The Guardian’s deputy editor, Kath Viner, has been appointed the news organisation’s first female editor in its 194-year history.
The Guardian's governing body, the Scott Trust, made the announcement on Friday after a lengthy internal process to select the successor to Alan Rusbridger.
Sources within The Guardian told BuzzFeed News the internal politics during the process was "like Game of Thrones".
Viner, thought to be the favourite for the job, was up against Ian Katz, the Newsnight editor and former longstanding Guardian deputy, who was for some years thought to have been a likely candidate for the role.
But she won the support of staff and received 53% of an internal hustings organised by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ).
At the top of Viner's to-do list will be the continuing job of figuring out how to develop a brand that still makes money from a shrinking print audience, but reaches millions online daily. In the manifesto that was released as part of the NUJ election process, she said:
To ensure the survival of Guardian journalism in perpetuity we need a clear, flexible plan — with humility about an unknown future. And we need to take some risks, using a route map which allows us to change course and re-invent ourselves.
Rusbridger is set to become chair of the Scott Trust but insisted he would not play any part in choosing the next editor.
Rusbridger steps down this summer after 20 years in the editor's chair. He tweeted his congratulations to Viner.
Delighted the brilliant Kath Viner to be 12th Editor of the Guardian in 194 yrs.Only instruction: "Carry on as heretofore"
Kath's predecessors as Guardian editor, including the extraordinary 57-year term of CP Scott