The editor of Crikey, Jonathan Green, has resigned to take up a new post with the ABC. Green, who worked for The Age before joining Crikey three years ago, said this morning he was leaving because he had achieved what he wanted in “dragging Crikey to a position where it is taken seriously as part of the broad media landscape. I feel it is now, and I feel good about that.”

He said he welcomed the chance to join the ABC at a time when the national broadcaster was “so full of pep and ideas.” Green declined to comment on claims published by the Sunday Age that his departure was partly because of tensions with the recently appointed CEO of Crikey, the founder of stablemate publication SmartCompany.com.au, Amanda Gome.

Green’s new job is as editor of a new ABC project, described by insiders as a web-based “op ed” presence. The Sydney Morning Herald’s Annabel Crabb has also been recruited to the project. Details of the project are to be announced by the ABC later today — but not in time for the Crikey email deadline. See my blog later this afternoon for more.

Crikey publisher and co-owner Eric Beecher said today that he had been told of Green’s departure only on Friday, and had not yet had time to consider his replacement. What was wanted, he said, was someone to “conduct the orchestra…we think our orchestra is playing pretty well, but it could always play better.” He wanted someone who would continue in the current direction, rather than make radical alterations.

Beecher credited Green with taking Crikey to a new stage. “He has done a first class job. Three years ago we didn’t have the depth and diversity of writing and reporting that we have today. Crikey didn’t have the liveliness it has now.”

Writers recruited by Green included Guy Rundle, Bernard Keane and the cartoonist First Dog on the Moon. Green had also been involved with the evolution of the Crikey website.

Asked why Gome had been appointed as CEO of Crikey — a new position — Beecher said that the two companies SmartCompany.com.au and Private Media Partners, the owner of Crikey, were being merged to create a larger media presence. Previously the two companies had been separate entities, while sharing office space and some shareholders.

“Amanda was the obvious candidate for the position of CEO,” Beecher said.