Carl Leubsdorf, the longtime Washington bureau chief of The Dallas Morning News, will retire at the end of this year after a career as a top national affairs writer.

Mr. Leubsdorf will continue to write his column for The News, as he has since 1981. The column will be published online every week and once every two weeks in the printed newspaper.

"I've had a wonderful run, and I'll be glad that I can keep my hand in," he said.

Todd Gillman, a Washington correspondent with The News, will take over as bureau chief.

Mr. Leubsdorf, 70, a New York native, joined The Associated Press in 1960 and was its chief political writer between 1972 and 1975.

After a stint as a Washington correspondent with The Sun of Baltimore, he joined The News in 1981.

"We wanted somebody in Washington who could rebuild the bureau and make it something that was authoritative and distinguished and insightful," said Robert W. Mong Jr., editor of The News. "Carl was the perfect person to lead that charge."

Mr. Leubsdorf interviewed six presidents – Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and both George W. Bush and his father – and nine vice presidents.