CBC has appointed the former BBC News online editor Rachel Nixon as its new director of Digital Media for CBC News.

Rachel Nixon is an award-winning journalist, having spend nine years with the  internationally acclaimed BBCNews.com in a number of increasingly senior positions. In 2007, Rachel was named BBC World Service Editor of the Year for cross-platform editorial leadership.

Currently, Nixon is the global news director of Vancouver-based NowPublic.com, the world’s largest participatory news network.

In a note to staff,  Jennifer McGuire, Interim Publisher, CBC News and Executive Director, News Programming said:

Rachel will have the responsibility for charting the overall strategic direction for CBC News’ digital media unit-setting the right priorities, and overseeing the successful execution of the strategy. Her background in strategic planning, development, and delivery of editorial content makes her the ideal candidate for this role. She will be an excellent addition to the CBC News management team.

McGuire said Nixon will be responsible for the overall strategic direction of CBC News’ digital media unit, stressing that:

The renewal and expansion of high quality digital news content is critical to our continuing success in a financially challenging and increasingly competitive media environment.

Co-founder of NowPublic.com Michael Tippett described Nixon’s appointment as “a testament to her talents, hard work and experience”, adding that it was also:

A validation of the relevance of participatory news.  I hope that Rachel can carry with her the values and lessons of her experience here at NowPublic as she takes on this ambitious new project.

Nixon is due to take on the role on June 1.

UPDATE: Nixon told CBCNews.ca:

Established media don’t have the monopoly on news anymore. It’s really important to involve the audience and to listen them, listen to their opinions on what is important … and to use that to inform your own view of what is happening in the world. You can really get outside the traditional news agenda by taking a view of what the audience thinks.

She added that she was  excited to be building on what CBCNews.ca has done and taking CBC on to even greater things.

(Full disclosure: I am married to Rachel and very proud of her).