Mark Preston and Paul Steinhauser have been upped at CNN. The announcement from Sam Feist, CNN senior vice president and Washington bureau chief is below.

CNN Note: As we move in to 2012, I am pleased to announce new positions for two of our key leaders of CNN Politics.

MARK PRESTON becomes CNN Political Director. In this role, Mark will be CNN’s primary contact with political campaigns at both the state and national level. His work is integral to organizing critical CNN events such as presidential debates and forums. He will help set editorial direction for CNN’s programs during the election season, including primary and election nights. Mark is also one of the great political reporters in Washington and we will continue to lean on Mark’s reporting and analysis both on TV and online throughout the coming campaign. Mark will report to Eric Sherling.

PAUL STEINHAUSER becomes CNN Political Editor and supervising producer of the CNN Political Unit. He will be responsible for overseeing CNN’s political newsgathering operations. As the leader of the political beat, Paul will be responsible for assigning and managing CNN’s political coverage team including correspondents, producers, desk editors, polling, research, and the CNN Political Ticker. Paul’s proven leadership and keen political analysis will be invaluable as CNN heads into this historic election year. Paul and the Political Unit will report to Edith Chapin.

CNN has promoted Mark Preston to Senior Political Editor.

"Mark's sources in the political world are extraordinary and have led Mark to break story after story after story for CNN," said Sam Feist, CNN Political Director and Vice President of the network's Washington programming.

"In addition to helping guide our coverage during the 2008 campaign, Mark's strong political relationships were essential to CNN landing and producing more presidential primary debates/forums than any other network, which were a key factor in CNN's winning the Peabody award for our coverage of the 2008 Presidential primaries and debates," added Feist.

Preston had been CNN's Political Editor since 2005.