The Huffington Post has been live for nearly two weeks and commentary is swirling around about the US title eating into its joint venture partner Fairfax Media's audience. CEO of The Huffington Post Australia, Chris Janz, explained he finds the whole conversation around that idea “bizarre”.
“The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age are really strong, locally relevant properties that serve audiences beautifully and I think our offering is different. We're serving a slightly different audience and what we're bringing them is not the best Sydney news or the best Melbourne news but a different national perspective,” he said.
“I honestly don't buy the argument and I find it curious that people say we'll harm Fairfax. It's almost that they're saying our offering is directly competitive with theirs and I don't think that's the case.”
As part of HuffPost's partnership with Fairfax in this market, the latter is managing the ad sales for the new site, with Janz explaining that the local publisher has an agency network that a startup could never match.
“It's one of our great strengths in having access to Fairfax and its sales resources,” he explained. Whether it will always be this way, Janz commented: “As far in the future as I can see, you never say never right? But as far as I can possibly see, we'll be drawing on that network. It's a strong network, they’re strong not just in Sydney and Melbourne, but have strong presence in other capital cities – it would be crazy for us to try and replicate it”.
HuffPost Australia is not the first international player to launch into the market. The global publisher follows The Daily Mail and The Guardian, which have been able to carve out sizeable audiences for themselves, sitting at fourth and sixth respectively, in Nielsen’s latest online ratings.
HuffPost's local outfit remains unconcerned about the number of players in the market, with Janz saying: “Our view is the whole idea that there isn't room for a limited number of players is really outdated.
“Back in newspaper land, getting a title off the ground was really expensive, setting up the infrastructure that you needed to support a newsroom, but obviously the internet has changed things ... Competition is the best thing; it makes everyone's product stronger and better.”
A version of this story originally appeared in the latest issue of AdNews magazine (21 August). To see all the amazing content as it comes off the presses, subscribe both in print and on your iPad here.
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