The Guardian will launch a digital European edition this autumn – its first new foreign edition in eight years.
The launch will create 11 new editorial roles, ten of which have already been filled with a mixture of internal and external appointments.
The new edition will publish in English, hoping to capitalise on what The Guardian said is “a need for trusted, independent English-language news that connects with European readers”.
In a statement, the newsbrand said European readers “are now the Guardian’s most engaged audience group outside of the UK, representing a strong share of its global readership and supporter growth”.
The Guardian said it received more than 250 million page views from Europe last year, representing a 129% increase against 2016, and that it reaches 25 million unique browsers on the continent monthly, a 41% increase on 2016.
“The Guardian’s European audience is its third largest after the UK and the US,” the publication said, “with recurring digital support from the continent seeing steady growth; three and half times larger than it was in 2016”.
Editor-in-chief Katharine Viner said: “The Guardian has always been deeply committed to reporting on Europe, with readers on the continent telling us how they come to the Guardian for a perspective they can’t find anywhere else, or to follow coverage of key issues that are important to them such as the climate crisis, technology, migration and events in Ukraine.”
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Guardian News and Media chief executive Anna Bateson added: “In Europe the Guardian has a deeply engaged readership and fast-growing revenues, and we believe there is significant opportunity to grow further internationally, engaging more deeply with our diverse, global audience.
“We have ambitious plans to build on our growing European audience, to serve them better and persuade both readers and advertisers to support the Guardian’s world-class journalism.”
The Guardian launched Guardian US in 2007. Bateson disclosed in May that the US now contributes a quarter of The Guardian’s reader revenue and that the country is its fastest-growing market.
An Australian edition followed in 2013, founded under the leadership of Viner. An international homepage launched in 2015.
The team on The Guardian’s Europe edition will be as follows:
- Lizzy Davies, formerly head of news, is the new European news editor “as part of the existing international desk operation”
- Kirsty McEwen, previously Guardian homepage editor, becomes deputy digital editor
- Harry Borg, Alessia Manzoni and Lucy Campbell, all serving Guardian journalists, become homepage editors for the Europe edition
- Freelance Miranda Bryant joins The Guardian as Scandinavia correspondent
- Former Guardian Spain and Canada correspondent Ashifa Kassam re-joins as community affairs correspondent for Europe
- Freelance Berlin-based climate reporter Ajit Niranjan, formerly of Deutsche Welle, joins as environment correspondent for Europe
- Guardian Berlin bureau chief Philip Oltermann, formerly deputy opinion editor, takes on a new role as Europe culture editor
- And Nick Ames, a Guardian football correspondent, becomes European sports correspondent.
A “dedicated European live blogger” in charge of The Guardian’s live coverage of the continent has yet to be appointed.
The Guardian said further details will be announced in coming months.
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