Time’s Jay Carney to Become Biden Aide

by Michael O'Brien - 12/15/08 3:31 PM ET

Time magazine Washington Bureau Chief Jay Carney has left that position, reportedly to become Vice President-elect Joe Biden’s communications director.

Carney will become an assistant to Biden in the White House, and will serve as the vice president’s communications director, Time’s own Mark Halperin reported Monday.

Spokeswomen for Biden did not immediately return an email seeking confirmation of the report.

Carney had been the magazine’s D.C. bureau head since 2005, and had been on board Air Force One with President Bush on 9/11. He is married to ABC News senior national correspondent Claire Shipman.

Time managing editor Richard Stengel wrote to notify the magazine’s staff earlier today that Carney was leaving the magazine. “He is a superb journalist, an exemplary bureau chief and he also happens to be one of the pleasantest and most decent guys in our business,” Stengel wrote in a memo posted on Fishbowl DC. “We wish him well in his new endeavors, which we will hear about shortly.”