Andrew Webster Digital Editor

NEWS AWARDS WEBSITE OF THE YEAR

The digital space o!ers exciting opportunities for our product to travel further and touch more people than ever before. Our success this year comes from building powerful new delivery engines, engaging readers with premium content on their preferred devices and platforms.“

By any measure, couriermail.com.au achieved exceptional results during the past year. We drove the news cycle in Queensland and set performance benchmarks across the country, delivering on our goal to connect an ever-increasing audience with unique and engaging content.

Critical and commercial success has come from putting innovation at the heart of everything we do – from how we gather information and tell stories, to how we !nd new readers and involve them with our products.

Happily, the results speak for themselves.

No Australian news site can match our audience growth in the past year. None comes close to our brand engagement on Facebook or rates of social referral. None can equal our growth in delivering video or our increase in m-site tra"c. And, perhaps most importantly, our paid membership base is the fastest growing in the country.

It’s a story that begins with great journalism.

When abducted Childers toddler Chloe Campbell suddenly reappeared at 1am one Saturday, we reported live – on site, on Facebook and on Twitter. (We were already awake, providing minute-to-minute coverage about the impending 3am landfall of Cyclone Ita in Far North Queensland.)

Australia woke to our story, which achieved 258,615 m-site page views with an average page duration of 7:50mins. We were the !rst to show mum and bub reunited, and later, the man charged with separating them. Our initial Facebook post gathered 15,246 likes, 1300 shares and 1,022 comments before breakfast.

child abduction

the user experience:

Ewan: No news comes any better than reading of her safe home coming.

Simone: Thrilled to wake up this morning to the news that little Chloe had been found safe & well! After suspecting the worst, it’s nice to read a story that has a happy ending! Great work by all those involved!

Likes: 15,246 Shares: 1,300 Comments: 1,022

BREAKING NEWS

Breaking news is the staple of every great site. But our homepage is rarely the "rst place a reader will hear from us. We take the story to them.

couriermail.com.au

When two young women were !lmed attacking an elderly man on a Gold Coast bus, we immediately broadcast the damning footage via Facebook.

Our post was seen by 3.3 million people within 12 hours, garnering 55,596 likes, 10,242 comments and 11,120 shares.

Our initial story had 155,400 page views on desktop and 416,925 on mobile. Average page duration was 12:31mins and couriermail.com.au set a News Corp Australia record for video streams in one week – 1.2 million.

But the best result? With the whole web talking, police quickly identi!ed the girls and made an arrest.

callous assault

the user experience:

Rosie Hendry: And this is the rea-son that my 85 year old father goes nowhere on his own anymore.

Kassy Jo Birch: Courier Mail should name and shame these two for sure.

Jarrod Holter: Absolutely disgusting! To the elderly gentleman, I apologize for what you endured. If I was there you could have certainly counted on me to step in on your behalf quick smart!

Likes: 55,596 Shares: 11,200 Comments: 10,242

BREAKING NEWS

The four-week trial of Daniel Morcombe’s killer closed a heart-wrenching chapter in Queensland history. In the decade since Daniel was taken from a roadside by a stranger, Brett Cowan, the teen had become a beloved member of every household. So it was with a strong sense of duty to him and our audience that couriermail.com.au faithfully covered each minute of the proceedings. Our Twitter feed was compulsory viewing. Relief upon hearing the guilty verdict was palpable, in our newsroom and across the state.

But revealing the full story had just begun. Less than a day later couriermail.com.au published a six-part long-form series ‘Catching the Devil’, which told the story of the deranged killer’s early life of crime through to Daniel’s disappearance, the mammoth police e#ort to hook Cowan, and the !nal court case to bury him. Our team told this complex story through unique and absorbing content – an interactive timeline, punchy and informative articles, custom videos, photo galleries of the investigation and journey of Daniel’s parents, unique artist sketches and high impact soundscapes.

