As the May 21st election looms, it’s all hands on deck in newsrooms around the country. As one of the most visited news sites in the country, news.com.au have had their work cut out for them, bringing the latest in political announcements, gaffes, and everything in between to readers around Australia.
Mediaweek spoke to Lisa Muxworthy, editor-in-chief of news.com.au about covering the 2022 federal election.
It seems every few weeks a new report comes out detailing how disengaged audiences are from politics in Australia, and after two years of Covid news dominating the headlines, Muxworthy says that the key to bringing audiences in is listening to what they want more of.
“What news.com.au has always tried to do is focus on the talking points and really tap into the conversations that people are having at home. That’s our approach with everyday news and entertainment, and I really think that that’s how we’ve looked at this election – because I think people are a little bit disengaged, they are a bit frustrated.
“We’re very audience focused, very reader focused. We’re really driven by data – what are people clicking on? What do they want more of? What are they engaging with? How do we adapt and move our content so that we’re giving them what they’re after?”
And what is the audience engaging with across news.com.au?
“From day one of the election campaign, with Albo’s gaffes there was huge engagement. We went off to a racing start, the biggest day was day one and then it has shifted since then.
“The leaders’ debates, audiences have been really engaging with those. There are certain issues that are concerning people – the cost of living, wage growth, housing affordability, and the everyday pain points. Those are the issues that we’re really seeing the readers tapping into now in the middle of an election campaign.”
Ahead of the federal election, news.com.au has launched programs that help connect readers with stories as they happen. The first, called SubText, sees Samantha Maiden send out election updates straight to subscribers’ phones.
“It’s essentially a text messaging service. It’s been used quite widely, globally, but we’re the first to trial it in Australia,” says Muxworthy. “We actually looked at it for the Olympics, but just couldn’t get it up off the ground in time.
“Australians can get text messages from Samantha Maiden, our national political editor, as news breaks during this federal election campaign. We’ve been using it during the leaders’ debates and other key moments throughout the campaign – and it will be a really exciting tool to have on election night. We’re always looking at new ways to talk to our readers and new ways to share stories, and we wanted to try something a little bit different with this election campaign.”
Another project, NewsChat, is aimed at younger audiences and Muxworthy says it’s one that she’s particularly excited about.
“It’s essentially a youth panel that we put together with the help of the Judith Neilson Institute. There are six young Australians and they come together once a month on a video chat, where we record them talking about an issue – we’ve done everything from talking about Married at First Sight and reality TV to talking about who they’re going to vote for in the election. We’re trying to engage with young Australians in a different way.”
It’s not just NewsChat that news.com.au is using to reach younger audiences, with the popularity of TikTok having exploded in the time since the last election.
“TikTok is an interesting one, it’s an exciting place to play because it is new for us in terms of our news coverage and reaching new audiences. We’ve got now nearly 850,000 followers on TikTok. I won’t give away all our secrets to success, but we’re able to translate political news or news of the day to a younger audience using trending audio, trending captions, and hashtags.
“It’s giving them content that we know they’re either likely to support or debate over. Young Australians are smart, they want to consume news. They’re actually not necessarily on TikTok to watch dance videos, they’re on there to consume snippets of news. It’s quite fascinating to see.”
Finally, once again news.com.au has a presence out on the ground of the campaign.
“We’ve got James Weir on the election buses. We did send him in 2019 as well, but he and his brand has grown a lot in those years. He’s been with Scott Morrison, and now most recently with Anthony Albanese making a nuisance of himself.”
Overall, Muxworthy says that the key to news.com.au’s coverage is to make sure that they’re giving the audiences what they want in a way that’s easily accessible.
“We’re here to inform and entertain, and we understand that a six week election campaign can be really long. We’ve got Samantha Maiden who is breaking news and delivering exclusive content. We’ve got our live blogs which will cover the movements of the leaders and what they’re doing as well as their policies. We have the live debates that we’re streaming as well. Then, to balance it out, we have James Weir giving us some campaign trail insights and a bit of gossip on the side.”