will command a regular platform from which to observe the nation’s capital, and we’ll have the great pleasure of displaying his work on our Op Ed page.
It’s hard even to begin recounting Doyle’s many accomplishments, but here’s a short version: He has been with The Times since 1978, reporting from Los Angeles, Tehran, Beirut, Central America, New York and Washington. He was our State Department correspondent and then White House correspondent before becoming Washington bureau chief in 1996. Since then, he has run one of the most acclaimed Washington bureaus in the business. He’s written three books, is a regular guest on PBS’s “Washington Week,” and he was a panelist in the Jan. 31, 2008, debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
Doyle has won so many journalism prizes that it would embarrass him and me to list them all. Suffice it to say that he’s among the most decorated people in our profession.
He’s going to take the next few weeks to hone his ideas for the column, and we’ll debut it early next year.
Finally, a personal note: It’s been my great pleasure to work with Doyle for many years, to be an occasional guest in his bureau, to enjoy his good cheer and to appreciate his superb journalistic judgment. He is one of this newspaper’s great souls, and has devoted much of his life to serving and building this institution. I’m utterly delighted that his move will write a new chapter in his work here, and am confident that our readers will be the great beneficiaries.
Please join me in congratulating Doyle.
Jim