News Corp launches new kids website, Kids News
News Corp has launched a national news website for children and teachers, Kids News.
Aiming to teach students the importance of trusted news sources and improve general knowledge, the website will source content from News Corp’s mastheads including The Herald Sun, The Daily Telegraph, The Courier-Mail, The Advertiser, The Mercury and NT News as well as regional titles.
The launch of News Corp’s newest website comes a month after the closure of Australia’s only children’s newspaper, Crinkling News.
News Corp believes the new title – which will run as a standalone site – will ‘inspire the next generation of readers’.
The website will feature two new stories a day written in child-friendly language, and will be targeted to children in years three to six. It is also linked to the national curriculum, with learning activities available under each news story.
Kids News will be led by Herald Sun’s associate editor, Toni Hetherington, who has been part of the title since its inception as a pilot program last year. She will now take the role national education publisher.
Chairman of the Herald and Weekly Times and News Corp Australia community ambassador, Penny Fowler, said the launch was an important part of News Corp’s commitment to education.
“We hope students around the country will embrace this dedicated news site, and teachers find it an invaluable tool to better educate and inform their students about what is happening in Australia and around the world,” Fowler said.
Damian Eales, chief operating officer, publishing at News Corp Australia, said Kids News was an “extension” of the publisher’s commitment to communities.
“We have been overwhelmed by the popularity and success of Kids News since rolling it out as a pilot program in 2017 to Victorian schools and have already attracted a readership of over 110,000 teachers and students. We expect this to significantly increase as we take it national,” Eales said.
Publisher Hetherington, said the title could give teachers a new tool to improve literacy. She also said it would be attractive to advertisers.
HP appears to be one of the first sponsors of the title.
“Kids News offers both national and local advertisers access to a niche and engaged audience including students, teachers and parents. And the fact the site encourages learning is very attractive to advertisers,” Hetherington said.
At least with News and Murdoch behind it, we can trust that the reporting will be objective and constructive with no political bias or agenda for the kids.
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How can they claim to be educational when they misspelled ‘brainwash via propaganda’ as ‘educate and inform’?
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“News Corp has launched a national news website for children and teachers, Kids News.
Aiming to teach students the importance of trusted news sources”
Wonderful article rich in oxymoranic content.
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“The site is a literacy tool that aims to improve children’s general knowledge and ability to rely on trusted news sources”
This is the weirdest timeline.
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“Extra, Extra!: Todd smells”
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Isn’t the Daily Tele a kids website?
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Despite the amount of News Ltd naysayers, this is a decent initiatve.
Any sort of journalist lead specialty content for this demographic has to be more reliable than the ‘Internet Of Shite’ that exists in search and Wiki’s.
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Post and existing internet Murdoch has single handedly been responsible for tripe, smear, spin and vulgarity (remember Milly Downer)? People don’t forget. Whilst the snow may melt his footprints shall not.
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It sounds very good to me. Kids will benefit but only if no former ABC journalists and/or teachers union militants are involved
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