Former Age and Herald Sun editor Bruce Guthrie is preparing to launch a new Melbourne-based news website named The New Daily, Crikey can reveal.

The site is expected to have a mass-market, general-interest flavour with an emphasis on news rather than opinion.

Despite speculation he had left Fairfax to launch The Huffington Post in Australia, Crikey understands former Age online editor Daniel Sankey will be the site’s editor and that Guthrie will hover above in a publisher/editor-in-chief role. Section editors for finance, entertainment and lifestyle have also been hired, but are sworn to secrecy under confidentiality arrangements.

The New Daily is expected to launch during the coming week.

While The New Daily‘s journalism will be independent, Crikey understands the site is being funded in part by superannuation companies. The domain name, thenewdaily.com.au, was registered in March by the Industry Super Network.

Unlike competitor sites The Age and the Herald Sun, The New Daily will not be behind a paywall.

Private Media chairman Eric Beecher is involved in the project, but The New Daily has no relationship with Private Media, which publishes Crikey and other websites.

Until last weekend, Bruce Guthrie was a weekly columnist with The Sunday Age.

On Thursday, Crikey revealed that Monthly publisher Morry Schwartz is preparing to launch a new Saturday newspaper edited by former Sydney Morning Herald journalist Erik Jensen.