Pippa Leary, is the kind of person you want in your corner.
Before we even got to talking about News Australia and its latest commercial evolution, Managing Director and Publisher, Free News & Lifestyle dished out some genuinely solid parenting advice, then warmly commiserated over the familiar chaos and quiet joys of raising kids.
It’s this approachable intelligence, paired with sharp industry insight, that makes Leary not just someone worth listening to, but someone you instinctively trust.
So when she stood before a room full of media buyers, brand marketers and agency leads at the announcement of News’ new unified video advertising package, ‘All Screens for All Australians’ held at ILUMINA last week, they didn’t just listen, they leaned in.
Speaking to Mediaweek, Leary said the partnership with Tubi expands News’ reach from mobile-led short-form content into the living room, delivering a full-spectrum video proposition that meets both consumer habits and advertiser needs.
Meeting the market where it watches
With audiences shifting rapidly across devices and platforms (think Instagram to TikTok and back again via YouTube) News Australia has been focused on reshaping how it delivers content.
“We’ve recognised that by 2025, our clients are facing an increasingly complex screen environment. There are more options, more fragmentation, and more pressure to prove results,” Leary said.
That insight has informed News’ investment in video transformation across its newsroom and advertising business. “We also know that video is a major source of news for Australians. So for quite a while now, we’ve been transforming our newsrooms to tell stories visually, because especially for younger generations, that’s how they consume information.”
Innovation starts on mobile
Part of that transformation has included a push into mobile-first video.
“We’re in the middle of this transformation project, and a key part of it is learning how to tell stories visually in mobile formats,” Leary explained. “It’s easy to assume everyone’s on desktop, because that’s where you are, but for most Australians, the news is happening on mobile.”
That led to the development of News Shorts, vertical videos optimised for mobile devices.
“We shoot them differently. The technology we use is optimised for mobile phones. It’s been incredibly successful.” On top of that, News has layered in interactive and shoppable formats. “People can shop directly within the ad or the story. They never have to leave the experience, which is a much better user experience.”
Enter Tubi: The living room screen
While News’ mobile-led strategy has seen strong results, there was one screen left unaddressed. “We realised we were missing one big screen: the living room,” Leary said. That’s where Tubi came in.
“We’d been watching their growth in the US, and I remember saying to my boss, ‘We need to do a deal with Tubi. What they’re doing is amazing.'”
A meeting was arranged with Tubi’s CEO via Fox’s Paul Cheesbrough and the rest, as they say, is history.
“We said we’d love to represent them in Australia,” Leary explained. “It was a perfect fit. In my area, Free News and Lifestyle, we offer a completely free proposition, funded by advertisers. Our focus is audience engagement and client outcomes. That’s exactly what Tubi does too,” Leary said.
Tubi’s Gen Z appeal
Originally built as an ad server before pivoting to consumer streaming, Tubi now leads the US in long-form ad-supported video, with over 100 million users.
“Fifty-five percent of their audience are Gen Z. They’ve really tapped into something,” Leary said. “I think Tubi is where younger audiences go after YouTube. They’re used to the freedom of endless search and niche discovery, and most streamers can’t offer that.”
With a catalogue of 250,000 titles globally, and 125,000 in Australia, Tubi’s algorithm is designed for deep content discovery.
“Their algorithm quickly learns your interests and takes you down rabbit holes,” Leary said. “That’s exactly what Gen Z wants, they don’t want to be told what to watch. They want to find it themselves, play with identity, and explore.”
Tubi’s fan-driven ecosystem also plays a role in its stickiness. “They have what they call the ‘creatorverse’, they work with creators to generate fan-made content. It’s a really exciting proposition.”
From mobile to CTV: an all-screen strategy
“For us, the best part is now we can add a long-form, big-screen experience to our already strong short-form mobile ecosystem,” Leary said.
“As News Corp, we now offer ‘All Screens for All Australians’, an end-to-end proposition that simplifies and strengthens the screen buy for clients.”
That proposition is also fuelled by data.
News Corp has built its own insights and targeting platform, Intent Connect. “We can recognise 17 million Australians across our network. Each user has a persistent ID that links to what they read, buy, and do, even offline,” Leary said.
“So when a client says, ‘’ only want to speak to people planning a trip to Bali,’ we can deliver that, no wastage.”
Built for advertisers, built for safety
Leary also emphasised the brand-safe environment.
“If you’re a travel client who doesn’t want to appear near plane crash content, we make sure that never happens,” she said.
“All our content is professionally generated, so you’re never placed next to anything harmful to your brand. There’s no fraud, no bots, no made-for-advertising filler. So the outcomes we deliver are real.”
Gen Z in focus
While Tubi has been quietly growing its Australian footprint over the past six months, News Corp is now turning its attention to younger local audiences.
“We’ve done a strong job building awareness using our owned assets. Now, we’re focused on Australian Gen Z. That requires a new approach, one we’ve never taken before.”
A new influencer-led campaign will soon launch targeting one of Tubi’s most popular genres: cult horror.
“We’re leaning into that with a takeover at Luna Park on Halloween,” Leary revealed. “These are things we’ve never done before, but they’re essential to building awareness with younger audiences.”
Learning while expanding
Leary sees this not only as a marketing push but as a learning opportunity. “We’ll also learn a lot as a network, and that’s incredibly exciting.”
And while News Australia remains strong among 35–55-year-olds, Leary is realistic about the limits of its existing platform. “We’d be kidding ourselves to think we can just build something on-platform and expect 18–30s to show up. That’s not where they live.”
“That’s why we love Tubi, it lets us go to them,” she added.
“You’ll start to see us experimenting more overtly with new ways to reach younger audiences and new environments where news can show up in ways that are actually useful and meaningful.”