News Corp Australia published its first long-form story via the digital ‘Captivate’ platform over the weekend with a combination of the written word, photos, video, audio and graphics.
The ‘Cinderella Man’ piece featured in The Weekend Australian on Saturday and used Captivate to tell the story of Australia’s first world heavyweight boxing title contender in more than 100 years.
The piece starts with a silent video behind the headline and moves into chapter one before footage of contender Alex Leapai training is shown behind the story.
The piece continues to flow between words, pictures and archival footage. To see ‘Cinderella Man’, which can be consumed on desktop, tablet or mobile, click here.
News Corp Australia said in a statement today that the piece “signalled its commitment to long-form story telling in digital”.
Nicholas Gray, chief executive of The Australian, said: “We are redefining the way our readers consume our stories across our digital platforms. Through ‘Captivate’, we are able to integrate audio, visual and written content of a story in a highly captivating and engaging way.
“The use of ‘Captivate’ underscores News Corp Australia’s faith in the value of quality journalism in the digital age and our commitment to the continued evolution of our newsrooms to ensure we are providing our audiences with compelling storytelling in whatever way they choose to consume it.
“As we enter our 50th birthday year, media innovation continues to drive us forward. ‘Cinderella Man’ is a clear demonstration of this. I highly commend the fantastic team here who have put together this brilliant execution of journalism.”
Captivate was developed by News as a company-wide platform and is to be used for news as well as commercial projects.
The Australian editor-in-chief Chris Mitchell described the piece as “immersive digital journalism”.
The story was written by Trent Dalton and accompanied by footage and photographs captured by Eddie Safarik.