The Guardian has announced that they will launch an Australian website this year. This is a bold move likely to impact Fairfax more than News given the typical Guardian reader.
Katharine Viner, deputy editor of the Guardian, will be the launch editor of the Australian operation. Paul Chadwick, the outgoing director of editorial policies at the ABC, will become a non-executive director of the Guardian’s Australian entity. Graeme Wood, the entrepreneur founder of travel website ‘wotif’ and chair of the news and features website The Global Mail, will be a founding investor.
This announcement is more pain for Fairfax when the company is in the middle of significant restructuring. It will not be the last such announcement as more news brands reach into new marketplaces chasing revenue to stretch the cost of collecting and publishing news and other content.