Guardian Australia to boost state coverage following Google deal
Guardian Australia has announced a project that aims to boost its state news coverage in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria, which has been made possible due to its Google News Showcase deal announced earlier this year.
As part of the project, Guardian Australia will hire a state correspondent and state reporter in each of the three locations, as well as editorial and support staff. Recruitment for the positions commences today, 6 October.
The project will include “geo-located containers” which are dedicated, separate collections of state stories that will live on the Guardian Australia homepage, viewable to readers who reside in the relevant state. Readers in NSW, for instance, will see a container populated with NSW stories.
Guardian Australia editor Lenore Taylor said: “State politics and state-based news are crucial to the lives of our readers.
“The limited space on our national front page has restricted how much state news Guardian Australia has been able to provide, so we are very excited about this expansion.
“We believe this pilot of geo-located containers in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria will allow us to provide more of the stories our audiences want to read. We are hoping to expand the containers to other states over time.”
The initiative is set to launch in February 2022.
The Google News Showcase was launched earlier this year in February. As part of the program, participating publishers will receive a set monthly fee to feature their content, including content usually behind a paywall. In exchange, showcased articles will appear as panels within Google News.
Other publishers that have joined Google News Showcase include but are not limited to Yahoo Australia, Country Press Australia, News Corp, Seven West Media, Nine and Junkee Media.
