Guardian Australia editor-in-chief Lenore Taylor has resigned after almost 10 years in the job, saying it was “time for something new”. She has edited the masthead since 2016, making her the longest-serving editor in Australian media.
Taylor said she had been musing on the decision for some time, stating that 10 years is a long time in a demanding job.
“There’s always been another challenge, another big story or another reason to defer it. There’s always the next thing in a job that is so utterly exhilarating and all-consuming. But it is also utterly exhausting. It doesn’t leave a lot of time to care for yourself or those you love,” she said.
Taylor shared that she was at peace with the decision to leave the role and has left behind a team of high-calibre potential successors.
“It’s time to pass the baton and I have a brilliant, brilliant team and so they have choices [for my successor]”.
A former Sydney Morning Herald political journalist, Taylor was hired by then Guardian Australia editor-in-chief Katharine Viner along with her press gallery colleague Katharine Murphy from the Age, as deputy political editor. In 2016, Taylor was made editor-in-chief.
Viner, the Guardian’s global editor-in-chief, credited Taylor with making the Australian arm of the organisation “a force to be reckoned, sometimes through sheer strength of will”.
Guardian Australia has won 12 Walkley awards for its reporting on the environment, politics, social affairs, Indigenous issues and commentary under Taylor’s leadership.
According to the latest Ipsos Iris news ranking, Guardian Australia is the fourth most-read news site in the country with a unique audience of 8.4 million, ahead of established newspaper mastheads the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age and the Australian.
The publication told staff of Taylor’s decision via email on Tuesday as global Guardian boss Katharine Viner is visiting Australia for the departing editor’s last day in the newsroom on Wednesday. She will run a process to select a replacement for Taylor. David Munk, the Guardian’s senior managing editor in London will return to Australia as acting editor. He has previously worked in the newsroom in Sydney.
Taylor was a founding Guardian staff member when it launched in Australia in 2013, and won a Walkley for the publication the next year as a political reporter.
Taylor’s departure means the Guardian has scarcely any of the original staff who brought the left-wing publication to Australia in 2013 as part of a wave of new online-only free media that also included local editions of Vice and BuzzFeed News.
“Her hard work, commitment, editorial rigour and political insight have helped deliver journalism that sets the national agenda and driven much admiration from our ever-expanding audience,” Viner said.
“I want to thank Lenore for her enormous contribution to Guardian Australia over the past 13 years”.
Taylor told the masthead in 2025 she was still happy in the role and there was “more work to do here”, but there has been speculation about her leaving the role for some time.
The Guardian’s Australian deputy editors Gabrielle Jackson and Patrick Keneally have both been viewed as potential successors, as has head of multimedia Bridie Jabour. Munk is also considered a potential candidate, though that would mean a return to a British editor. Former deputy editor Lee Glendinning, now head of digital and national news at the ABC, is another name staff are discussing.
It is not expected that Keneally will apply, while Jabour is on her way to London for a two-year secondment, which Guardian staff previously told The Guardian could be the first step to take the top job locally.
Last year, Taylor had to deal with the fallout of high staff turnover and bullying complaints within the publication’s Canberra bureau that led to an HR investigation.
In the aftermath, the outlet took almost six months to eventually appoint former Australian Financial Review journalist Tom McIlroy as its new political editor, who had only joined as chief political correspondent months earlier.
The Guardian’s 2025 annual report said it generated $50 million in revenue across Australia and New Zealand across the financial year, marginally up on the year prior, aided by 158,000 recurring digital supporters.
Taylor is expected to take several months off after departing the Guardian.
