Here is what Guardian editor-in-chief had to say about Ian Katz’s departure in an email to staff sent a few minutes ago
Dear All,
Ian Katz has decided to accept an offer to go and run Newsnight. He first joined the paper more than 20 years ago as editor of a page called Young Guardian. Since then he’s done many things – including New York correspondent, editing G2, launching Guardian Unlimited, and deputy editor (News).
He’s played so many really important roles on the paper, hiring terrific talent and inspiring some great journalism. He helped build our reputation for world leading environment reporting and more recently played a central part running the Wikileaks coverage. We’re sorry to see him go, but leading the BBC’s flagship news programme is one of the most important jobs in broadcasting and I’m sure he will do it brilliantly.
Paul Johnson, as deputy editor, will take immediate responsibility for news while we consider the longer term implications for senior roles.
