Schaffer, image courtesy City Paper

Former Washington City Paper staffer Michael Schaffer has been hired to return to the publication as its top editor. The news came via an announcement on City Desk this morning.

The 36-year-old D.C. native and City Paper alum, currently living in Philadelphia, was named the paper’s new editor on Monday. (Schaffer and his family will be moving back to the D.C. area as soon as he can find a place, or gets sick of riding Megabus, or whichever comes first.)

“I’m sort of over the moon right now,” Schaffer tells City Desk. “City Paper was the first job I ever had and the most fun I’ve ever had at a job. I cherish the place.”

Schaffer rejoins the City Paper at a time of rebuilding. After weathering a number of ownership changes and a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, the alt-weekly has been bleeding staff of late. Former editor Erik Wemple left in March to run Allbritton Communications’ TBD.com; managing editor Andrew Beaujon is going with Wemple to become TBD’s arts & entertainment editor; former assistant managing editor Erika Niedowski recently left to take a job with The Hill newspaper; and news broke only Monday that Loose Lips columnist Mike DeBonis has accepted a position with the Washington Post.

Apart from City Paper, Schaffer previously worked at US News & World Report and the Philadelphia Inquirer. He’s also the author of One Nation Under Dog, an exploration of America’s obsession with dog ownership. His most recent piece for City Paper was a 2009 rumination on the District’s relationship to the first family.