The Guardian is to launch a digital edition in Australia, backed by internet entrepreneur and philanthropist Graeme Wood.

Katharine Viner, the Guardian's deputy editor, will be relocating to Sydney to head up and launch the venture later this year, which follows publisher Guardian News & Media's move to establish a US digital operation in 2011.

Paul Chadwick, the outgoing director of editorial policy at Australian public service broadcaster ABC, will become a non-executive director of Guardian Australia.

"This is such an exciting time to be launching the Guardian in Australia," said Viner. "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 is to staff the fledgling operation with a small number of short-term secondments from GNM in London, with the majority of people working on the Guardian Australia website, both in editorial and technology, to be hired locally. The precise number of staff GNM plans to hire for Guardian Australia was not revealed.

"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," said Viner.

Wood, the multi-millionaire who made his fortune founding travel accommodation service Wotif.com, is the founding investor in Guardian Australia, but will not hold shares or be a member of the board. The scale of his investment in Guardian Australia, which will launch in the coming months, was not revealed.

"I'm delighted to support the Guardian's expansion in Australia," said Wood, who is reportedly worth almost A$350m (£230m). "It will add quality and diversity to our media as well as fostering a closer interaction between Australians and the rest of the world."

Unlike his involvement with non-profit, public interest digital news venture Global Mail – which he chairs and has pledged to back with A$15m to A$20m over five years – Wood is understood to have invested in Guardian Australia with a view to generating a commercial return from launch.

In addition to Wood, the Guardian will seek to make further commercial partnerships to build its Australian operation, although partners will not have a say in editorial matters.

In 2010, Wood made reportedly the largest ever single political donation in Australian history, giving the Green party A$1.6m to enable them to mount a prime-time TV advertising campaign.

Alan Rusbridger, the editor-in-chief of GNM, said that the Australian launch is a "natural next step" for the Guardian.

The Guardian's global digital audience passed 70 million unique browsers in November – 45 million of those outside the UK – according to the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations figures.

"As a global media organisation with a history of growth and ambition, this is a natural next step for Guardian journalism," Rusbridger said. "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."

Rusbridger added: "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".

GNM also publishes MediaGuardian.

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