Jay Carney Picked as New White House Press Secretary

WASHINGTON, Jan. 27, 2011— -- President Obama has selected Jay Carney, current communications director for Vice President Biden, to succeed Robert Gibbs as White House press secretary, sources tell ABC News.

The announcement, expected to be made public later this afternoon, will also include the appointment of two new deputy chiefs of staff: current head of the White House Office of Health Reform Nancy-Ann DeParle and current White House director of Scheduling and Advance Alyssa Mastromonaco.

Other staffing changes include a role for Assistant to the President for Special Projects Stephanie Cutter as deputy to senior adviser David Plouffe, and a senior staff role for David Lane, a longtime aide to chief of staff Bill Daley, on Daley's team. Rob Nabors, currently a senior adviser to the White House chief of staff, will become director of legislative affairs.

Current legislative affairs director Phil Schiliro was planning to leave the White House, but President Obama prevailed upon hin to stick around for awhile. Schiliro agreed to serve as a special adviser, though it's unclear for how long.

DeParle will focus on policy, as did outgoing deputy chief of staff Mona Sutphen. DeParle and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius helped shepherd the president's signature health care initiative. The former Rhodes scholar held prominent positions dealing with health care in the Clinton administration, and, during the Bush years, was managing director of CCMP Capital and an adjunct professor at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

Mastromonaco's portfolio will be more political in nature, as was the focus of deputy chief of staff Jim Messina. He is heading to Chicago to manage President Obama's 2012 reelection campaign.

With Obama since joining his Senate staff in 2005 to head up scheduling and advance, Mastromonaco was political director of Obama's political action committee, "Hopefund," and served as a top adviser on his 2008 campaign. In 2004 she served as scheduler for the unsuccessful presidential campaign of Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.

Carney reported for Time Magazine from 1993 until 2008, based in places such as Moscow and working his way up to Washington bureau chief in 2008. He covered President Bush and in 2003 was awarded the Gerald R. Ford Prize for Distinguished Reporting on the presidency. He started his career at the Miami Herald. He is married to ABC News correspondent Claire Shipman.

Vice President Biden aggressively advocated for Carney to get the job and advised the president, sources say, that it was helpful to have a spokesman who has independent relationships with reporters.