Editorial director Campbell Reid described the !nished piece as “a storytelling tour de force” that represented “the future of journalism”. This pioneering digital project captured more than 110,000 unique readers. The cumulative average time spent on these pages was 96 minutes and 28 seconds (desktop) and 56 minutes and 25 seconds (mobile).

MAJOR EVENTS

brought to justice

Susan Wall: Special thoughts to the Morcombe family. So very sad what you have endured all these years. May there !nally be some closure for you. Your strength and courage has been remarkable and especially with the continuous work in Daniel’s honour. RIP Daniel.

Mark Matthews: Now you can rest little buddy, RIP Daniel.

Engaged readers value the depth of our reporting and our ability to provide unique, quality coverage of the events shaping their community.

the user experience:

couriermail.com.au

What could top Cowan’s trial? Perhaps only the tragic story of suburban mum Allison Baden-Clay and her cheating husband Gerard. A month-long trial found him guilty of her murder, with hundreds of thousands of readers returning every day for each new piece of evidence. To maximise tra"c across the network, couriermail.com.au provided unique rolling daily coverage to news.com.au, a Brisbane initiative that proved bene!cial to both sites.

And again, at the culmination of the trial, couriermail.com.au produced a mini-novel in eight chapters – ‘Til Death Do Us Part; The Murder of Allison Baden-Clay’ – featuring custom video, interactive maps, timelines, galleries and exclusive interviews.

Again, the audience responded.

Total engagement for the Baden-Clay package across all eight chapters was an astounding 29 minutes – almost an entire TV news bulletin. The chapters collectively yielded more than 360,000 page views, with couriermail.com.au gaining 1100 registrations in a day plus a steep spike in subscriptions. Chapter 7 – ‘How Gerard tried to claim Allison’s life insurance before she was identi!ed’ – was read in more than 50 countries including Poland, Finland, the Russian Federation and South Korea.

MAJOR EVENTS

deepest betrayal

the user experience:

Perrin Lake: Well done, jurors. Now her family have got justice for their daughter, mother, sister! From day one I thought it was him.

Lesley Mackay: What a sad day for all concerned. A mother and father no longer have their daughter, three beautiful girls have been denied the love of their mother. Grandparents that now have the responsibility of raising their grandchildren with the trauma that will stay with them forever...

GOING THE DISTANCE

The murder of French university student Sophie Collombet in Brisbane led to heartbreak for her parents in France, a police manhunt for her alleged killer and his eventual arrest interstate. Five months on we’re still covering the story, leading a campaign to improve public lighting in the inner city to stop such senseless tragedies happening again.

innocence lost

the user experience:

couriermail.com.auGOING THE DISTANCE

Queenslanders are no strangers to wild weather, but even by our standards the 1974 "oods were big. So the 40-year anniversary deserved special attention. ‘Brisbane ’74: Long Weekend From Hell’ revisited this epic event through 40 years of Courier-Mail coverage. From day one of the crisis to $ood-mitigation de-cades later, this interactive trip through history was a timely reminder to readers of our masthead’s deep heritage.

Readers loved the journey – the average page duration was 13:49mins.

lessons learnt

Nifty: Awesome article. Thanks Courier Mail. Wasn’t here in 74. Got a better insight now.

Linda: I was 8. We lived up a hill at Mt Gravatt, so were !ne and thrilled at the extra school holidays. We wore our-selves out from having ice-cream stick boat races down the gutters all day...

Mark: This is amazing. Well done Courier Mail. It is a pity we did not learn from this originally as history always repeats. I was only 6 months old at the time but my dad has pictures of our house opposite Nudgee College at Boondall and there are waves running up the street you could have surfed on.

the user experience:

We identi!ed an opportunity to showcase Queensland University of Technology’s 25th anniversary with an innovative digital product. A successful pitch from editorial direct to the client saw a sponsored native storytelling project, ’25 ideas to change the world’ bring to life the ground-breaking research of everyday Queenslanders working in the tertiary sector.

celebrating ideas

Robyn: It is great to read posi-tive news stories like this one.

