Eccles, last year crowned the state’s print journalist of the year at the SA Media Awards, has been InDaily news editor for two years. Before that, he spent more than two decades as an editorial leader and journalist at the ABC and The Advertiser in Adelaide.

He will take over day-to-day newsroom leadership at InDaily from this week.

“Our company has experienced exponential audience growth in the past 12 months,” said Solstice Media managing director Paul Hamra.

“InDaily has doubled its audience and now ranked 23rd on Nielsen’s rankings of national news sites – only a couple below theadvertiser.com.au – and the only independent South Australian news site on the list.

“This audience growth, plus payments from digital platforms such as Google and Facebook, gives us the ability to increase our resources and bulk up our editorial management to improve our journalism for the South Australian audience.”

Eccles said “it’s an honour to be taking the helm of InDaily and reinforcing its reputation as a source of credible, independent local news published without fear or favour”.

“In an ever-shrinking local media landscape, the need for diversity and holding power to account has never been more important,” he said.

Washington, editor since 2012, will move full-time to his role as editorial director of Solstice Media – the South Australian-owned publisher of InDaily, SALIFE and CityMag.

While continuing to be involved in InDaily’s growth as the state’s key independent news source, he is also overseeing the development of InReview – Solstice’s new arts and culture publication based on reviewing, to be launched this week – alongside Solstice arts editor Suzie Keen.