The agreement will see Alcorn take on the position from August 1 with responsibility for covering key Melbourne and Victorian issues, and large national stories.
Alcorn will be supported by Oliver Milman in the Guardian Australia’s new Melbourne office, and another new recruit, Melissa Davey.
“I am delighted to appoint Gay Alcorn as Guardian Australia’s Melbourne editor, a role she will assume from August 1. As a three-time Walkley Award Winner, Gay has had an outstanding career as both a writer and an editor. She's an amazing journalist and will bring huge extra heft to our reporting, not just in Melbourne and Victoria, but also nationally.
Gay will join Oliver Milman in our new Melbourne office, and new recruit, Melissa Davey, a talented young reporter with a wealth of medical reporting as well as general news reporting under her belt," said Emily Wilson, editor of Guardian Australia.
Alcorn has been deputy editor of The Age and was editor of The Sunday Age for four years until the end of 2012, when she returned to writing. Last year, Alcorn launched and edited The Conversation’s Election FactCheck for the federal election. Alcon was also Fairfax's Washington correspondent during the 2000 Bush-Gore presidential election and the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Davey moved to Sydney in 2007 after completing a double degree in journalism and international relations at Curtin University in Perth. She previously worked at Fairfax for the Sydney Morning Herald in news and medical reporting roles and has written for a number of websites and publications including Daily Life, Australian Doctor and Crikey.
Guardian Australia has already made several high profile appointments in 2014 including Walkley award-winning cartoonist Andrew Marlton (First Dog On The Moon) in April and Dave Earley, The Courier Mail’s engagement editor, who will join Guardian Australia as a deputy audience development editor.
The news comes off the back of Guardian Australia announcing earlier this year it will open a third Australian office located in Melbourne to support the rapid expansion of its Australian operations; and the creation of 12 new roles in Sydney and Melbourne since the beginning of the year.