Rose: Great stories and interest-ing innovations – thanks CM.

the user experience:

SERIOUS BUSINESS

Journalism is fun, but expensive. Building a viable digital o!ering requires editorial initiative and entrepreneurship.

couriermail.com.au

Patrick: For the next 30 years it is simple, what is needed is election projects to be delivered. Espe-cially in the !elds of health and transport and education.

Peter: Better roads. More free parking around CBD area. Better school & more MORE child care places. Less taxes (city council or income tax or GST).

SERIOUS BUSINESS

“

When the Queensland Government needed to engage the community in the development of a 30-year strategy, our response was ‘The Queensland Plan’ – a sponsored event that brought together live video, rolling reports, opinion, polls, and social media to engage 200,000 people in the week-long public consultation process.

future plans

the user experience:

These events served our clients, our business and our readers, as we energised complex situations using e#ective storytelling. These two initiatives and similar editorially-driven projects helped generate more than $325,000 in new revenue for our site. We’ve created a leading commercially-relevant model that others now want to follow.

Because State of Origin is like Christmas for Queenslanders – and to mark the 100th game – we provided Couriermail+ members with a commemorative wallpaper poster scaled for their favourite device. Plus, we produced an interactive that enabled readers to choose their Maroons team of the century. We told the story of Origin’s Greatest Try and snapped Queensland’s Biggest Sel!e at Game 1 (a 360-degree image of the crowd). Pity about the result this year, but you can’t win them all – just eight straight.

HAVINGFUN

the winning team

Real Rick: What a fabulous read guys! So amazing that when you expose your real selves a little there is opportunity for great vulnerability but also great opportunity to expose warmth, humour, personality and give a sense of ‘placement’ to the readers. I can sort of pigeonhole you all now as revealed by your poignant memories and vivid ‘snapshots’ that align you with our wonderful Brisbane.

Mick: What a fantastic read, I’m sitting here picturing all the contributors de-scriptions and it’s taking me right back there :)

When there’s no reason to feel anxious, we set out to entertain. Our readers have a good sense of humour and love when we try to make them laugh.

the user experience:

When we relaunched our site in May we asked our journalists to reveal ‘The Moment I Fell in Love… with Brisbane’ and produced the viral video ’Stu! Brisbane People Say’.

laughter counts

the user experience:

couriermail.com.au

No day is complete without checking in with your BFF – that’s Brisbane, Fast, First – our daily companion blog keeping readers up to date with breaking news, weather and the best from social media. It’s a great tool when trouble strikes suddenly and good company on the train – just like your best mate.

A suite of daily newsletters and alerts (130k subscribers) and our practice of engaging in the comments section keep readers coming back for more. It may not surprise you to know more comments are left on couriermail.com.au than any other News site.

Publishing from social media to site to paper and back again was never more e#ective than when we drove change at Brisbane Airport with #bnelateagain or when thousands signed our online immunisation petition.

HAVINGFUN

keeping in touch

driving change

daily companion

the user experience:

LET’S TALK NUMBERS

Great journalism deserves a growing audience. The introduction of a metered paywall a year ago made this a tricky proposition, but we overcame the challenge by devising new strategies to deliver our product.

Couriermail.com.au increased its unique audience by more than 53% (505,000 people) year-on-year, from 946k to 1.45m readers in July. That rate of growth exceeds all other News Corp Australia, Fairfax, ABC, ninemsn, Yahoo!7, and Daily Mail Australia news sites.

The time readers spent with couriermail.com.au increased by 42% (10,719 minutes per month) year-on-year to July – higher than all Australian sites.

Growth was also increased in total sessions and in total page views (by 38% and 16%, respectively) – the highest rate of any Australian metered news site.

