Experienced editor Lisa Muxworthy has joined The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in a newly created role of head of growth content.

Muxworthy left news.com.au earlier this year, having cemented News Corp’s free news website to the top of the readership rankings during her four-year run as editor-in-chief.

Her exit came as a surprise in May, leaving News Corp as part of a company-wide cost-cutting initiative. She worked at the news website for 12 years, helping build it into one of Australia’s largest news outlets, far outgrowing News Corp’s established mastheads.

Muxworthy will lead a new growth content reporting team and editor, as well as the social media, search, audio and video teams, reporting directly to executive editor Luke McIlveen.

The team will be tasked with creating a content strategy to grow audiences across The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Brisbane Times and WAtoday.

McIlveen said Muxworthy was the “full package” when it came to digital publishing.

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“Under her editorship, news.com.au won the Gold Walkley in 2022 for the Brittany Higgins story, and Lisa was part of the team that drove important editorial campaigns, including Let Her Speak, which led to the abolition of sexual assault victim gag laws in Victoria, Tasmania and the Northern Territory,” he said.

“Lisa is respected across the industry as an exceptional leader who builds high-performing teams with incredible culture and has a proven track record of growing audiences and engagement.