The Huffington Post is here – but will Australians care?
In this cross-posting from The Conversation Queensland University of Technology’s Axel Bruns examines if The Huffington Post stands a chance of gaining a foothold in the increasingly crowded local news and commentary market.
The past few years have been positively revolutionary for the Australian news landscape. From a static and highly concentrated media market, dominated by News Corporation, Fairfax, and the ABC, new players have gradually entered the market, and the next new entry lumbering up to the starting blocks is the Australian version of The Huffington Post, which launched today.
Emerging from founder Arianna Huffington’s earlier forays into political blogging in the mid-2000s, HuffPo has become a major political voice in the United States, and has recently expanded into a number of global markets, with over a dozen localised editions now available. Huffington Post Australia, in partnership with Fairfax Media, is slated to launch on Wednesday, August 19.
Does Huffington Post Australia stand a chance of gaining a foothold in the increasingly crowded Australian news and commentary market? The fate of some of the other recent additions to the media mix may provide a useful guide here.
Welcome to the market! Having been a reader, as well as having worked professionally with the Huff Post UK and US, I think you’ll disrupt the market place just beautifully here in Australia. Good luck, guys!
As a long-time reader of the Huff Post, I just hope they don’t try and do IP redirects, and give you the choice to stick with the US version if you want to. The Guardian redirects you to the AU version of their site, and Sportal has done a shocking job integrating with NBA.com – already a hugely popular site in AU, I don’t think forcing readers to read your ‘local’ site is the way to go…
Fingers crossed they will do it right, but given some of the recent contributions they have picked from AU contributors, I am concerned…
More sausages from the sausage factory. But no more steak I fear.
Totally agree Matt B.
I hate being forced to read local AU content on international news sites. If I want local content I’ll go to local media.
The IP re-direct when you try to get the US site stinks. I look at the US edition of HP occasionally to get US news…not to get second-rate Australian news I’ve already read somewhere else.
Hank and Matt. It is easy to click UK or US on the Guardian site and ‘go global’. Try it, you might like it!
Will Australians care? In a word, no.