Janine Victoria Gibson is a British journalist who has served as assistant editor of the ''
Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...
'' since May 2019. Before then, in the summer of 2014, she became deputy editor of Guardian News and Media and editor-in-chief of theguardian.com website in London. She is a former editor-in-chief in New York City of ''Guardian US'', the offshoot of ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''. After leaving ''The Guardian'', she was editor-in-chief of the
BuzzFeed UK
BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content. Ken ...
website until she stepped down in January 2019 as the publication announced financial difficulties.
[Jane Martinso]
"Janine Gibson appointed editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed UK"
''The Guardian'', 16 June 2015
Early life
The daughter of British parents, Gibson was born in Germany. Her father, the industrialist
Sir Ian Gibson, was then an employee of the motor car manufacturer
Ford of Europe
Ford of Europe GmbH is a subsidiary company of Ford Motor Company founded in 1967 in Cork (city), Cork, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, with headquarters in Cologne, Germany.
History
Ford of Europe was founded in 1967 by the merger of Ford of Bri ...
, and her mother a teacher. Gibson read English Literature at
St John's College, Oxford
St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded as a men's college in 1555, it has been coeducational since 1979.Communication from Michael Riordan, college archivist Its founder, Sir Thomas White, intended to pro ...
.
[Joe Pompe]
"Editor Janine Gibsnon Banks on The Guardian's Distinctly British Appeal to the Internationalist' Yank"
Capital New York, 13 October 2011
Career
Gibson began her career in the media trade press, becoming deputy editor of ''Televisual'' (1995–97) and subsequently international editor of ''
Broadcast
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum ( radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began ...
'' magazine during 1987–98.
["Ms Janine Gibson Authorised Biography"](_blank)
, Debrett's She then briefly joined ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' newspaper as a media correspondent for a few months before taking up a similar post later in 1998 at ''The Guardian''.
''The Guardian''
At ''The Guardian'', she was responsible for launching the Guardian's media website and became Media Guardian editor. In May 2003, it was announced that she in addition had been appointed editor of the Media, Society, Education and Technology G3 supplements, a newly created post.
Her appointment as editor of the guardian.co.uk website was announced in November 2008.
["Janine Gibson is made editor of Guardian.co.uk"](_blank)
, ''Press Gazette'', 6 November 2008 Her immediate superiors at this time were
Emily Bell
Emily Jane Bell (born 14 September 1965) is a British academic and journalist. She is Professor of Professional Practice at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism (Columbia School of Journalism) , then director of digital content, and ''Guardian'' editor-in-chief
Alan Rusbridger
Alan Charles Rusbridger (born 29 December 1953) is a British journalist, who was formerly editor-in-chief of ''The Guardian'' and then principal of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.
Rusbridger became editor-in-chief of ''The Guardian'' in 1995, hav ...
.
After Bell took up an academic post in New York in April 2010, Gibson's responsibilities were expanded to include supervising all of Guardian News & Media's digital output.
''Guardian''s American website
After several months of discussion with Alan Rusbridger in early 2011, Gibson was formally appointed the editor of the Guardian's new American online operations, to be based in New York, in April. The newspaper's new US website was launched in September;
an earlier attempt by the newspaper to relate to an American online audience, headed by
Michael Tomasky
Michael John Tomasky (born October 13, 1960) is an American columnist, progressive commentator, and author. He is the editor of ''The New Republic'' and editor in chief of ''Democracy''. He has been a special correspondent for ''Newsweek'', ''T ...
in Washington DC between 2007 and 2009, had proved unsuccessful.
[Emily Wit]
"The Guardian in America Is Going to Be British This Time"
''New York Observer'', 27 June 2011
Glenn Greenwald
Glenn Edward Greenwald (born March 6, 1967) is an American journalist, author and lawyer. In 2014, he cofounded ''The Intercept'', of which he was an editor until he resigned in October 2020. Greenwald subsequently started publishing on Substac ...
brought the leaked material from
Edward Snowden
Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is an American and naturalized Russian former computer intelligence consultant who leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013, when he was an employee and su ...
to Gibson's attention, and she formed the team who met Snowden in Hong Kong to analyse the material he had accumulated.
Gibson continued to be Greenwald's supervising editor during the time he was associated with ''The Guardian'' and preparing Snowden's
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
winning revelations about
NSA
The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collecti ...
surveillance and other stories for publication. She is reported to have told Alan Rusbridger when informing him of the scoops Greenwald, their newspaper's columnist, had uncovered: "I’ve got a little story to chat to you about".
After returning to London, Gibson became chief of theguardian.com website during Summer 2014 becoming in addition a deputy editor of Guardian News & Media. Her place as head of ''The Guardian'' American operations was taken by
Katharine Viner
Katharine Sophie Viner (born January 1971)Katharine Vine"Dear diary ..." ''The Guardian'', 27 November 2004 is a British journalist and playwright. She became the first female editor-in-chief at ''The Guardian'' on 1 June 2015 succeeding Alan ...
.
Gibson was offered a managing editor of digital media position with ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' in early May 2014, but turned it down. According to one report in ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'', internal politics related to her potential hiring led to the dismissal of that paper's executive editor,
Jill Abramson
Jill Ellen Abramson (born March 19, 1954) is an American author, journalist, and academic. She is best known as the former executive editor of ''The New York Times''; Abramson held that position from September 2011 to May 2014. She was the first ...
a few weeks later. Gibson was perceived to be the most likely successor to Alan Rusbridger, who resigned as editor-in-chief in December 2014, but
Katharine Viner
Katharine Sophie Viner (born January 1971)Katharine Vine"Dear diary ..." ''The Guardian'', 27 November 2004 is a British journalist and playwright. She became the first female editor-in-chief at ''The Guardian'' on 1 June 2015 succeeding Alan ...
was ultimately appointed in March 2015.
In May 2015, Gibson left ''The Guardian''.
BuzzFeed UK
In September 2015, prior to an expansion of its activities, she was appointed as editor-in-chief of the ''
BuzzFeed
BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content. Ken ...
'' UK website.
Under her editorship the website moved into more hard news and published an investigative series in which 14 suspicious UK deaths (and 1 US) were found to have links to the Kremlin. The series triggered
Theresa May
Theresa Mary May, Lady May (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cab ...
’s government to commit to a full review, was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and
George Clooney
George Timothy Clooney (born May 6, 1961) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by George Clooney, numerous accolades, including a British Academy Film Awards, British Academy Film A ...
has picked it up for a film. In early 2018, the website also published a previously unseen
Brexit
Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or ...
analysis which stated the UK would be worse off in every scenario.
''BuzzFeed UK'' won News Website of the Year in 2017 at the Press Awards.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gibson, Janine
Living people
Alumni of St John's College, Oxford
British women journalists
People educated at Walthamstow Hall
The Guardian journalists
BuzzFeed people
Year of birth missing (living people)