News Corp digital channel My Local delivers news that matters

Fresh technology that allows audiences to “personalise” their news feeds will breathe new life into regional and local journalism.

News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller: ‘We’re really combining old-fashioned boots-on-the-ground reporting with the very best technology we believe is available in today’s media market.’ Picture: Liam Kidston.

Fresh technology that allows audiences to “personalise” their news feeds will breathe new life into regional and local journalism, by giving readers of News Corp’s digital channels unprecedented access to stories about their own communities.

Australians will be able to tailor their digital news feed to their particular interests — be they news topics relating to a certain suburb or town, or stories about their favourite sporting team, or even the works of a particular journalist — while maintaining a window to the wider world through the content on the company’s metro websites.

News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller said the initiatives, dubbed My News Feed and My Local, build on the company’s long tradition of delivering the stories that matter to audiences and commercial clients.

“We’re really combining old-fashioned boots-on-the-ground reporting with the very best technology we believe is available in today’s media market,” ­he said.

“These innovations deliver subscribers all the news they want, how they want and when they want seamlessly across all devices, whether it’s hyper local, state or international news.”

Mr Miller said My Local’s ability to search by postcode would especially benefit the company’s regional and community journalism as it’s unveiled in coming weeks.

“We’re continuing to support local and regional journalism by enabling readers to get to those stories in a number of ways — through the strap on the homepage, through dedicated pages for each local and regional masthead, through the ability to follow these mastheads and to follow their favourite local and regional journalists.”

The My News Feed function can be enabled by tapping a “Follow” button above any story’s headline on any section.

Once pressed, that topic or journalist is placed into the subscriber’s news feed and syncs it across all the user’s devices.

The My Local function is activated by entering a particular postcode.

Readers can change their areas of interest at any time they so choose.

The new technology, which was launched this month across some of the media company’s websites and mobile sites throughout Queensland and NSW, will be fully rolled out nationwide in April, along with the apps of the state-based, regional and community News Corp mastheads.

In all, 77 community digital brands will be part of the project, along with 33 regional digital brands.

Maggie Burke, News Corp general manager of product (metros, regionals and sport), said the game-changing technology was developed by News Corp following an 18-month consultation process with hundreds of subscribers and non-subscribers across Australia.

“We wanted to know what was needed to engage a wider audience, and what it would take to live up to modern-day expectations,” Ms Burke said.

“The Netflixes of the world have changed people’s expectations.

“People expect things to be fast, people expect your product to know you, and to adjust to meet your needs.

“People expect to be able to access content at the flick of a switch or a button and not have to go off and do it elsewhere.

“The thinking is: ‘Get me to what I want, and get me there fast. I don’t want to have to click 15 times to find something I’m looking for.

“So we’re getting our great content out to people very quickly and very effectively.

“However, people also want to be told what the main stories of the day are, they want to know what has been prioritised by editors and they want to know what other people are reading.

“So that content will always be easily accessible on their news feed as well.”