Journalists and creatives launch Kite Digital Publishing for brands
A digital publishing company setting out to create digital platforms and content for brands has launched in Sydney today with a team of journalists and creatives at the helm.
Kite Digital Publishing, founded by former editor and creative director Kiera Kelly, aims to create beautiful images, inspiring stories and informative articles for brands to help them draw in consumers, Kelly said.
Amy Molloy, the former editor of Grazia and now health editor at The Carousel – who spoke out about the plight of her success in the Daily Mail – will be a guest editor, working on selected projects and having a say in editorial strategy. And Melissa Shedden, a former fashion editor at The Sun newspaper in the UK, will also contribute to strategy as well as edit content projects.
Kelly said the model will follow that established by bloggers, by making brands and corporations self-publishing companies to communicate with consumers.
Kiera Kelly
“I’ve worked in the fashion industry for most of my career and in my opinion, fashion is leap years ahead of other industries in terms of communicating to an audience,” she told Mumbrella.
“The fashion industry is founded upon media. Beautiful images, inspiring stories and lifestyle articles, often featuring people that don’t have much to do with the fashion industry itself, has been selling fashion for years. There is no reason why other industries can’t do the same thing.”
Kelly also plans to align with PR and advertising industries and alleviate their need to secure freelancers for creative projects.
“I’ve created Kite to act is a one-stop-shop for creative production, so instead of liaising with numerous parties you liaise with just one, for all aspects of creative production. And because we’ll be working with the same contributors, the end result will be consistent,” she said.
As her staff have a strong editorial background she said content will be more compelling.
“We’ll be working with story-tellers who bring spice and sensuality to content,” she said. “That’s the secret ingredient in connecting and staying engaged with an audience. You have to make people think. Thats why each of our team members have been successful. They’re able to keep people inspired.”
Kelly was also inspired to launch the digital publishing business after working as the editor/producer on the State Library NSW and Art Processors’ digital project Curio, an app that uses positioning technology to tell stories about the library’s history, collections and exhibitions to visitors.
Molloy
Digital developer Jason Love, of Collider, will develop digital platforms for clients and Kelly has also brought on board video director Andy Fernandez, photographer Kiren Le Flaneur, and designer Bettina Winkler
Molloy commented: “In order to survive the current challenging media landscape, I think the key is collaboration. Kite will bring together creatives with a wide range of skill sets, whether it’s writing, photography or web design to create a one-stop shop where companies can have publishing-standard content created that works across a wide range of multi-platforms.”