(Source: Nielsen Online Ratings Hybrid Data, July 2013 – July 2014.)

total audience

No Australian news site, metered or not, matched our performance this year.“

Source: Nielsen Online Ratings, Trend Report, July 2013 - July 2014.

The Courier-Mail

ABC News

AdelaideNow

news.com.au

The Daily Telegraph

Daily Mail Australia News

smh.com.au

Herald Sun

The Australian

ninemsn News

Brisbane Times

The Age

6%8% 10% 10%

15%20% 20%

32%34%

39% 40%

53.4%Unique audience growth, July 2013

to July 2014

couriermail.com.auLET’S TALK NUMBERS

The average daily unique audience of couriermail.com.au’s m-site increased 304% in the past year, from 35,066 in July 2013 to 141,601 in July 2014 – higher in real and percentage terms than the otherwise larger Daily Telegraph (126,137) or Herald Sun (136,889) sites and vastly outstripping our Fairfax competitors.

We are the only News Corp Australia site now attracting more readers via mobile than desktop – 54% of our average daily UBs.

M-site page impressions increased by more than 100% in the past 12 months. Average page durations increased more than 60% to an average of 1:25mins.

(Source: Nielsen Market Intelligence, monthly trend and geotarget data, July 2013 – July 2014.)

mobile site

We hold the record at News Corp Australia for the most streams delivered in one week, at 1.2 million.

We have seen a 285% year-on-year increase in video streams (from 400,000 in July 2013 to 1,542,000 in July 2014) compared to a group-wide lift of 144%.

Our streaming audience increased 314% from July to July (now 683,000), compared to 71% for the group.

video streams

July 2013, 141,601 m-site UBs per day

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July 2013, 35,066 m-site UBs per day

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304%

In August 2013 we had just 25,000 Facebook followers. Social referrals generated just 3% of our tra"c. But we glimpsed the future – one where readers consumed news di#erently, relying more on social feeds – and set out aggressively to claim our share of it.

We devised a strategy to put Facebook to work, learning an e#ective new language for this space that enlisted our followers to share our journalism. Everything was measured to chart best practice. Sta"ng and resources were repositioned to capitalise on results. Creating news became just half the job of homepage editors – they now had to connect it to an audience.

Today we have more than 230,000 followers – but it’s our reach that sets us apart. People engage with our content – commenting, sharing, liking and clicking through – at rates that far outstrip comparable sites. In May, Facebook brand page engagement on The Courier-Mail was equal to all other News Corp metro sites, including news.com.au, combined.

growth engine

Relative share of facebook engagement

48% Courier-Mail

2% The Australian

Daily Telegraph 8% Herald Sun 5%

Perth Now 9%

news.com.au 14%

The Advertiser 14%

SOCIALMEDIA

Source: Facebook Competitive Analysis Report Facebook Fan Pages for Courier Mail, news.com.

au, and 5 others 04/05/2014 - 18/05/2014 (Daily)

Readers love Facebook and Twitter. Both are great tools for gathering information, but this year we truly put them to work to grow our site.

couriermail.com.au

Facebook rewards performance with momentum – the more people enjoy your posts, the greater organic reach the algorithm delivers to your brand. In early August, 12 million people had seen a post from The Courier-Mail during a rolling seven-day period – equitable to almost the entire Australian population on Facebook (13.5m). We maintained that level for two weeks.

Couriermail.com.au no longer reports on viral events, we cause them.

Some examples of high tra"c posts:

Battered mum waited like sniper to shoot husband 3.9m Reach | 33, 103 Likes | 3,697 comments | 2,291 shares

Wrong number leads to beautiful romance 3.5m Reach | 21,923 Likes | 2,066 Comments | 2,507 Shares

Karma hits road-rager hard 3.2m Reach | 20,330 Likes | 1,891 Comments | 5,385 Shares

Queenslander’s Classic IPL catch 1.4m Reach | 9,407 Likes | 1,405 Comments | 1,219 Shares

going viral

SOCIALMEDIA

Today we have Facebook pages dedicated to promoting content from individual sections of the site – Sport, QCon!dential, Taste, Comedy – and we’re taking what we know and applying it to other platforms like Twitter.

