The new venture – headed up by Janine Gibson, formerly editor of guardian.co.uk – will create a hub for Guardian readers in the US, combining the innovation and energy of a start-up with ground-breaking journalism and the backing of the Guardian brand.
Gibson said: "The site will be a gradual build which will allow us to monitor audiences and grow according to behaviour and what our users want – we're starting small but thinking big. It's fantastic to know that we will have the freedom to innovate and experiment with new forms of digital journalism with the full support of the Guardian brand behind us."
Gibson added that the Guardian had pioneered open, internationalist, digital journalism – both real-time and long-form – and that she believed there was increasing demand for more among US audiences.
The new digital operation gets underway after publisher Guardian News & Media recently announced it would become a "digital-first" organisation. The Guardian has championed the "open" model of journalism which is collaborative in nature and encourages the development of global partnerships and networks. It has consistently led the way on digital innovation and is showing year-on-year traffic growth of 40 per cent. It has built a large US audience (more than 10 million unique users: Comscore August 2011) with agenda-setting journalism such as its exposure of the phone-hacking scandal, the collaboration with WikiLeaks and its minute-by-minute reporting of events in the Middle East.
Gibson said that Robert Mackey, formerly of the New York Times, will be joining the Guardian team this autumn as a reporter and blogger. She said: "We're delighted that Rob is joining guardiannews.com. He has tremendous journalistic talent and has pioneered the live-blogging experience for millions of readers over the years." Gibson added that further hiring would take place over the coming months.
Janine Gibson began her journalistic career working for the monthly TV trade magazine, Televisual, first as staff writer, then news editor and finally deputy editor. She joined the weekly trade magazine Broadcast in July 1997 as international editor and moved to the Independent as media correspondent a year later. In 1998 she joined the Guardian as media correspondent. In March 2000, she was appointed editor of the market-leading MediaGuardian and launch-edited the section's spin off website mediaguardian.co.uk which quickly established itself as the breaking news source for the media industry. In 2003 she became responsible for the Guardian's weekly G3 specialist sections. In Feb 2007 she moved back to the website as executive editor, becoming editor of guardian.co.uk in November 2008.
