The Daily Aus launches second newsletter vertical to combat potential Meta shut down
The Daily Aus (TDA) has launched a new newsletter vertical in an effort to move its audience away from Meta while uncertainty remains about the future of news on Facebook and Instagram.
The new vertical – a dedicated sports newsletter – follows TDA’s tagline of ‘Now It Makes Sense’, hoping to make sports news accessible and understandable for young Australians.
Billi FitzSimons, editor-in-chief at TDA, told Mumbrella the new vertical was a “no brainer”.
“Our audience always loves our sports content, and we felt like there was a gap there that we could fill and deliver sports news in a way that was as accessible as possible and as inclusive as possible,” she said.
“With the Olympics coming up in three months, there’s a buzz in the air because it’s so exciting. And that was a key factor in the decision as well.”
The first edition of the daily vertical will launch this evening at 5pm, in partnership with Deakin University.
“Deakin just seemed like the perfect partnership,” FitzSimons told Mumbrella. “They are such an incredible university for sport talent in Australia, and it’s such a perfect opportunity for them to get in front of an audience of young Australians interested in sport.
“We’re launching this newsletter from scratch, so to have their confidence and for them to believe in what we’re doing, and believe we can build this audience, is incredible.”
While there will be no native advertising, as TDA strives on transparency with its audience and FitzSimons feels native advertising lacks that, Deakin University will have opportunities to profile sports graduates, bring awareness to the university and integrate itself into the newsletter.
Billi FitzSimons
“All of the news is completely independent of any sponsor,” FitzSimons explained.
“They will have sections in the daily newsletter but it will be very explicit that it is sponsored.”
She said that the new vertical is part of TDA’s broader plan and strategy to build its platform outside of Meta.
With over 540,000 Instagram followers, the platform is one of Australia’s leading online news sources for young people, but the risk of being blocked by Meta remains.
“Obviously The Daily Aus started on Instagram, and with all the uncertainty around Meta, it is so important that we build out that direct relationship that we have with the audience,” she said.
“Our flagship newsletter has reached an audience of 200,000 now, which is a huge milestone for us, and we want to keep building that.”
She continued: “We are trying to make sure that we can attract as much of our audience as possible to our newsletters, in case our Instagram is taken away, and that’s the biggest challenge we’re facing at the moment.”
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Lauren McNamara is the associate editor at Mumbrella, covering the creative and PR beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
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They seem to be overhyping these Meta changes to promote their newsletter. The changes are clearly about news links on Facebook, not organic Instagram posts which there’s essentially no distinction between on someone’s feed except for how much someone engages with them and therefore what their personal algorithm promotes.
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