The new year will bring a motley crew of fresh faces and sideways shifts in the Australian media landscape.
The UK’s Daily Mail announced last week it is teaming up with Ninemsn in the new year to launch a news and entertainment website that aims to be the largest digital operation in Australia.
The Mail’s publisher, Martin Clarke, said dailymail.com.au would provide Australian readers with local and international news in a “reader-friendly” style.
“Australia is just one part of a global operation and it is the scale that makes these things possible,” said Mr Clarke.
MailOnline, which is distinctive for its celebrity focus, copious photos and “click-bait” stories, is currently the most popular newspaper website in the world. It is likely to compete most directly with news.com.au and the Sydney Morning Herald website.
“The thing that have made the Daily Mail successful online are the same things that have made the Daily Mail successful in print for many years in Britain: fantastic stories that people want to read with great words, fantastic pictures, really great headlines,” Mr Clarke said.
With Guardian Australia and MailOnline offering free content online, it’s unclear how the News Corp and Fairfax paywalls will fare – while the future of print remains dire, with circulation in freefall.
But Morry Schwartz, publisher of The Monthly and Quarterly Essay, is heading in the opposite direction. He recently announced a new weekly newspaper called The Saturday Paper, to be edited by former Herald journalist Erik Jensen.
“There is no question in my mind that newsprint remains the best place to read long-form journalism,” Mr Jensen wrote in an article on Guardian Australia.
Meanwhile in the radio world, Mix 106.5 is expected to rebrand to Kiis 106.5 and will be joined by breakfast stalwarts Kyle and Jackie O. The duo left 2Day FM last week after 13 years, including six years and 51 consecutive surveys in the number one slot.
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