McManus to Head Times Washington Bureau : Journalism: Jack Nelson, leader of office for 21 years, will become chief D.C. correspondent. Other staff changes are announced.

Doyle McManus, a prize-winning Los Angeles Times reporter and best-selling author, will become chief of The Times’ Washington Bureau on Jan. 1., Editor Shelby Coffey III announced Wednesday.

McManus succeeds Jack Nelson, who has been Washington Bureau chief for nearly 21 years. Nelson will become chief Washington correspondent for The Times and will remain an executive.

McManus has covered the White House for the past year. He covered foreign policy and national security issues in Washington for 12 years and was bureau chief in Beirut for three years. He is a three-time winner of the National Press Club award for foreign policy reporting.

“Jack’s longtime tenure as Washington bureau chief for The Times and his work as a reporter and analyst at the capital have been exemplary,” said Richard T. Schlosberg III, publisher of The Times and its chief executive officer. “We are delighted he will continue with us.”

Nelson’s years as bureau chief “have been ones of extraordinary achievement,” Coffey said. “Now one of the largest news bureaus in Washington, it has risen in terms of quality and stature and earned some of journalism’s most prestigious awards.

“Doyle has an exceptional background, covering beats in the Middle East, the State Department and the White House,” Coffey said. “He has played a critical role in the D.C. bureau and will provide great leadership as bureau chief.”

Coffey also announced that Jane Bornemeier, currently a deputy news editor in the Washington Bureau, will become deputy bureau chief and that Tom McCarthy, a deputy news editor, will become news editor. Coffey said Richard T. Cooper, deputy bureau chief, will become a senior correspondent concentrating on key Washington decisions.

“Dick has been at the very heart of the Washington Bureau for the past 22 years,” Coffey said. “He and Jack have made a wonderful team. The bureau is fortunate to have them in their new roles as it has been to have had their leadership these many years.”

Nelson, 66, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1960 as a reporter at the Atlanta Constitution for a series of articles exposing irregularities in the world’s largest mental institution, at Milledgeville, Ga. He joined The Times in 1965 as its Atlanta bureau chief.

He went to the Washington Bureau in 1970 as an investigative reporter and became bureau chief in 1975. He won the Drew Pearson Award in 1975 for investigative reporting and has written several books, most recently “Terror in the Night: the Klan’s Campaign Against the Jews,” which was published two years ago.

Nelson appears frequently on “Washington Week in Review,” a Public Television program.

McManus, 42, joined The Times in 1978 as a Metro reporter. He went to Beirut the next year and moved to the New York Bureau in 1981 to cover national affairs. He joined the Washington Bureau in 1983. In addition to the National Press Club awards, he has won the Edwin M. Hood Award and five Los Angeles Times editorial awards.

He is the author or co-author of three books, including “Landslide,” a 1988 bestseller.

Cooper, 59, joined The Times in 1968 as a reporter in its Chicago Bureau covering Midwest politics. He became Chicago bureau chief in 1970 and moved to the Washington Bureau in 1973. He was appointed news editor in 1977, assistant bureau chief in 1981 and deputy bureau chief three years later.

Bornemeier, 47, started with The Times in 1990 as an assistant Metro editor. She became night editor at the Washington Bureau in 1991 and deputy news editor last year. Before coming to The Times, she worked at the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Orange County Register.

McCarthy, 44, joined The Times in 1986 as assistant news editor in Washington and was named deputy news editor in 1994. Before coming to The Times, he worked at the Daily Oklahoman and the Dallas Times Herald.