MailOnline, the online arm of British newspaper The Daily Mail, is launching an Australian version of its site in partnership with NEC's Mi9. This will see MailOnline provide content to drive traffic while Mi9 handles commercialization and sales in Australia. MailOnline has been hugely successful globally by focusing on celebrity and lifestyle content. It will employ 50 editorial staff locally but it remains to be seen if they will focus on entertainment, sports, or actual news coverage. MailOnline believes it can succeed in Australia where other local players are retreating behind paywalls.

1. Daily Mail
Comes To
Australia
Ciaran Norris
27/11/2013
Background
MailOnline, the online arm of the British newspaper The Daily Mail, has announced a partnership
with NEC’s Mi9 which will see the launch of an Australian version of the site. This means Mi9 will be
entering into a new joint venture just a month after buying itself out of its previous JV with
Microsoft. Tellingly, the new JV is built around content, not technology and gives Mi9 access to one
of the most successful digital content companies in the world, whilst also allowing MailOnline to
increase the commercialisation of its Australian audience without having to set-up a stand-alone
office.
Details/Implications
MailOnline has turned a conservative, 100 year old mid-market British newspaper into a global
phenomenon. Focusing on celebrity and particularly photos, it has grown to become the world’s
most popular English language newspaper site. It is however very different from its print parent,
with a focus on salacious stories and celebrities that would be very unlikely to run in the main print
edition: a search for Kim Kardashian on MailOnline returns nearly 5,000 articles.
Whilst much of the content on MailOnline is global in nature, particularly its Entertainment section,
the local venture is to have 50 editorial staff. Presumably some will also cover Entertainment,
providing 24/7 celebrity coverage alongside the existing London, New York & Los Angeles offices,
but it will be interesting to see how much of this resource is devoted to Sport and how much to
actual News.
In other satellite markets, such as Ireland, MailOnline essentially avoids local politics as there is a
feeling that readers comes to the site for entertainment. With the Liberals in power however, there
may be a feeling that there is a local desire for the world-view of the Mail properties, with positive
coverage of Tony Abbott on the site to date.
MailOnline is the latest in a series of overseas news-companies to set-up Australian offices and
rumours persist that others, including Huffington Post, could follow. In a mid-sized market where
traditional media channels have tended to veer towards natural duopolies (at least in terms of
market leaders) the challenge will be for all of these new entrants to find USPs that stop them just
becoming fodder for DSPs and Trade Desks.
As one of the most commercially minded news organisations in the world, MailOnline obviously
believe they can do this, particularly with Mi9 at their side in a market where local players are
retreating behind paywalls. Already, in its present form, it had higher traffic in October 2013 than
The Guardian (Nielsen) and is not far behind Yahoo!7.
Summary
MailOnline has been a huge global success and it is no surprise that it is launching an operation
here, though the scale and decision to launch as a JV are definitely a statement of intent. There can
be no doubting MailOnline’s ability to generate online audiences at scale with what is now almost a
scientific approach to driving traffic through a mix of SEO, numerous pictures and highly shareable
content.
Having Mi9 as their sales partner is undoubtedly a coup but the true scale of their success will likely
depend on where they choose to focus the local editorial resource and how well they can create
integrated solutions, possibly including NEC’s wider assets. With this announcement coming on the
same day as news of the new judges for The Voice in 2014, we can probably expect to see a lot of
Kylie Minogue and will.i.am in MailOnline Australia when it launches.