Out of the 16 million unique visitors who went to the Guardian’s website in July 2007, 5.9 million – more than a third – were from the US.

“GuardianAmerica.com, which, under the leadership of Mr. Tomasky, will present U.S. readers with all the Guardian stories they care about and none of the ones they don’t,” wrote The New York Observer.

The much appreciated ‘Comment is free’ section will also be feature prominently.

The new site will also offer its own original content in moderation, up to two or three pieces per day.

That’s the goal anyway. The Guardian’s six American correspondents will still be managed from abroad, but are encouraged to contribute original material to the website, complementing Tomasky and his staff of four.

“I’ll file pieces to London as usual and some of those pieces will appear on the Guardian America Web site, probably given a more prominent position than they would on the Web site in London,” said Washington bureau chief Ewen MacAskill.

In 2002, Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger had already tried to launch an Americanized edition, a weekly glossy magazine that never took off.

Five years later, the project is ready to be launched, in the online form.

Guardian America doesn’t position itself as a competitor to the big papers, such as the Washington Post or New York Times, instead aiming to be a quality second-read (following in the steps of another online news publication, MinnPost.com).

“The preliminary question,” said political journalist Michael Kinsley, who founded Slate and was initially to head the venture, “is do Americans go to the Guardian because it’s British? Do people go to the Guardian because they get this little frisson of international sophistication, which they will lose if it’s totally obvious that it’s coming out of Washington?

Source: The New York Observer