Monique Farmer appointed national managing editor of Nine mastheads

Monique Farmer has been appointed to a newly-created role of national managing editor of The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Brisbane Times and WAToday.

The appointment will see Farmer work closely with the commercial, marketing and product teams to make a material difference to the running of the metro newsrooms across the country, and will report to executive editor Tory Maguire.

Farmer has worked in media in Australia and New Zealand for more than 30 years. She joined The Sydney Morning Herald while she was at university and worked her way up through reporting and editing to become managing editor (sections) for six years.

From 2008 she spent four years at Fairfax New Zealand where she launched an award-winning weekly magazine, then was associate editor of a national Sunday newspaper, the Sunday Star-Times. In the past decade back in Australia, Farmer has focused on digital growth and content innovation as head of the Herald and The Age’s culture and lifestyle content, including Good Food, Traveller, Spectrum and Sunday Life.

Farmer, who will start her new role in 2023, said: “It’s been a privilege to lead such a talented team of editors, journalists and contributing writers. I’m so proud of the calibre of content we’ve delivered across the Life portfolio, creating smart and entertaining culture and lifestyle journalism for our highly-engaged audiences.

“Now I’m excited to step up to the challenge of being national managing editor of the best mastheads in the country.”

Maguire said: “Since becoming executive editor I’ve come to rely on Monique’s strategic mindset, attention to detail and experience to help navigate the complexity of our newsrooms.

“She is an incredible team player, who always puts the best interests of the mastheads and her colleagues first. In this new role we will all be able to benefit from these attributes and I am in equal measure both excited and relieved to have someone of her calibre assist in running the place.”

A head of food position working across the editorial, commercial and events teams will be created and a replacement for Farmer’s previous role head of life, working across the lifestyle, culture and travel teams, will be announced.