Posted: Wed., Jan. 7, 1998, 11:00pm PT

Back on the beat

Donaldson, Roberts add Alphabet duties

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NEW YORK -- ABC's "World News Tonight" will be showing more of two familiar faces starting today.

Sam Donaldson has been tapped chief White House correspondent, while Cokie Roberts has been named chief Congressional analyst, as the result of deals announced Wednesday by ABC News chairman Roone Arledge and news prexy David Westin.

Donaldson, a 30-year ABC News veteran, returns to the White House beat after leaving it following the 1988 Presidential election. He will continue as co-host, along with Roberts, of ABC's Sunday show "This Week," and as co-anchor with Diane Sawyer of "PrimeTime Live."

"We heard that the White House senior staff meeting today was almost exclusively about this subject," Roberts told Daily Variety. "They're just shivering about Sam being back on the beat."

Roberts' new position will have her contributing more Congressional reports as well as co-hosting "This Week" and filling in as a co-anchor on "Nightline."

"I think this is a commitment on the part of the network to get more of the news from Washington onto the air," said Roberts. "And I think it's also about wanting to get the people that the American public associates with ABC News back onto the flagship news show."

Roberts said she and Donaldson are not concerned about the extra workload, and that they hope to bring some of the "Sunday sensibility" to the evening news.

ABC's former White House correspondent John Donvan and former Capitol Hill correspondent John Cochran will be reassigned within the division, according to a spokesman.