Australian-Media.com.au News

• Fairfax launches Olympic websites

  July 23 2008 7:45am (UTC+8)  -  Article by Kevin

  Fairfax Digital has today launched its Beijing 08 Olympic Games websites, dedicating the most media and IT resources in its history towards coverage of a single event.
  
  "We are devoting significant resources to deliver Australia's most comprehensive and authoritative Games news sites, including event results as they happen, video highlights, interviews with Australian athletes and the medal tally. Fairfax Digital will also carry, for the first time, authorised Olympics video highlights, updated three times per day", Mike Van Niekerk, Fairfax Media's Online Editor in Chief said.
  
  The Olympics is the first major event in which Fairfax will simultaneously publish content nationally across its four major online mastheads; smh.com.au, theage.com.au, brisbanetimes.com.au and WAtoday.com.au. Each website will also carry stories written specifically for its local audience.
  
  More than 50 Fairfax journalists, photographers, bloggers, production and support staff will be at the Games, which commences on Friday 8 August. Fairfax's award-winning print and online reporters will file stories on the website as they happen, from one integrated newsroom in Beijing.
  
  "Beijing 2008 will be the online Games", says Van Niekerk. "Since Beijing is only two hours behind Australian EST, and in the same time zone as Perth, many of the big gold medal moments will take place during Australian working hours – when people turn to the net first to get their news."
  
  "Australians will be glued to their computers at work to see all the action as the main events take place throughout the day. The immediacy of our coverage means all Australians will be able to get the latest Beijing news online, wherever they are in Australia, as it unfolds. Fairfax Media has a history of producing outstanding coverage for major global sporting events and Beijing 08 will continue that proud tradition", he says.
  
  Fairfax's Beijing 08 editorial team is led by Mitchell Murphy, the Managing Editor of brisbanetimes.com.au and a member of the line-up that covered the 2004 Athens Olympics. He is joined by some of Australia's finest sports writers including Jacqueline Magnay and John Birmingham, and columnists such as Roy Masters and Richard Hinds.
  
  Comprehensive video content and multimedia sections are distinguishing features of Fairfax Digital's Beijing 08 sites.
  
  This includes intimate video interviews with athletes including swimmer Grant Hackett, cyclist Anna Meares, shooter Michael Diamond, hockey captain Jamie Dwyer and others on their hopes and dreams for medals in Beijing.
  
  During the Games there will be regular video news reports, bringing memorable highlights of the event from on and off the field.
  
  The sites' rich multimedia section has historic photographs from past Olympics, games and a 'test your sporting knowledge' quiz.
  
  Subscribers to the four mastheads' AM and PM edition newsletters will automatically receive Olympics newsletter updates during the Games. Viewers can subscribe to this from both the Olympic and general news sites.
  
  Pippa Leary, Managing Director Media for Fairfax Digital, comments that the newly-launched sites offer an unrivalled opportunity to advertisers nationally. "With over 60 per cent of Fairfax's news audience working full time, the Fairfax Digital network will be the best place for advertisers to catch the Olympic audience during the day. We have already had commitment from advertisers including Samsung, Telstra, China Travel and NRMA."
  
  The Fairfax Digital Olympic websites can be found at the following addresses:
  
  + Sydney: smh.com.au/olympics
  + Melbourne: theage.com.au/olympics
  + Brisbane: brisbanetimes.com.au/olympics
  + Perth: watoday.com.au/olympics
  
  Australian-Media.com.au

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