OMG OMG Tapscott's A Go OMG

The full announcement is after the jump, but perhaps most interesting is Tapscott’s own giddy reaction, as published on his blog:

• “Halleluyah! I am Headed Back to the Newsroom!!”

• “Can you tell I am excited? To be honest, I have never been so excited about a job in my entire career”

• “…if that’s not enough to make my mouth water (and believe me it is!)…”

• “I am so excited I can hardly contain myself people!!!”

A birdie in the Examiner’s Virginia office tells me that many in the newsroom hope that Tapscott does a better job than Mastio and doesn’t take the page too far rightward from the center/center-right perch it has assumed in Mastio’s absence.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Washington Examiner has appointed Mark Tapscott as Editorial Page Editor and a member of Clarity Media’s National Editorial Board.

“Washington is a three-newspaper town again for the first time in decades and I look forward to publishing an editorial page that consistently brings a steady voice of calm reason to the issues Washingtonians care most about,” Tapscott said.

Tapscott comes to the Examiner from The Heritage Foundation where in 1999 he started an innovative Computer-Assisted Research and Reporting (CARR) boot camp program that has trained more than 200 journalists in using statistical analysis to uncover news.

He has been Director of the foundation’s Center for Media and Public Policy and the foundation’s Guardabassi Fellow since 2001. He is an active member of the National Press Club and has been lauded by the National Press Foundation for his contributions to journalism education.

Tapscott has testified before Congress for strengthening the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and is a widely published advocate of greater transparency in government, protection of First Amendment freedoms and encouraging citizens journalism.

He was inducted into the National FOIA Hall of Fame March 16 during the National FOI Day Conference at the Freedom Forum in Arlington.

He is also editor of two blogs, Tapscott’s Copy Desk and Tapscott Behind the Wheel.

Before joining Heritage, Tapscott was Managing Editor of The Journal Newspapers’ Montgomery County edition where his staff won 31 awards from the Maryland-Delaware-District of Columbia Press Association for excellence in reporting between 1997 and 1999.

Tapscott’s journalism career began in 1985 at The Washington Times where he variously served as an investigative reporter, Business and National Editor and Assistant Managing Editor for Night News.

Prior to becoming a journalist, Tapscott was a Reagan administration appointee at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management and before that was press secretary for two Republican House Members and a U.S. Senator.

He will continue writing the weekly Behind the Wheel automotive reviews that have appeared under his byline since 1985. Tapscott is a resident of Sykesville, Maryland.