Unlike the offspring of many dynasties at Holt Street, Chris Mitchell’s stepdaughter Gina Rushton appears to be no News Corp loyalist. She’s been lured away from The Australian by BuzzFeed to be its new breaking news reporter from May 10.

It’s a pretty important role at BuzzFeed, says Australian boss Simon Crerar. It was previously held by Mark Di Stefano, but it has been empty since he was promoted up to political editor. Rushton will follow everything that doesn’t fit into one of BuzzFeed’s defined rounds, but also, Crerar says, do her own investigations and break news.

“I feel we’ve done a pretty good job so far in the things we’ve focused on,” Crerar said. “But we want to go broader.” It’s hoped Rushton’s experience covering immigration, Islamic radicalism and refugees for The Australian will help BuzzFeed tap into these areas.

The hire is the first for former Crikey editor Marni Cordell, who said goodbye to the bunker last Friday and evidently hasn’t had much down time between roles.

“I’m excited to have Gina on the team,” Cordell, now BuzzFeed’s head of news, said. “She’s a focused, driven and ambitious journo, who wants to get the story first. I look forward to working with her and the rest of the team to break more big stories and get in front of the news cycle.”