Updated ,first published
Guardian Australia editor Lenore Taylor has resigned after almost 10 years in the job, saying she was at peace with the decision to leave the exhausting role and left behind a team of high-calibre potential successors.
The publication told staff of Taylor’s decision via email on Tuesday as global Guardian boss Katharine Viner flies into Sydney for the departing editor’s last day in the newsroom on Wednesday, setting off an internal and external race for the editorship.
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.
But where those publications petered out, The Guardian built a model of free content with a soft paywall asking for donations under Taylor.
“I’ve been thinking about it for some time, but there’s always been some new challenge or story or reason to defer,” Taylor said. “But after 10 years, the job is exhausting. It doesn’t leave a lot of time to care for yourself or those you love.”
“It’s time to pass the baton and I have a brilliant, brilliant team and so they have choices [for my successor].”
“I feel very at peace with the decision.”
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. She has edited it since 2016, making Taylor the longest-serving current editor in Australian media.
Guardian editor-in-chief Viner is visiting Australia and 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.
In an email to staff, Viner praised Taylor’s tenure, saying she had made the Australian outpost a force to be reckoned with, “sometimes through sheer strength of will.”
“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.”
“I want to thank Lenore for her enormous contribution to Guardian Australia over the past 13 years.”
Earlier in her career, Taylor was the chief political correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald. She is expected to take several months off after departing the Guardian.
Taylor had told this 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 stepping down for some time.
While Taylor’s resignation had been expected, given the length of her tenure, some noted on Tuesday evening the speed between the announcement of Taylor’s departure and her exit.
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 this masthead could be a primer 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.
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Calum Jaspan is a media writer for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, based in Melbourne. Reach him securely on Signal @calumjaspan.10Connect via X or email.
Nick Bonyhady is the business editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. He is a former deputy federal editor, technology editor and industrial relations reporter.Connect via X or email.