He replaces Simon Rogers who, after 15 years at the Guardian, is moving to the US to join Twitter as its first ever data editor.
James (pictured), who joined the Guardian in 2011, is one of the UK’s leading data journalists. He has worked on a number of high-profile stories at the Guardian, including the Guantanamo Files, Reading the Riots - which picked up multiple awards - Offshore Secrets, and the campaign against the extradition of Richard O'Dwyer.
Prior to joining the Guardian he was at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism where he was one of the team behind iraqwarlogs.com, which won the Amnesty International digital journalism award in 2011.
In his new role, James will run the Datastore site - one of the Guardian’s most popular resources. He will also be charged with embedding data journalism in the Guardian newsroom more widely, and will continue to work on investigative projects.
Alan Rusbridger, editor-in-chief, Guardian News & Media, said: “We're terrifically excited that James is taking over as data editor. He is a brilliant journalist who has already been centrally involved in some of the biggest data stories, both at the Guardian and before that at WikiLeaks and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. I'm confident that he will keep the Guardian at the cutting edge of data journalism and put it at the centre of what we do.
“Simon has done an amazing job over the last decade helping to build the Guardian's reputation as a world leader in data journalism and it will be fascinating to see what he can do with the vast trove of data that he will have access to at Twitter.”
James Ball said: “The Guardian has built an amazing reputation for being at the vanguard of data journalism. I'm hugely excited to be taking that challenge forwards now, and looking at how we use data to both explain what's going on and to drive stories forwards."
James Ball graduated from City University in 2008 and joined The Grocer followed by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ). There, he worked on Panorama, Al Jazeera and Dispatches, and was one of the key team behind iraqwarlogs.com, which won the Amnesty International digital journalism award in 2011.
James joined the Guardian in February 2011 following a brief spell at WikiLeaks. At WikiLeaks he aided in the publishing of the US embassy cables, worked with UK media outlets and made the cables accessible to journalists.
He was awarded the Laurence Stern fellowship at the Washington Post in 2012.
James has been a visiting lecturer at City University, teaching on the interactive and investigative journalism courses, since 2009.
James has one academic book published, "WikiLeaks: news in the networked era", and a forthcoming book entitled "The Infographic History of the World".
