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The West Australian believes two things; that time-poor Australians are increasingly unlikely to be home for the traditional 6pm TV news, and that there’s a market for a new type of news format later in the evening with more editorial and opinion.

The West Australian has a traditional print background but recognises its readers’ and subscribers' demand that it continues to evolve its offering beyond text and images to include engaging video content that can be consumed on or off platform.

To do this well, they had to investigate ways to adapt their business from a print-first organisation to an increasingly digital world. Part of this process was building studio spaces and performing market research into the product's viability. Instead of a traditional ‘hard’ news set, they created a ‘virtual’ set look with 3D neon glass panels/windows to stand apart. The West Australian also engaged with various consultants to provide advice on best-practice so that they could optimize the product.

Editorially, The West Australian wanted to ‘break free’, and to provoke audiences with bold and shrewd commentary on the daily news. Ben Harvey’s opinion pieces in The West Australian had a huge following, and they wanted to bring that audience across to YouTube.

Post launch, they continued to adjust both the YouTube Channel itself and the video content based on platform telemetry. Using YouTube analytics plus their own dashboard across all the platforms, The West Australian could see what worked best for the different vehicles and used this information to target audiences differently in their daily show teasers.

The new studio has exceeded expectations and enabled the production of broadcast quality content. The growth trajectory of the YouTube channel outperformed expectations and reached monetisation far quicker than any other content channels within the portfolio. The Google team provided a step-by-step process to optimize the pathway to growth and monetisation with relevant advice and coaching.

This project broadened the scope of the type of news that The West Australian has to offer. It helped attract a more audio-visual-inclined audience typically found among younger consumers of news content. The feedback was beyond expectations.

Up Late with Ben Harvey has had a massive impact, scaling its cult following quickly. It provided an opportunity to gauge the market for a new type of content, providing a basis to determine future video content strategies. The experience has also provided confidence and knowledge in pivoting from traditional news mediums and evolving with current consumer trends.

Since the launch of Up Late, The West Australian has created 3 additional YouTube channels and several video series, including award-winning documentaries and true crime series.