Guardian Australia will boost coverage of state news in Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria, in a new project made possible as part of the Google News Initiative.
The project will include “geo-located containers” which are dedicated, separate collections of state stories that will live on the Guardian Australia homepage, viewable to readers who reside in the relevant state. Readers in NSW, for instance, will see a container populated with NSW stories.
To launch the project, Guardian Australia will hire a state correspondent and state reporter in each of the three locations, as well as editorial and support staff, enabling deeper coverage of state issues, including a focus on state politics. Recruitment for these positions commences October 6th.
“State politics and state-based news are crucial to the lives of our readers,” said Guardian Australia editor, Lenore Taylor.
“The limited space on our national front page has restricted how much state news Guardian Australia has been able to provide, so we are very excited about this expansion.
“We believe this pilot of geo-located containers in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria will allow us to provide more of the stories our audiences want to read. We are hoping to expand the containers to other states over time.”
The initiative will launch in February 2022.
Last month, Guardian Australia was part of a collaboration that launched The Rural Network, a program that will give regional and rural communities a voice, help young journalists break into the industry, strengthen independent rural newspapers and fund research into sustainable business models.
The program includes a $1.37 million gift from Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation will assist the Guardian with building a network of regional contributors and employing five UTS graduate journalists over the life of the project, based in rural communities and tasked with reporting on local stories.