ABC Hires Former LA Times Editor

Former Los Angeles Times editor Shelby Coffey III has been named the top deputy of ABC News president David Westin.

Coffey will take on a range of editorial responsibilities, including new business and cable programming development, and ABC News' online activities, said Westin, who assumed control of the network news division Monday.

Coffey left the Times in 1997 after eight years as its editor. He is a former editor and senior vice president of the Dallas Times Herald, editor of U.S. News & World Report, and editor of the "Style" section of The Washington Post.

Everyone at ABC has been "very welcoming" to a print journalist making his first foray into television, he said.

"This is not unprecedented," he said. "Over the years, a lot of journalists have made the leap from print into broadcasting... I'm going to approach it with the proper mix of fascination and enjoyment and learning."

ABC announced Friday that Roone Arledge would hand over day-to-day operation of the news division to Westin.