Gunn reporter to new-era editor: Michelle Gunn takes The Australian reins

The new editor of The Australian, Michelle Gunn, says the ‘future is bright’ for the national broadsheet.

Michelle Gunn at The Australian’s office in Sydney Picture: James Croucher

The new editor of The Australian, Michelle Gunn, says the “future is bright” for the national broadsheet as it grows its digital audience and caters for readers seeking trustworthy journalism during the upheaval of the COVID-19 crisis.

Gunn, who becomes editor of both The Australian and The Weekend Australian, is the first woman to edit the newspaper as it looks to build on the most successful era in its history.

There is no more challenging time to start the job, Gunn says, than as Australia remakes itself in the midst of the pandemic.

“I see it as a tremendous opportunity because, at its best, The Australian is the equal of any paper in the world,” she tells Media.

“And this is a critical time for a paper like ours to drive national debate on everything from tax policy, foreign affairs and migration to the way we live and work.’’

Gunn, 50, was appointed on Friday as editor of the national daily newspaper that Rupert Murdoch started in 1964. She takes over from John Lehmann, who moves to a new commercial and consumer revenue role.

“We’ve got the best newsroom in the country, with journalists who are both experienced and committed,” Gunn says. “This translates to high levels of engagement and trust among our readers, especially during times of uncertainty and change.

“During the past eight weeks we have seen a doubling of our online audience, despite having a very tight subscription paywall.”

Gunn says the pandemic has presented challenges for the newsroom but “the reporting and editing staff have adjusted brilliantly’’.

“We have actually improved communication and flexibility while working remotely and that has produced both better ideas and sharper news angles.’’

Gunn says The Australian is “very much the paper for the times’’ because of its unrivalled focus on national and state politics and business.

“The crisis has forced dramatic change to the way our tiers of government work together, and this has intensified the demand for a national paper which articulates the aspirations of people across the country, not just those in the inner rings of our capital cities.’’

Gunn is confident the challenges presented to traditional media by declining ad revenue can be met head on by continued growth in The Australian’s subscription revenue.

“Our future is bright. I can only see our digital audience continuing to grow because our newsbreaking and storytelling, in­cluding in our popular app, is going from strength to strength.’’

Gunn says the role The Australian plays in national debate is often wilfully misunderstood.

“The values of the paper are not conservative values, in that traditional cultural political sense,’’ she says. “The Australian is more properly characterised as a radical in national debate — and I say that because what we’ve been about, since 1964, is challenging orthodoxies, swimming upstream, questioning authority, and we can cite a lot of examples of that.”

As Gunn describes it, she has enjoyed a “long apprenticeship” working as a journalist for the media company she joined more than three decades ago.

Aged just 18, after growing up in the NSW steel city Newcastle, she interrupted a communications degree to be employed as a copy girl at News Limited, as News Corp was then known, working at its Holt Street, Surry Hills offices for the Sydney-based papers.

In quick time, The Australian’s then editor-in-chief, the late Frank Devine, offered Gunn a cadetship at the paper. After a decent stint as The Australian’s social affairs editor, Gunn moved to the newsdesk. She was national chief of staff, a key role in forming the paper’s daily news agenda, before being appointed deputy editor and then editor of The Weekend Australian. The Australian editor-in-chief Christopher Dore said Gunn’s characteristic passion was matched by her skill. Under her stewardship, Dore said, The Weekend Australian had grown from a great newspaper to world-class: “So I can say with conviction that Michelle will be exceptional as the new editor of The Australian.”

Dore also paid tribute to Lehmann for overseeing the newspaper during its most successful period. The Australian’s cross-platform audience is at its highest ever, with digital subscriptions making up two-thirds of the total.

Helen Trinca, managing editor for the past eight years and widely respected as a writer and author, will become associate editor of The Australian and continue as editor of The Deal.