ABC News executive Ben Sherwood has been named the next president of Disney/ABC Television Group and co-chairman of Disney Media Networks.

Sherwood will start his new role for the Burbank entertainment and media giant in February and will replace Anne Sweeney, who is leaving to enter television production.

A former producer with ABC News and NBC News, Sherwood is also a best-selling author and digital media entrepreneur. He has been president of ABC News since December 2010.

In picking Sherwood, Disney has someone with a combination of creative experience and business acumen, Chief Executive Robert Iger said.

“He’s also focused, strategic, and competitive, as evidenced by the success of (“Good Morning America”), the Yahoo deal that delivered ABC News online dominance, and his vision behind our new cable and digital joint venture, Fusion,” Iger said in a prepared statement.

Sherwood began his journalism career in 1989 with ABC News, later worked for NBC from 1997 to 2004, and then returned to ABC as executive producer of “Good Morning America.” He has been published in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Washington Post among other publications. He also wrote the novels “The Man Who Ate the 747” and “The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud.”