Guardian Australia will boost coverage of state news in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, in a new project made possible as part of the Google News Initiative.
The project will include “geo-located containers” which are dedicated, separate collections of state stories that will live on the Guardian Australia homepage, viewable to readers who reside in the relevant state. Readers in NSW, for instance, will see a container populated with NSW stories.
To launch the project, Guardian Australia will hire a state correspondent and state reporter in each of the three locations, as well as editorial and support staff, enabling deeper coverage of state issues, including a focus on state politics. Recruitment for these positions commences today.
“State politics and state-based news are crucial to the lives of our readers,” said Guardian Australia editor, Lenore Taylor.
“The limited space on our national front page has restricted how much state news Guardian Australia has been able to provide, so we are very excited about this expansion.
“We believe this pilot of geo-located containers in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria will allow us to provide more of the stories our audiences want to read. We are hoping to expand the containers to other states over time.”
The initiative will launch in February 2022.