We now derive 12% of total monthly tra#c from social referrals – well ahead of the News Corp network average of 7%.“

In June, we began publishing a DPS in the Sunday Mail, a schedule of online activity including great premium content and special o#ers just for subscribers.

Regular features include the Cage Fight – where leading columnists square o# over the issue of the day; and Corridors of Power – where our insiders from the worlds of law, politics, business and entertainment dish the dirt to those who value being !rst in the know.

Each premium story o#ers special access for members and opportunities to extend their relationship with us.

Numerous one-o# special events complement the week, each measured to chart the subscriber journey.

And it’s working. Readers are being won over by premium stories each day. In the two months since we started, couriermail.com.au has experienced the fastest-growing rate of membership of any metered site in Australia.

Teamed with a range of special events and promotions, couriermail.com.au is tracking 30% ahead of membership forecasts - and aims to stay there.

premium experience

MEMBERS FIRST

The future of our site depends on a growing membership base – readers who value our journalism and are willing to pay for it. A range of unique, innovative, whole-of-business strategies are encouraging readers to join the club.

We’ve had an exceptional year. Our journalism is compelling, our audience is growing and our commercial opportunities are improving due to a clear strategy with digital innovation at its core. Thank you for your consideration of couriermail.com.au for Website of the Year. “

WELCOME TOWe deliver hundreds of stories every day, enjoyed by thousands of Queenslanders. But for those that truly value journalism, we’re going the extra mile. The new guide below is designed to help Courier-Mail+ subscribers stay in touch and be better informed of all the great online content, special o!ers and unique access we have in store just for them. Check back each week. Our message? It pays to belong to the couriermail.com.au/club.

THE COURIER!MAILEDITOR

THE SUNDAY MAILEDITOR

YOUR WEEKLY GUIDE TO

MONDAY 6AM!9AMBFF – Live blog Kickstart your morning with our wrap of news on the move, plus the best from social media, TV, radio, tra"c and weather – whatever has Brisbane talking!

7AMDaily email newsletter

MIDDAYSpecial feature: The Origin of Origin

There’s been a miscount! This week’s looming encounter between the Marooons and Blues is the true 100th game of Origin (say the purists). To prove it, we travel back three decades to the start – charting the names, the personalities and talents that turned a rivalry into an institution.

4PMThe A!List ExposedGo inside the hottest clubs and biggest events with the best pics from our party-crashing snappers.

8PM The best of today – and tomorrow!Missed something? We’ve got you covered with an email straight from the editor – the day’s hottest story, the video that went viral, the topic that #red up the keyboard warriors, the biggest laugh. Plus, members get an early look at tomorrow’s front page! Sign up online at bit.ly/cm-club

TUESDAY 6AM!9AMBFF " Live blog

7AMDaily email newsletterGet the freshest headlines emailed straight to your inbox. A selection of our #ve top news stories plus the best from sport, entertainment and business. Go online to bit.ly/cm-club and sign up for free!

10AMCage FightIt’s blood sport, columnist-style. Join the no-retorts-barred, winner-takes-all battle of wits and words between conservative street-#ghter Des Houghton and left-leaning fuse-lighter Paul Syvret (both pictured below). Their battles have already sent Twitter into meltdown – now we’re locking them in a room (well, a virtual one), unleashing the week’s hot topic and inviting you to throw rocks.

2PMThe Measure of the MarketKeep on top of Queensland’s property prices with our comprehensive list of weekend sales results and an early preview of coming auctions.

8PM The best of today – and tomorrow!

