News Limited’s Campbell Reid: Guardian Australia plan is like Australian edition of Playboy
News Limited’s most senior editorial executive has compared The Guardian’s strategy of launching in Australia with that of the now defunct Australian Playboy.
“Why do I need an Australian version of The Guardian when I can have the Fleet Street version,” Reid asked a trade press briefing on News Limited’s paywall strategy.
“As a consumer if I want to consume The Guardian, I’m portraying a whole lot of things when I say this. It’s like the Australian version of Playboy.”
Australian Playboy, which carried similar contents to the US version, closed 13 years ago.
In a briefing for media on the company’s recent move to a metered paywall, last Friday, Reid cast doubt on the whether the launch of online Australian version of the newspaper would grow its Australian readership.
“Who needs the Australian version of The Guardian when I can log to British version of The Guardian, which is the mothership?”
The Guardian this morning announced the launch of its Australian digital edition. Speaking last week before the announcement Reid said the upcoming launch would be very interesting.
“Its going to be fascinating to see The Guardian, The Conversation and The Huffington Post, Crikey etc. They are all playing in the broad news space,” said Reid.
“I think if you tracked the Australians who consume the Guardian we know who those people are they read the Sydney Morning Herald, they probably read Mumbrella and Crikey then probably listen to the ABC and they probably go to The Guardian online as well.”
“They don’t need an Australian version to do that. Having said that, anyone who is boldly launching things and giving jobs to journalists and keeping journalism energetic is a good thing.”
Reid’s comments came as Australia’s largest newspaper publisher spoke about the move of the Herald Sun and Daily Telegraph to a metered paywall. The Courier Mail and Adelaide Advertiser will move to a metered model from next month.
News Limited said it was pleased with the launch so far and said that its strategy around encouraging consumers to pay would focus on the News Plus brand, while also highlighting the company’s sports and lifestyle properties.
“Fox Sports is obviously really important to this whole concept in that with our readers there’s nothing they are more passionate than sport. We think the bundle of the news brands you know and trust plus Fox Sports is really compelling,” said Reid.
“The expertise and conversation generation that newspaper journalists do so well married with the broadcast expertise that Fox Sports do so well … bring those skills together so well and mash them together digitally is a real sweet spot.”
Less than a week after the move to a metered system the company said it was not ready to release any numbers on the uptake on registrations.
However News Limited director of commercial development Les Wigan set out some of their broader targets. “Ultimately we’d like to see 20 to 25 per cent of our unique audience registering,” said Wigan. “I think that would be a minimal number.”
The company also discussed the continuing rollout of the Methode publishing system and confirm that the publishing system which allows editors to publish to print and the web from the one system was now rolled out to more than a third of the publisher’s mastheads.
“We have around 800 staff trained on Methode now and we are up to about 40 newspapers including community and regional papers,” said Reid, who indicated the next newspapers to get the system would be the Manly Daily and then some of the larger community newspapers.
“We are launching to a really strict rollout to the community newspapers and then more organically we are inserting Methode capability into the metros.”
“(The rollout) is going very well the 800 figure of people who have been trained is about a third of our journalists.”
At the time of publishing The Guardian had not responded to requests for comment.
Nic Christensen
Reid recently conducted at Google Hangout with Mumbrella on the move to a metered paywall:
“Having said that, anyone who is … giving jobs to journalists … is a good thing.”
Amen.
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Someone’s feeling threatened.
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Look, I tried it and as is often the case with these kludgy paywall attempts, the ‘user experience’ sucked in terms of trying to log on and get in. I’m no dummy when it comes to getting in and out of sites as I read about ten newspapers or magazines daily.
The end result? I haven’t read a single story nor been to any of the News Ltd sites since trying to access in the limited way they offer. There’s too much great content out there to occupy my eyeballs instead of wasting time knocking on the door.
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At last we may get a balanced view
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I agree, I dont want to read the Aussie Guardian, I want to read the Guardian. just switched to The Independent.
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And the Daily Telegraph is like the London Sun – a comic book – and The Australian is like China’s Peoples’ Daily – a propaganda sheet.
