Australian journalist and television presenter Lisa Wilkinson has added digital duties to her role with Channel Ten as she's named executive editor of Ten’s new publishing hub, Ten Daily.
In the newly-created role, she will lead the editorial team and contribute to the website.
Ten Daily was announced as part of Ten’s Upfronts earlier this year and will launch next year as a new standalone website covering lifestyle, entertainment, opinion, news and sport content.
Wilkinson has had a long career as an editor in publishing, becoming the youngest editor ever of Dolly at age 21 and spending four years as the editor of Cleo.
She was most recently the editor-at-large of HuffPost when it launched in 2015.
Her role with the HuffPost, which she was unwilling to give up, was one of the main reasons Wilkinson and Nine could not agree on terms of a new contract.
Nine wanted Wilkinson to be a part of its growing digital network, led by Helen McCabe, which became a conflict with her role at the HuffPost.
Ironically, only a few weeks after Wilkinson left Nine’s The Today Show for a role on Ten’s The Project, HuffPost split from Fairfax and her role, as well as several others, were made redundant.
Network Ten GM of digital Liz Baldwin says Ten Daily will deliver short, shareable video content designed for mobile, as well as daily newsletters.
"Ten Daily will capitalise on the growing demand for short-form content and give Australians a new, exciting way to connect with our content, on-air presenters and much more," she says.
Wilkinson adds: “I’m thrilled to be adding Ten Daily to my new role at Network Ten. The digital space is such an exciting place to be, and with so much Ten content already available, I can see a huge opportunity for Ten Daily to go to the next level as a must-visit daily digital destination."
Is Ten too late to the game?
The launch of Ten Daily is similar to Nine's digital journey this year, relaunching its digital assets and 9Honey, which so far has surpassed expecations and become a strong competitor in the women's media market.
Nine's main site, nine.com.au, has scurried up the Nielsen Digital Ratings each month this year to become a strong competitor with news.com.au and smh.com.au. Ten has its work cut out for it now it plans to enter an already cluttered market.
It also comes as digital publishers are struggling to monetise their content and stay profitable, with BuzzFeed, Vice, Mashable and HuffPost all facing redundancies.
Ten is betting on the fame of Wilkinson to stand out from its competitors - a strategy that didn't save now defunct HuffPost.
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