Having secured a legacy of sorts with the sale of the Observer, albeit at the cost of any remaining goodwill in the Guardian newsroom, editor-in-chief Katharine Viner is said to be eyeing up a broader legacy for herself. Staff believe she is set to enact a grand plan to reshape the Guardian’s future – conveniently distancing herself from most of the paper’s staff in the process.
Under the new vision, the Guardian will no longer be a media outlet run by the UK with outposts in the USA and Australia. Instead, it will have a UK editor, a US editor, and an Australian editor all working autonomously of one
another, and all sitting as notional equals on the org chart. Above them will sit a global editor-in-chief – Viner herself.
Such is the apparent splendid isolation of the role that some in the Guardian’s newsroom have come to believe it’s a punishment for Viner by the Scott Trust, for the ill will caused by the Observer sale.
But those voices seem to be misguided – insiders report the plan comes from Viner herself, the culmination of her vision to create a truly global news organisation, of which she would be the only person who had served as editors of all three outposts. Viner would have a unique place in the Guardian’s history, and a unique claim to oversee all three titles. Taking her further away from dealing with the newsroom, and its fractious union, would surely just be a bonus.
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