New editors for The Australian and Daily Telegraph as Paul Whittaker becomes Sky News boss
The Australian’s editor-in-chief Paul Whittaker has been named the new CEO of the Australian News Channel, replacing Angelos Frangopoulos.
Whittaker’s move has triggered a number of internal shuffles, with The Daily Telegraph’s editor-in-chief taking over at The Australian, and Gold Coast Bulletin editor Ben English taking the helm at Sydney’s Daily Telegraph.
Whittaker was appointed editor-in-chief of The Australian in 2015
Appointed editor of the News Corp-owned masthead three years ago following the retirement of Chris Mitchell, Whittaker replaces Frangopoulos, who was named CEO of Sky News Arabia in July this year.
The Daily Telegraph’s editor-in-chief Christopher Dore has been named the new editor-in-chief of The Australian. Dore, the former editor of the Courier-Mail, was promoted at the same time as Whittaker, in 2015.
Dore will be replaced by Gold Coast Bulletin editor Ben English. English was appointed Gold Coast Bulletin editor in September last year.
In his new role, which is effective from October 15, Whittaker will run Sky News Live, Sky News Weather, Sky News extra, Fox Sports News and Your Money, the new joint venture with Nine. His appointment follows three years as editor-in-chief of The Australian, five as editor of The Daily Telegraph and four as editor of The Australian.
Michael Miller, executive chairman of News Corp, said the appointment recognised Whittaker’s “extensive and proven journalistic leadership” and his understanding of the Australian political, business and media landscape.
“Paul is one of Australia’s most respected journalists and editors, with an extraordinary passion for agenda-setting news and opinion, combined with a strong business acumen. His appointment ensures Sky News has the leadership to grow the audiences and business from the foundations built by Angelos,” Miller said.
Siobhan McKenna, group director of broadcasting, said Whittaker’s appointment also recognised the importance of live news within the News Corp business.
“Under the leadership of Angelos, Sky News has become Australia’s number one 24-hour news channel and Paul will have the opportunity to make further investment to continue expanding Sky News’s reach to more Australians,” McKenna said.
Whittaker said he was excited to take on the new challenge, thanking his team for their efforts. In his time, The Australian reached 100,000 paying digital subscribers.
“Sky News has a fantastic following due to a very strong team of political and business journalists, that lead and dominate the national news agenda every day. In addition, it has the most experienced and opinionated commentators and presenters who fearlessly debate the big issues that get Australia talking,” he said.
“The opportunities ahead to continue to build on that success and further develop Sky News, in collaboration with the best journalistic talent from News Corp’s network of news brands, are many and I am determined that we will work together to make the best even better.”
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Paul is very credentialed in newspapers but has no broadcast experience. A helpful tip for you as you take on this enormous role. Get yourself a right hand person, outside of SKY, with Broadcast experience.
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Good advice. Get yourself someone who won’t cause the good presenters to walk. Then you can spend all your time with the genius Rowan Dean and the charming Andrew Bolt.
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Forecast: Whittaker will discover that TV leaves very little room for running invisible hand agendas. The bovver boy will probably love the “after dark” tribe but find life difficult with the daylight humans.
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