Online news sees new challenger with arrival of The New Daily
Australia’s online media landscape today sees the launch of The New Daily, a general news website funded by Australia’s major superannuation funds.
The New Daily will be run by former Herald Sun editor Bruce Guthrie, who is the website’s editorial director and former online editor of The Age Daniel Sankay, who had been rumoured to joining an Australian version of The Huffington Post.
“The important thing about The New Daily is that this is a digital only product,” said Guthrie, “most other sites out there have been something else before they were digital.”
“When we started we sat down and thought what do you need on an online news website, we felt video was important and that the site should be able to move and speak.”
The New Daily will have an editorial staff of 15 full time staff and is owned equally by super funds AustralianSuper, Cbus and Industry SuperHoldings who have invested in The New Daily’s parent company Motion Publishing.
“What we are is a digital first news publication that it is based on a model which was launched in Adelaide for inDaily and it is backed by the industry superannuation funds,” said Paul Hamra, publisher of The New Daily.
“It is a general news website and given the super funds have 5.5m members and represent all Australians and so our site is very much a mass site.”
In addition to the editorial content provided by the editorial staff and contributors The New Daily will have access to ABC videos and copy which it will use on the website.
“We have reached an agreement with the ABC that they will provide video for us,” said Guthrie, “These are predominately 90 second videos across news, business, sport and weather.”
“We have bought those from the ABC because we think if users are time poor, particularly in the morning they might just go straight to those videos,” he said, while declining to comment on the fee paid for licencing ABC content.
Guthrie said the wake of Fairfax and News Corp Australia implementing paywalls there were opportunities for new entrants who came to the market with digital mindsets.
“I set up The Age’s website in 1996 and I relaunched the Herald Sun’s website in 2007 and I can tell you those websites were created with a print mindset,” said Guthrie.
“That still exists within News and Fairfax that they approach digital with a print mindset but what we have done is say we don’t have to worry about that what is a digital news site and what should it look like.”
He argues metered paywalls, introduced by both publishers earlier this year, were frustrating readers.
“What we have seen in our research that there is an increasing frustration with these porous paywalls which lock you out after 15 or 30 articles,” said Guthrie. “Providing good quality journalism for free, and the super funds have made it clear they will never charge for journalism is a significant selling point for the website.”
Among the launch contributors to The New Daily are former editor of Vogue Kristy Clements, former cricketer Rodney Hogg and TV identity Steve Vizard reviewing television.
The New Daily will launch with a marketing push to members of the super funds who own the site.
“The good thing we have is that we are able to market to members of super funds, we are in the middle of an email campaign introducing them to the site, that began on Monday night and will go for the next week,” said Hamra.
“We have the power to market to a really big section of the community.”
Hamra and Guthrie are also joined on the board of Motion Publishing by Private Media’s Eric Beecher.
Nic Christensen
This is a mashup of cheap content. Nothing more. It is extremely provocative of the ABC to provide content against which there will be ads. Also wondering how the people who pay AAP bills (News and Fairfax) are feeling about the content in here.
Forecast: a short run.
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Industry super funds launching an online news website with some sort of agreement with the ABC while the Liberal Party is in government – this is going to get very interesting indeed.
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Embedded ads on a java-ridden aggregater
Back to the loch with you nessie.
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Being a member of AustralianSuper, I want to know why my super contributions are being spent on this.
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Just checked out the mobile site. Looks great. Much better than the majors. It also came up with a neat little pop-up showing how to add it to the home screen when I first opened it. Good job so far
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The Global Mail, The Daily Review, The New Daily. ….. why so many generic sounding names? I see they’ve got Vizard writing about tv. Only a couple of years till his 10 year ban on directing a company ends.
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Wow, sounds like you might be a little too concerned about News and Fairfax’s bills. Surely the landscape is big enough for another independent player? And while AAP and ABC will bulk it out it seems like there’ll be plenty of exclusive content as well – there are twelve journos on the payroll and many more paid-up contributors. Rodney Hogg’s Ashes article today, for example, was a hoot. (http://thenewdaily.com.au/spor.....odney-hogg) More power to their keyboards!
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Well done Bruce. I hope it works.
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Bruce, if you’re listening change the fonts quick smart! The body text font is awful to read on a computer screen. Apart from that, good luck – the more news sources the better.
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Great news if they’re going to employ journalists, set an agenda and do original stuff (not just rehash news feeds or OS content.)
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“When we started we sat down and thought what do you need on an online news website, we felt video was important and that the site should be able to move and speak.” – With such innovative ideas as video, the daily is SURE to be a success!
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So, is this a content marketing effort by these super funds, or is this site trying to earn advertising revenue in the tradition of Web 1.0?
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““I set up The Age’s website in 1996 and I relaunched the Herald Sun’s website in 2007 and I can tell you those websites were created with a print mindset,” said Guthrie.” That’s BS, Bruce. In 2006 (not 2007) it was News Interactive that relaunched the Herald Sun website, not you.
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So it’s news.com.au, (or reddit.com/r/australia and /r/news) but run by a different company? Fantastic.
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An Adelaide newspaper has been doing this for some time now and they have horizontal scrolls. check them out at – http://indaily.com.au/
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‘So, is this a content marketing effort by these super funds, or is this site trying to earn advertising revenue in the tradition of Web 1.0?’ – exactly what I was wondering. If the banner ads stay with superannuation promos then we’ll know it’s the former.
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I don’t know where to start with the conflict of interest when it comes to a super funded red site, pitched at super clients talking about news items like … Super. Fuck me.
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How long can it remain the New Daily before it’s no longer new?
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Amusing that the chairman says it wont say much about politics or IR and will not run any naughty stories about super. Wont take add from industry fund competitors. Hilarious that the meaa super fund chair is a director too. This may well be the most embarrassing project of the decade.
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Being run by decent journalists. I forecast a long run. Well done Bruce for getting it together. I ve just signed up
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Yesterday at the Climate Action march, people were invited, by Ian Dunlop, a former Coal industry exec, to ensure they take action at all levels, in our personal lives as well as our business and our investments – ‘are you investing in companies related to fracking or CSG, you do? well please I’d like to move my funds into something that doesn’t’
Media can make money, even on line, as everyone realises that most of Twitter and FAcebook is full of people just flicking through mainstream media stories with a bit of a comment … I think investing in media would be fine – Super funds invest in MUCH worse!
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If the investment in this venture by Australian Super is coming from members admin fees ($1.50 a member) does that mean there were surplus funds to use. If so why is it being invested in a venture that is not expected to make a return for 3 to 5 years?
Why if there funds available are they not being put into an investment with more certainty of return?
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