Mail Online rebrands to Daily Mail Australia to gain more reader recognition
The Mail Online has changed its Australian masthead with the publication choosing to launch under a rebranded masthead of the Daily Mail Australia.
The joint venture between Nine’s digital arm Mi9 and the Daily Mail Trust in London was announced in November recruiting more than 40 journalists in the last six months.
While the news website rolled out largely Australian content three weeks ago, a spokesman confirmed to Mumbrella that the formal launch occurred yesterday: “We can confirm that the Daily Mail Australia masthead has gone live.”
The decision to go with the name Daily Mail Australia instead of the Mail Online, which is used in the UK and US, is understood to have been taken due to perception of greater brand recognition for the Daily Mail among the Australian audience.
“For over a century the Daily Mail has been one of the world’s most influential and trusted news brands. We’re therefore delighted to offer Australians local stories, alongside all of our addictive content from the United Kingdom, United States and around the world,” said the spokesman.
The latest Nielsen rankings placed the local version of the website sixth for news, with an audience of 2.17m.
The new publication has also made major raids on rival News Corp Australia’s staff poaching News.com.au editor Luke McIlveen to head the local operation and hiring a raft of journalists including Candace Sutton, Sarah Michael and Barclay Crawford.
Nic Christensen
The DT must be a little concerned that their niche of right-wing wowserism, xenophobia and tittle-tattle is about to receive such a strong assault.
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