Former Buzzfeed UK editor-in-chief Janine Gibson joins FT in assistant editor role

Janine Gibson, who left her role as Buzzfeed UK editor-in-chief in January, has been appointed as an assistant editor at the Financial Times.

Gibson will join the FT’s top editorial team on 7 May in the newly created role of special projects editor.

She will report to FT editor Lionel Barber and work alongside incoming news editor Matt Garrahan and other members of the senior team to identify themes that merit “deep, original reporting”, the title said.

It added that her role would add “new creative dimensions to the FT’s unrivalled output”.

Barber said: “I’m thrilled Janine is joining the top team at the FT. She is a world-class journalist who will give us a fresh edge and new perspectives as we grow our worldwide readership.”

The FT added that Gibson’s appointment comes at an “exciting time” as the newspaper prepares to move back into its former Bracken House home in the City later this month.

It also marked 1m paying subscribers for the first time this week, and was named News Provider of the Year at Press Gazette’s British Journalism Awards in December.

Gibson joined Buzzfeed as editor in August 2015 soon after leaving the Guardian, where she was deputy editor in charge of its online operations.

She was editor of Guardian US during the time of the Edward Snowden revelations and left the news organisation following an unsuccessful application to replace Alan Rusbridger as editor-in-chief.

Gibson started her career in journalism at Televisual, first as a staff writer and then rising to become deputy editor, before moving on to Broadcast magazine in July 1997.

She went on to become media correspondent for The Independent before joining the Guardian in 1998.

Picture: Financial Times