WEDNESDAY 6AM!9AMBFF – Live blog

7AMDaily email newsletter

10AMChat with the EditorHe decides what goes on the front page and what doesn’t make the cut. So did he get it right today? From politics and sport to business and lifestyle, debate the top stories with the journo calling the shots – The Courier-Mail’s editor Christopher Dore. He’s logged-in and waiting to hear what members have to say, from 10am until deadline.

MIDDAYInsight and Agenda reloadedLike to take your time with the news and consume the issues in greater depth? Deep dive into the week’s best reporting and analysis, brought to life like never before. We’ve taken the big weekend reads (below) and enhanced them as only digital can – complementing our #nest journalism with video, galleries, interactive features and more. The result is the story behind the story – and then some.

7PMState of Origin live blog

Can Meninga’s injury-plagued Maroons level the series against the desperate Blues? We’ll

be there on your second screen, shouting along with you at the commentators.

8PMThe best of today – and tomorrow!

FRIDAY 6AM!9AMBFF – Live blog

7AMDaily email newsletter

MIDDAYThe Best of Brisbane No #rm plans for the weekend? Look no further as we make sense of the latest and greatest – every item worth reviewing during the past week, gathered in one place and applied to real life. Think of it as your personal concierge, with tips on where to go, what to see and the device you’ll use to #lm it. Or stay in and let us show you how to eat, drink and be merry. Our goal? That your time and money is well spent.

2PMDress well, look greatQWeekend’s Kimberly Gardner (pictured below) kits you out in the hottest winter trends at the right price, answering your questions and solving every fashion dilemma.

4PMProperty WatcherA form guide for home hunters, reviewing the best real estate going under the hammer this weekend.

8PM The best of today – and tomorrow!Includes a look back at the stories that went wild on social media this week, listing the 10 posts readers sent viral!

THURSDAY 6AM!9AMBFF – Live blog

7AMDaily email newsletter

10AMBlog with BoltHe’s Australia’s most powerful columnist, the scourge of the politicly-correct and bane of governments. But on Thursdays he answers to our readers. Take on the man who takes on the issues.

MIDDAYTales from the Corridors of PowerNot all news is #t to print – but these four will whisper if you lean in close. We’ve brought together our top insiders from Brisbane’s worlds of business, politics, court and entertainment (McCullough, Wardill, Keim & Cooper, all pictured below) to bring you a concentrated dose of the week’s top tips and gossip. But to hear it #rst, you’ll have to become a member – couriermail.com.au/club

2PMOrigin frame by frameAll the photos you didn’t see, shot by our sports photographers. If they were any closer to the action they’d be wearing Queensland jerseys.

8PMThe best of today – and tomorrow!

THIS WEEK’S TOP PICKS

SKEWED VIEW

Saturday specialA picture is worth a thousand words, so pictures with words must be priceless – especially when poking fun of power! We gather the past week’s work of the nation’s best newspaper cartoonists and look back at how they interpreted the big issues. Truer words were never spoken, or were more amusing.

MURDER TRIAL

The death of Allison Baden-ClayOne of the most anticipated criminal trials in recent Queensland history is under way and we’re bringing you every detail. The Crown alleges unfaithful husband Gerard Baden-Clay murdered his wife Allison. The suburban real estate agent with political connections has pleaded not guilty, claiming he had no part in the former beauty queen’s death. Log-on daily for rolling coverage direct from the Brisbane Supreme Court.

THE MAINEVENT State of Origin, Game 2Grab your friends on Wednesday night and come watch Queensland level the series at our place – The Courier-Mail Piazza on Southbank. Gates will open at 6.30pm and entry is free. The screen is huge so every seat is a winner, face paint and fuzzy wigs are optional. Live music, a cheer squad and special appearances by Origin legends will add to the atmosphere, as well as plenty of great giveaways on the night. And as a bonus for Courier-Mail+ members, make yourself known and get complimentary access to an exclusive VIP area complete with beanbags and catering. What better way to watch the mighty Maroons smash the Blues!

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