Fox News To Revamp Website

Fox News is re-energizing its website, tapping Heat Street co-founder and former television producer Noah Kotch as editor-in-chief and vice president of Fox News digital, according to Politico.

Kotch is already under the Rupert Murdoch fold, having helped found and lead Heat Street, a libertarian-minded website that's part of NewsCorp. Kotch will leave Heat Street to focus on Foxnews.com, as part of an effort to revamp a site that attracts big traffic but lacks the identity of its competitors as a standalone news destination.

The network's website will also undergo a redesign.

"In an effort to further increase our original reporting and content, we are adding some depth to the editorial ranks. Beginning Monday, June 12th, Noah Kotch will become Editor in Chief/VP of Foxnews.com," Fox's President of News Jay Wallace wrote in a memo.

"Noah comes to us from just a few floors away where he is wrapping up his duties as editor of Heat Street. Noah also helped launch the news site Vocativ and has many years of TV news experience at NBC & ABC."

According to ComScore, Foxnews.com was the 25th most trafficked site overall last month, with more than 86 million unique visitors across desktop and digital. But the site had not been a focus for the network, as former Fox News chief Roger Ailes was widely reported to have considered it an afterthought.

Murdoch, who took over Fox News when Ailes left, has taken a keen interest in the digital side of Fox News and recruited Kotch to join, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said.