• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, March 20, 2015

Katharine Viner has been appointed the editor in chief of the 'Guardian' worldwide, making her the first woman to ever hold the top spot at the venerable U.K.-based newspaper. Viner previously served as deputy editor of the newspaper and editor in chief of its U.S. edition, making her a key player in the newspaper’s ambitious global expansion.

Viner takes over from Alan Rusbridger, who is stepping down after two decades on the job and will serve as chairman of the Scott Trust, the nonprofit foundation which owns the Guardian, beginning in 2016.

Viner was the clear favorite with staff, who were allowed to declare their preferences by casting ballots earlier this month. Viner received 438 or 52% of the total vote of 839, beating three other candidates, including Emily Bell, director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, and also a non-executive director of the Scott Trust; Wolfgang Blau, the Guardian’s director of digital strategy; and Janine Gibson, editor in chief of theguardian.com.

She also beat out around two dozen other candidates considered by the Scott Trust, which worked with an executive search consultant during the process.

Educated in Oxford, Viner joined the Guardian in 1997 and was appointed editor of its Saturday supplement a year later. She was promoted to features editor in 2006, then deputy editor in 2008. In May 2013, Viner founded its Australian online edition. Then she took over the U.S. edition in September 2014, a little over a year after the newspaper sent political shock waves around the world with a series of reports on high-tech government spying, based on national security documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.