Doyle McManus to become Op-Ed columnist

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The announcement from Editorial Pages Editor Jim Newton:

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.