Just on 12 months ago Mediaweek caught up with Nova Entertainment’s digital commercial director Kane Reiken who told us about his 12-month journey to launch the mobile platform GOAT.
Now on the eve of GOAT’s first birthday we have been speaking with Melissa Matheson, editor of GOAT, who told us about a special International Women’s day week that starts on March 4.
“From Monday to Friday we will have videos and talk topics celebrating remarkable women and how we can all get involved in furthering equality,” explained Matheson.
Matheson said the GOAT audience is not skewed toward women. “We are split pretty well down the middle. We don’t write specifically for women or men, but we have a very socially active audience. They are highly engaged in equality issues. Topics that have done very well for GOAT include discussions around the Gillette ad, and we have done a lot around explaining toxic masculinity and how it impacts men and women.”
Matheson has been editing GOAT since October 2018. Her background includes years with News Corp Australia beginning with community newspapers and later The Daily Telegraph before being chosen to editor the News Corp commuter daily mX.
After the publisher closed mX, Matheson took redundancy and headed to SBS for two years and then ARN managing the digital team.
Asked about changes at GOAT under head editorship, she said: “We have become a lot more focused. The platform had been searching to find the right tone of voice. We have done that and we now have a stable team after the initial team included a lot of freelancers and casuals.”
While GOAT is a distinct brand, Matheson said in addition to its own marketing budget, the platform also gets support from the Nova Network.
Although the platform launched ad free a year ago, native content is now key to the business model. Recent native campaigns have included HP, Cooper’s beer, Pizza Hut, St George bank and several universities across Australia.
As to creating a sustainable model, Matheson said her broad media experience in different media sectors comes into play. “I have seen the challenges for each of them. It doesn’t matter what platform or what demographic you are in, you have to respect your audience. The second you don’t respect them you are dead in the water. We are always listening to the audience to hear what they are talking about.
“The best way to describe our editorial is that we fired up, but not angry. I ask the team what has them fired up. But we are not about ranting about what angers us. When I worked in community newspapers we were taught about solution journalism. You don’t just say the world is broken, you point to how can we fix things. We have a similar mentality at GOAT. Bad things might happen, and this is how we could do things differently.”
GOAT will be running different banners each day featuring empowering women from iconic TV shows and films – Monday – Kath & Kim, Tuesday – Broad City, Wednesday – Steel Magnolias. GOAT is keeping the final two a secret for people to discover.
Also look out for GOAT Confessionals – quick video interviews that allow a range of people to share their views on topical situations or issues (previous GOAT Confessionals have included The Best-Worst Backhanded Compliments and The Grandest Acts Of Love).
For International Women’s Day, Matheson said the GOAT confessionals will celebrate and harness the supportive vibe women offer each other in particular social settings.
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Top Photo: Melissa Matheson