Fortune names Gongloff its digital editor

Fortune editor Alan Murray sent out the following staff hire announcement on Wednesday morning:

I am delighted to announce that Mark Gongloff will become the Digital Editor of Fortune, effective May 4.

Mark will be responsible for all of Fortune’s rapidly expanding digital journalism, which reached more than 17 million unique visitors in March – double the audience of last summer, when the new Fortune web site launched, and triple the audience of a year ago, when Fortune was still part of CNNMoney.  Mark’s responsibilities will include working with Adam Lashinsky to oversee our online tech coverage, which has been supercharged by the addition of a half-dozen experienced reporters from the now-defunct tech web site Gigaom.  All the online editors will report directly to Mark.

Mark is a digital native with a deep knowledge of business, finance and the economy.  He is currently managing editor for business and technology at The Huffington Post.  Prior to that, he was a reporter and editor at The Wall Street Journal, where, among other things, he wrote the highly regarded “Ahead of the Tape” column and led a groundbreaking investigation of the subsidies banks received from Fed lending programs. He has the perfect set of skills to guide Fortune to its digital future – continuing to grow our audience in the short term, and building a dedicated readership for great business journalism over the long term.

Mark will replace Deborah Caldwell, who over the last seven months has served as acting managing editor.  She has accomplished miracles in that role, not only doubling digital traffic, but also increasing social media referrals fivefold.  In the process, we have reached millions of younger people for the first time with Fortune’s distinctive journalism.  Debbie has an instinctive grasp of how to build a digital audience, and we  are all deeply indebted to her for her guidance.  She will remain on staff for a short period to help with Mark’s transition.

Mark’s business journalism career has spanned more than 15 years, from CNNMoney to The Wall Street Journal and The Huffington Post. Throughout, he has been a thought leader with a knack for making complex ideas relatable to both broad and specialized audiences.

As head of markets coverage at WSJ.com in 2007, he was part of a team that built an interactive mortgage-crisis explainer that was a finalist for a Scripps-Howard award for Web reporting. As the WSJ’s “Ahead Of The Tape” columnist for two years at the heart of the financial crisis, he helped readers make sense of it all, including a prescient call in March 2009 that the stock market was due for a rebound.

At The Huffington Post, first as chief financial writer and then as managing editor for business and technology coverage, he showed how wit and knowledge could make any difficult subject — from high-speed trading to the “London Whale” debacle — appealing to the broadest possible audience.

Mark studied magazine journalism at the University of South Carolina. In his spare time, he coaches little league baseball and soccer. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and three children.

Please join me in thanking Debbie for her contributions, and welcoming Mark to Fortune.