News

Daniel Sankey defects from The New Daily to be News.com.au editor

Screen Shot 2014-02-04 at 9.35.53 AMNews Corp Australia has poached the editor of news website The New Daily Daniel Sankey to be the new editor of News.com.au, Mumbrella can reveal.

The defection is a major blow for the new The New Daily which only launched three months ago in a move funded by the superannuation industry. 

Sankey is also a former online editor of The Age. He replaces Luke McIlveen who left News.com.au in December to run the Mail Online.

As Mumbrella revealed yesterday, News.com.au’s flagship news website has been faced with a series of defections with afternoon editor Chris Paine and reporters Candace Sutton and Sarah Michael departing recently to go to Mail Online.

The New Daily editorial director Bruce Guthrie confirmed the departure of Sankey and said he wished him well. “While we are disappointed to lose Daniel from The New Daily, his appointment speaks volumes about the strength of the site’s launch,”  he said. “We wish Daniel well.”

Sankey will remain at The New Daily until the end up February. No replacement for Sankey has yet been made.

“It’s a great job with a great team,” said Guthrie. “We don’t expect any shortage of strong candidates.”

The New Daily statement on Sankey’s departure:

The appointment of Daniel Sankey as editor of news.com.au was a testament to the strength of the launch of thenewdaily.com.au, its editorial director, Bruce Guthrie, said today.

“While we are disappointed to lose Daniel from The New Daily, his appointment speaks volumes about the strength of the site’s launch,” Mr Guthrie said. “It’s clear that major publishers regard the site extremely highly and see it as an incubator of talent. We wish Daniel well.”

Since its launch under Sankey last November, thenewdaily.com.au had exceeded all first quarter projections with tens of thousands of subscribers and hundreds of thousands of unique visitors, Guthrie said.

“In fact, we have already exceeded our fourth quarter projections even though the site is not yet three months old,” Mr Guthrie said.

He said Sankey would remain at thenewdaily.com.au until the end of February. During the interim the site’s producers, Motion Publishing, will interview internal and external candidates for the role left vacant by Sankey’s departure.

“It’s a great job with a great team,” said Guthrie. “We don’t expect any shortage of strong candidates.”

Update 1.30pm: News Corp Australia officially announced the appointment in a statement released this afternoon.

In the statement Julian Clarke, the chief executive of News Corp Australia, said: “News.com.au has been an outstanding success since its inception in 1998. In that time it has established itself at the top of Australia’s online news sites amassing a huge and loyal audience. Daniel’s experience in the digital news world is a welcome addition to News Corp Australia and the next stage of growth and success for news.com.au.”

Sankey said in the statement: “I am thrilled to be joining news.com.au as I consider it the leading news site in this country. I feel very privileged to be guiding the editorial team and can’t wait to start.”

Sankey started at APN’s Rockhampton Masthead The Morning Bulletin in 1996, was made editor-in-chief of The Queensland Times in 2003, then left for The Brisbane Times in 2006 to the launch of website brisbanetimes.com.au. He later became the editor of theage.com.au.

Julian Delany, general manager of News.com.au said: “I’m delighted that we have someone of Daniel’s news and digital experience joining news.com.au to lead our editorial team at this time of growth in the business. We’ve been investing heavily in the brand and will continue to do this to deliver the best digital news service.”

Nic Christensen

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