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Mega-blog io9 has a new Editor-in-Chief: Charlie Jane Anders. It’s a name that should be familiar to io9 readers — Anders has been Managing Editor of io9 for a number of years and writes many of the site’s most visible and popular articles. She replaces Annalee Newitz, who is moving on to become Editor-in-Chief of Gizmodo. Newitz was Editor-in-Chief of io9 since its founding in 2008.

“I’ll be serving as the editor-in-chief of Gizmodo, and Charlie Jane Anders is going to become editor-in-chief of io9,” revealed Newitz on her blog. “The two sites, along with Sploid and our diagonals, will be collaborators within the greater universe of the Future Initiative. Some editors and writers will be shared across the sites, and we’ll be working together on a lot of story packages. But the sites will also retain separate identities, with separate commenter communities.”

This change is the first step in what Newitz dubs the ‘Future Initiative’, a program to bring io9 closer to its sister sites, Gizmodo and Sploid. “My goal for the Future Initiative is to produce original reporting, must-read explainers, and smart analysis,” said Newitz. “I want our sites to have clear opinions — even if they piss everybody off — and distinct voices. And I also want us to be experts in the topics we cover.”