New deal gives university students unlimited access to the Herald and The Age

University students and faculty staff will be able to access a complimentary digital subscription to the Herald and The Age through a new premium subscription licensing deal.

The University of Sydney is the first institution to enter into the arrangement with Nine Publishing, which will be launched during the university’s Welcome Fest from Wednesday, February 19.

University of Sydney students and staff will have unlimited digital access to the Herald and The Age.Credit: Louise Kennerley

The Campus Access partnership will provide unlimited access to a complimentary digital subscription for students and staff through their university portal. Personalised subscription access will allow users to download the Good Food and news apps, browse Today’s Paper, and stay up to date with the latest independent coverage of news, politics, business, world, food, travel and culture.

It is the latest move in an initiative to engage wider audiences with quality, objective journalism, while tackling what Herald editor Bevan Shields said was one of the greatest challenges facing publishers around the globe: encouraging more young readers to engage with their content.

“The arrangement between The Sydney Morning Herald and the University of Sydney will make our award-winning journalism more available to an audience which may otherwise struggle to access it,” Shields said.

University of Sydney vice chancellor and president Professor Mark Scott hopes students and staff “make the most of the opportunity to access accurate and timely news and analysis, whatever their many and varied needs and interests”.

The long-term goal for Nine Publishing is to make the licensing deal available to universities around Australia, with a view to growing the number of partner institutions as well as expanding and diversifying the reach of the independent, quality journalism of the Herald and The Age.

Director of commercial growth for Nine Publishing, Ashleigh Thomas, said: “Never before have we been able to offer this type of licence at scale and this marks a significant step in making quality journalism more accessible to the next generation.”

The Campus Access subscription deal represents the latest plank of the Herald’s strategy to drive audience growth.

It follows the recent announcement that the Herald will expand its newsroom in March when it opens a new bureau in Parramatta, the geographic heart of Sydney. The reporters, led by the Herald’s associate editor and state topic editor Kathryn Wicks, will provide even more extensive coverage of western Sydney, which is undergoing a once-in-a-generation boom.

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