Looking local: How News Corp is targeting regional areas with digital-only mastheads
Over the past few months, News Local has launched five digital-only mastheads, four of which are in regions the publisher previously wasn’t present in. Mumbrella’s Hannah Blackiston sat down with News Local publisher John McGourty to discuss the strategy and find out which regions are next.
Earlier this year Eliza Barr achieved what many journalists try to avoid. Through no fault of her own, she became the headline. Barr was attending a press conference given by then-senator, Fraser Anning. During the event, Barr’s line of questioning was opposed by Anning, and his followers who were watching. One of those followers took it upon themselves to attack Barr.
Eliza Barr of the St George Shire Standard
The event distracted from a more important, and arguably more interesting, fact about Barr. She’s the launch reporter for the St George Shire Standard, News Corp’s first foray into digital-only local journalism. Barr, who was born and raised in the Shire, has been the test for what’s proven to be a successful model for the publisher, and her learnings from the experience have already been propelled into another four mastheads, with more to follow.
News Local currently comprises of 23 mastheads, five of which are digital-only. The digital-only mastheads are manned by a single reporter who lives and breathes the local area the masthead is based in. Like Barr, they’re locals themselves, who have interests and contacts in the area they represent. Working as one-man-bands, they cover the information relevant to that area, including court reporting, property and real estate news, business stories and anything else people in the town would want to read about.
