Ian McClelland to be MD of Guardian Australia
The Guardian has named Ian McClelland as the man who will lead the organisation’s business interests in Australia.
McClelland will move to the MD role in June after just six months as head of strategy and digital at production company Spring, FremantleMedia’s brand funded division.
The Guardian will officially launch its Australian digital operation operation later this year, although an official date has not yet been announced.
Tony Danker, international director of the Guardian, said in today’s announcement: “After a rigorous selection process Ian emerged as the outstanding candidate to be the managing director for our exciting new venture in Australia. He brings a great depth of knowledge and experience in launching digital products and I’m delighted to welcome him on behalf of our Australian team. It’s an incredibly exciting time editorially to be launching the Australian edition and we look forward to working with a broad range of advertisers and commercial partners in the year ahead.”
Prior to Spring and Fremantle, McClelland was senior VP of new media for RTL Group in Luxembourg.
McClelland said: “I’m honoured to be joining Guardian Australia. The Guardian is an outstanding global brand with a reputation as a quality news provider which is second to none. As a lifelong reader and advocate of the Guardian it’s particularly thrilling to be a part of their new Australian enterprise. I’m looking forward to the opportunities and challenges ahead.”
McClelland will take up his new post in June.
As Mumbrella has previuously reported, Katherine Viner will be editor, while Vicky Frost, previously TV editor of the UK operation has also joined the team. Local hires have already included Fairfax Media’s Lenore Taylor as political editor and Katharine Murphy as deputy political editor. Paul Chadwick, the outgoing director of editorial policies at the ABC, will become a non-executive director. Graeme Wood will be a founding investor.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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After all this bad media reporting on Julia Gillard our PrimeMinister, by the NEWS LTD and all the Murdoch press, We want a fair media reporting from the Guardian Australia. We are great fans of the UK Guardian. What worries a lot of people Will Miss Taylor and Miss Murphy change their attitude once they start working with the Guardian , not to do what their papers still do by favouring the opposition leader Tony Abbott.
All the media , it seems have fallen into this trap by Murdoch and the opposition.is having a free run , nothing he does is reported . there are so many Questions he needs to answer concerning his involvement in the Brough case, private lunches with NEWS LTD to plan how to get rid of the PM.. the press and the media will not touch them. unless they don’t have anyone with the skills that is needed . We need honest news paper like the Guardian ,but what we don’t want is reporters like Taylor and Murphy going back to their old ways in the SMH.
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@Mary – are you typical of the Guardian’s readership? A sample of one maybe, but your illiterate rant is fracking scary and does the Guardian no favours as it tries to take on the SMH for ad dollars.
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I am really looking forward to the Guardian Australia’s official launch and very much hope they will be truly fearless, independent and able to tackle the systematic suppression of the hard news and the issues Australia has a right to know about. You would not expect it to happen in a real democracy, but it did in fact happened to Jordan, who went from school bullying, to judicial corruption, police brutality, gross police misconduct and systematic media suppression victim. We do not have a bona fide opposition. And the Queensland press gallery does not even report when innocent citizens are violently assaulted by police and falsely arrested just for trying to be heard or for just trying to record someone speaking.
Independent Australia published these 5 articles on this matter:
http://www.independentaustrali.....ifer-nash/
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I am keen to have a look at the Guardian here in Oz and to see a fairer take on federal politics than appears in Fairfax, which seems to moving closer to News Ltd. in attitude. They have apparently assumed that Tony Abbott will float in on the tide to the top job, without questioning him and his repeated cliches: bad government, stop the boats, stop the waste. etc.
A coalition government , especially one led by Abbott, would be disastrous for the country and I would like to see tougher questioning by the news bodies of him and his shadow cabinet. And to lay out the facts of the achievements of the Gillard Govt. – low interest rates, low unemployment, strong dollar, etc. Nothing of this is mentioned by the existing press. Apparently they just want regime change.
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The Guardian is famed in the UK for being anything other than honest. They’ve always got an agenda – to cause and stir up controversy. Don’t think they’ll be helping Gillard necessarily. That’s not how journalists generally work.
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