CODE: A new online sports platform to feature Steve Smith, Ash Barty, Patty Mills
This week, News Corp Australia will launch CODE, a digital subscriber platform featuring long-form sports journalism that will give the human stories the space to breathe.
Behind every sporting headline is a human story that, if well explored, is just as gripping as the final over of a hard-fought Test, or a kick after the siren to win, or a clutch putt to seal a major.
This week, News Corp (publisher of The Australian) will launch CODE, a digital subscriber platform featuring in-depth, long-form sports journalism that will give the human stories the space to breathe.
CODE will not only feature the work of some of the best sports journalists from here and overseas, it will also showcase regular, exclusive columns by top tier Australian athletes including cricket great Steve Smith, tennis champion Ash Barty and basketball star Patty Mills, who will offer rare insights into their respective sporting worlds.
News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller said CODE was a direct outcome of the company’s commitment to attracting new audiences via fresh media channels.
“CODE combines our journalistic talents in storytelling with our technology expertise to provide the kind of primal emotional connection that sport delivers,” Mr Miller said.
“We branded it CODE because sports lovers are always trying to get inside. Whether it’s inside the moment, inside the minds, or inside the reason why. CODE unlocks the stories that take them there.”
Mr Miller said the research confirmed a gap existed for a competitively priced digital sports story proposition.
“Where the fan consumes the game and wants the result, the sports lover immerses themselves in the stories of the game and players, and searches for the meaning.
“While the stories of sport enjoy huge appeal among Australians, these are stories that will appeal to all lovers of great stories, not just sports lovers.”
Brendan Collogan, general manager for digital consumer revenue, said while CODE would aim to tap into a new audience, it would comfortably coexist with the sports content of News Corp’s mastheads.
“Our ambition is to acquire customers that skew younger than our current titles, and who have a different relationship with sport to those that read our metro titles,” he said.
“We’re also going to leverage the global scale of News Corp – we’ll have access to content from The Times (UK), The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Post, among others, which will make it a far more profitable business.”
The latest video content from Fox Sports and Kayo will also feature on CODE. The editor of the new platform is Alex Brown, a publisher, editor and journalist with multi-platform experience across Australia, the US, the UK and other markets.
“If you love your basketball, netball, AFL, rugby league, cricket, tennis, whatever – basically, if you love sport, and the stories around sport – you’ll want to have CODE in your pocket,” he said.
“CODE’s mission is simple: to tell amazing, insightful stories about the sports Australians love and the people who make them happen.”
CODE will be available via a stand-alone web and mobile site at www.codesports.com.au, and via the CODE app.
Subscriptions will begin at $8.99 a month.
Both the site and app will be launched this week.
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