Journalists kickstart local publishing as News Corp reaches out to communities

Journalists embedded in regions where News Corp has never had a masthead have helped deliver content to communities hungry for localised news.

Journalist Dan Mills from the Mid-North Coast News covering the NSW floods in Kempsey in March.

Journalists embedded in more than one dozen regions where News Corp has never had a masthead have helped deliver content to communities hungry for localised news.

In just nine months new publications have been successfully implemented in 13 areas throughout Victoria, NSW and South Australia and a 14th publication will begin in Warrnambool next month.

The bolstering of regional news comes on the back of the success of 11 publications already launched in other greenfields areas across NSW and South Australia over a two-year period.

Journalist Daniel Mills, 34, moved to Port Macquarie in NSW last year and kickstarted the Mid-North Coast News, which covers areas including Kempsey, Taree and Foster.

During last month’s devastating NSW floods he was wading through water, reporting on the ground for a major story that had affected so many people across the state.

“That was a once in a 100-year event and it was a great few weeks to cover such a big story,” he said.

“There’s also been some interesting community activism stories around Lake Cathie which had a lot of issues after the 2019 drought – it’s been a focus for many locals.”

But Mills said working as a reporter immersed in a community has been a big change from his previous job in the public sector.

“It’s been great to escape the classic work environment where there’s micromanaging,” he said.

“There’s lots to think about, you’ve got your copy, newslists, digital and social posts, you’re a one-stop shop.”

Kempsey on the NSW north coast was last month hit by rising flood waters. Picture: Cameron Richardson

In the past nine months new digital mastheads have been started in locations including the Barossa, Port Lincoln, Ballarat, Mildura, Dubbo, Bass Coast, Melbourne City, Albury Wodonga, NSW’s Mid-North Coast, Goulburn, Mount Gambier, Bowral and Bendigo.

And the on-the-ground reporters are delivering impressive results, tracking 38 per cent above their subscription and online readership targets.

News Corp’s national community masthead network editor John McGourty said the new mastheads have allowed “journalists to live and work in the communities they serve”.

“The past 12 months has shown a sense of community has never been more important than it is right now in Australia,” he said.

“Having a strong editorial presence in every community across the country is our ambition and we are identifying gaps in areas we think people are looking for trusted news.

“We are employing more journalists across News Corp Australia to write for those communities at a local level about the things that matter most to them.”

This includes everything from politics to policing, education, environment, social and community issues.

In the next 12 months News Corp plans to launch more than 15 digital mastheads in locations where the publisher has not traditionally had a local reporter including Orange, Tamworth in NSW and Latrobe in Victoria.

Zizi Averill of The Bendigo News

Journalist Zizi Averill, 25, moved from Mackay in central Queensland to Bendigo in central Victoria this year to launch The Bendigo News.

“I have this very hyperlocal focus on Bendigo and I like to focus on the city, the residents and the suburbs, it’s nice to be in this small, well-connected thriving community,” she said.

One of her first stories she began investigating was a rental crisis in the region that she experienced herself when finding a place to live.

“When I moved here I was looking for a rental and I was having trouble so I asked more people about it and could see it was a problem,” Averill said.

“I then started asking around as a journalist and got a story up about how there was a rental crisis here.”

Originally published as Journalists kickstart local publishing as News Corp reaches out to communities