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If the Guardian is like Playboy, then The Australian is like a darkly violent smut mag that should be refused classification altogether!
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I would be threatened too – Another place to get news without paying. It has worked for the BBC having more local content mixed with the international content.
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Here’s the answer, Mr Reid: because someone thinks that there is a large chunk of the Australian population crying out for high quality Australian news coverage that they simply don’t get from slanted News Limited, Fairfax or the ABC. The media here have completely poisoned Australia’s political landscape – would be good to see a shakeup from an independent voice.
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The most remarkable aspect of this, is that it shows that News still have absolutely-no-idea-watsoever about how digital news works in the 21st century.
If they don’t know why people will read the Guardian in Australia, then they’re about to get a nasty insight into why this is nothing like Playboy Australia (or Top Gear Australia, etc.)
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The Guardian is another rational voice and is very welcome in Australia where shock jocks, tabloids and idiotic breakfast television shows dominate public discourse.
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have to agree with AdGrunt.
Mr Campbell is mistaken if he thinks readers concentrate only on publications that may support their viewpoint,
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Phew. What a relief. Now I can have some alternative to those hideous daily shots in The Australian of the Addams, sorry Abbott family as the editorial staff valiantly try to turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse and convince the Aussie public this odd specimen of humanity is our true leader.
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AN interesting read with lots of links in the Media Oxpecker of the Alternative News Weeklies (street press) organisation. http://www.altweeklies.com/aan.....id=6994241 It’s on paywalls and the transition from banner advertising as well as other revenue issues.
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CONGRATULATIONS GUARDIAN TAKING ON ALL THESE MURDOCH
MONKEYS . I HOPE THEY ARE EXPOSED AS TO HOW THEY HAVE LIED
TO US FOR TOO LONG.
FAREWELL TO BOLT , AKERMAN ,JONES, DAILY TELEGRAPH,
THE AUSTRALIAN AND NEWS LIMITED JUNK
ALL WE WANT IS HONEST REPORTING WITH NO BIAS
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Your days of fact-impairment and political activism for the sake of a regime change to a Abbott led Murdocracy are going to be challenged. We already have the Independent Australia giving us proper investigative stories you lot in Fairfax, News Ltd and the ABC have buried to protect your beloved Abbott. You just might have to start telling the truth for a change.
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Who needs Murdoch.
I’ve got “Mumbrella”, ” http://www.independentaustralia.net/ “, ” http://nofibs.com.au/ “,
” http://theaimn.com/ “, ” http://www.thepoliticalsword.com/default.aspx “,
” http://northcoastvoices.blogspot.com.au/ “, ” http://www.theglobalmail.org/ “.
And the list goes on.
Why bother with some old man’s newspaper and some boy who refers to Playboy.
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I would be very doubtful if any News Ltd. or Fairfax media transfers into on-line media successfully, mostly older generations read newspapers, and will never take up on-line news as a substitute, especially the “Australian” it’s days are numbered, along with foxtell, they will never keep up with technology and the younger generation, a case in point, fraudband . Thank goodness for IA and now Aussie guardian, Times they are a changin’
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Well I’ve got news for you Campbell Reid, we don’t want to read, listen or see your crap anymore. We’ve had enough.
I have been checking out the Adelaide Addy for a bit of local news in Adelaide, obviously won’t be soon.
Rupert and co the world is changing.
Guardian is refreshing, no doubt needs to expand but hey on day 2/3. I’m patient. then of course everything else I read daily from IA, Margo Kingston, ABC, OS news,Fairfax (but weaning myself off), Global Mail, bit of the Convo and whatever- there’s my informed day gone! We finally have so much choice!
Reid has no idea, dinosaur.
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I am very glad The Guardian is here in Australia.
We now have access to another opinion and coverage of news tempering, hopefully, the outrageous bias of THE national daily The Australian!
The Aus hits at anyone elses bias while peddling its anti climate science, anti ABC rhetoric to a national audience.
The Guardian’s appearance in Australia may help promote a democracy that The Australian is continually undermining!
T Dix
Hobart
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