Guardian to launch Australian online edition

Updated

British newspaper The Guardian has announced it is launching a new digital edition in Australia this year.

The newspaper, which reports a global digital readership of 39 million people, says Australia is its fourth-largest market with 1.3 million users.

Launch editor Katharine Viner says the operation aims to capitalise on the existing Australian readership.

"We already have a large number of Australian readers, who tell us they want more of our on-the-ground reporting, lively commentary and groundbreaking open journalism," Viner said in a statement announcing the venture.

"We will build a small Australian team to cover the issues that really matter to the nation and connect our Australian readers to the Guardian's global network of correspondents and commentators.

Entrepreneur and media investor Graeme Wood, who is chair of not-for-profit website The Global Mail, will be a founding investor.

Paul Chadwick, the outgoing director of editorial policies at the ABC, will become a non-executive director.

"I welcome the contribution to media diversity that the Australian operation of The Guardian will make," Chadwick said.

"The Guardian, with its long and distinguished tradition of editorial independence and valuable investigations, is a leading innovator in digital news and information.

"Its decision to commit to Australia is cause for optimism that quality journalism will continue to fulfil its democratic function in this era of rapid media change."

Guardian News and Media editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger said the Australian expansion comes as a "natural next step" for the publication, which dates back to 1821 in regional England.

"Our Australian digital edition will not only offer our unique take on Australia, a significant nation both regionally and globally, but will also serve as a base for reporting on, and engaging with, people across Asia," he said.

"It will be of real benefit to our global audience, to see how dominant questions of our time - economics, geopolitics, climate change, immigration, media, democracy and more - are being grasped in such an important part of the world."

ABC/AAP

Topics: journalism, company-news, business-economics-and-finance, information-and-communication, print-media, australia, united-kingdom

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