ABC News Senior White House Correspondent and former Washington City Paper writer Jake Tapper will keynote on Saturday, July 23.

Tapper was a senior writer at Washington City Paper from 1998 to 1999, where he served under then-editor David Carr and won an award from the Society of Professional Journalists — his first journalism award. Since then he has worked as a Washington correspondent for Salon.com and authored two books — Down and Dirty: The Plot to Steal the Presidency and Body Slam: The Jesse Ventura Story.

The White House Correspondents Association has twice awarded Tapper with the Merriman Smith Award for excellence in presidential coverage under deadline pressure.

"I couldn't be more excited about speaking at the AAN convention and seeing so many old friends from my years at Washington City Paper and Salon.com," said Tapper. "Now more than ever independent and fearless journalism is needed, and alternative newspapers embody those values."