Seeking a wider readership, The Australian reaches out to Chinese readers Down Under
The national broadsheet is the first major commercial outlet to offer news in a language other than English. John Power speaks to Stuart Fagg, general manager of The Australian’s digital business, about the new venture.
John Power is a journalist whose work has appeared in The Guardian, The Christian Science Monitor, Quartz, The Age, The South China Morning Post, The Irish Times, The Nikkei Asian Review, and Al Jazeera. This article first appeared on the Splice Newsroom here.
At first glance, Chinese speakers might not seem like the most promising target market for an Australian broadsheet trying to expand its readership. But that’s not how News Corporation’s flagship title The Australian sees it.
In September, the right-leaning national newspaper launched a Chinese-language website aimed at Australia’s growing Chinese community. While community newspapers have catered to Chinese and other ethnic communities here for decades, The Australian is the first major commercial outlet to offer news specifically catered to non-English speakers.
This could be a smart move. Lost dog signs around my area are written entirely in Mandarin. The Chinese population is now at a level where we all need to learn Mandarin.
This is awesome. Now Chinese Australians can read articles in The Australian which rant on about people in Australia who don’t speak English….
Oh, well, I don’t know any English-speaking person who buys it … gotta try someone else, I suppose. It’s a big world out there.
They should partner with China’s ‘Global Times’, as they have similar political perspectives.