It’s not often that newsrooms get to cover a once-in-a-lifetime event, but when they do, it’s all hands on deck. The Coronation of King Charles III drew in spectators from all over the globe – both monarchists and republicans alike – and News Corp’s news.com.au was with Australian readers every step of the way.
Mediaweek spoke to news.com.au editor-in-chief Lisa Muxworthy about what goes into covering an event like the Coronation, and what the team have to keep in mind when writing for the news.com.au audience.
Covering the Coronation
The Coronation had newsrooms around the world abuzz, and the news.com.au newsroom was no different. Between the site’s Royal expert Daniela Elser, the team in Australia, and the two reporters that were sent to London – Bronte Coy and Lexie Cartwright – Muxworthy says that “you could really feel the excitement” surrounding the Coronation.
“There was a bit of build-up and excitement around the Coronation. As with all these big things, you’re never really 100% sure how Australians will engage, but they just lapped it up, they couldn’t get enough of our stories – which then makes it even more exciting.”
Funnily enough, Muxworthy says that the most-read articles about the event weren’t centred on King Charles himself. Topping the list was Prince Harry being sat in the third row, followed by the “unthinkable” photo of Camilla as Queen, and an explainer on the Act of Consecration.
“A lot of the commentary around the Royal family is that Australians don’t care, but the engagement in the stories is huge, “ says Muxworthy. “Particularly around the Coronation, a lot of people what to know what’s going on, what it means, they want to see Harry, they want to see what Kate is wearing. Whether people believe in the Royal family or not, there’s still that real fascination around such a historic event.”
The Coronation follows the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II after her passing in September last year. When asked how news.com.au’s coverage of the Coronation compared to the Queen’s funeral, Muxworthy says that the team treated the two events in a very similar manner.
“The funeral was a bigger event, and it went for a longer period of time – from the moment the news broke of her dying to the actual funeral, there was a lot going on. We took a lot of learnings from our coverage of her death and the funeral. We know what people are interested in, so we really replicated a lot of what we did then.”
Even though it’s only been a handful of months between the two events, News Corp’s speed at adopting new tech to reach audiences has meant that the news.com.au team had a new platform to play with this time around.
“The difference in our storytelling for the coronation as opposed to the funeral is that we’ve now got a new product, a vertical video platform, which allows people to watch vertical videos on their mobile phones. We still have horizontal video for longer videos, but if there are little moments that are happening, someone could read about it and then be able to watch on their mobile phone.
“We always think about off-platform. That’s a big focus for us because it’s about reaching our audiences where they are. We recorded record traffic on search, reached millions of Australians on Facebook and Instagram, and we had close to 19 million video views on TikTok.”
King Charles III and Queen Camilla
Covering the Budget
It hasn’t only been the Coronation making headlines this week, with Treasurer Jim Chalmers handing down the federal budget on Tuesday.
With so many parts of Australian life impacted by different parts of the budget, Muxworthy says that the news.com.au audience has been focussing their attention on the cost of living.
“Any sort of relief that will be within the budget will be the focus. Whether that’s around rental relief or any tax cuts, anything that’s going to help people with their day-to-day, that’s where their focus will be – and hence, where ours will be.”
Covering the budget is no small feat, no matter what platform you’re working across.
“We had Sam Maiden in Canberra, she was in lockup in Canberra, so she’ll be across all the big things. We’ll be really looking at the analysis and trying to explain it to Australians, what it means to them, and what’s in there for them. We had a team of some of our other news journalists in lockup in Sydney, as well.
“We had our social media and video producers in there as well – again, thinking about all of our audiences. We’ve got a lot of younger readers that consume our news in different ways, and we’ve got to make sure that we’re telling them what’s in it for them, on the platforms that they’re on.”
When asked what the platform’s readers respond best to overall, Muxworthy says that people are interested in how major events and policies will affect t their day-to-day lives.
“Because it’s such an audience-first platform we’re really across what they will click on, whether it’s on our homepage, on search, or on social. We really focus on those three platforms, and different things resonate in different platforms. But it’s always about what it means to them, that’s what we think about: what does it mean to the person reading the story?
“The other thing that we really try to do is join in with the conversation. It might be about sport or reality TV – if there’s a show that’s been on, what are people saying about it? What are they talking about? If there are conversations happening, we amplify that and make sure that we’re joining in and having that same conversation with our readers.”