‘Trust us and test us’: Daily Mail launches two social publishers led by creator talent
The Daily Mail has launched two dedicated social publishers that it hopes will “shape the future of news and entertainment for young people around the world”.
DMG Newmedia will be the home of social news and entertainment brands, underpinned by the Mail‘s 150m combined social following across various platforms. It is being led by the 23-year-old Nick Moar, who will head strategy for the Daily Mail, Daily Mail UK, and Mail Sport social accounts.
Creator Media will serve as the social publisher for lifestyle brands, including fashion and beauty website Eliza, its male-centred Eliza’s Brother, and women’s magazine You. It is headed up by Joanna Bridger, co-founder of Eliza.
Commercially, both Newmedia and Creator Media will be overseen by fellow Eliza co-founder, Hannah Blake.
Newmedia, meanwhile, will also feature specialist channels across verticals, including gaming (The Respawn), entertainment (The Spotlight), and personal finance (This is Money), with more slated for development in areas such as health and wellness, technology, food, and climate.
The launch was announced at Mail Metro Media’s ‘upfronts’ event at the Outernet in London on Wednesday night. The event featured live music, a stand-up set from comedian Katherine Ryan, an interview with boxing champion Lennox Lewis, and a lavish after-party.
Moar told the audience he aimed to reach 1bn combined global social followers over the next few years — a lofty ambition given there are 8.1bn people in the world, about one-third of whom are still without internet access.
The goal, he insisted, is to connect with the “elusive Gen Z audience” — a demographic advertisers have struggled to consistently reach amid media fragmentation.
Moar (right) in conversation with executive global head of video, Lisa Snell.
Analysis: Embracing the creator economy
The Mail is situating its social brands as a way to meet Gen Z where they are and speak to them with talent from their own cohort.
Moar declared: “We’re taking the history and legacy of the journalism on the Daily Mail and bringing it to social media.”
However, when asked about his strategy for hiring, Moar appeared less focused on journalism and more on entertainment.
Most of the creators for the Mail’s social brands are young and lack university degrees. Moar’s key focus, he told the crowd, is hiring creators who have already demonstrated an ability to build large audiences on social platforms.
Bridger went further, adding she was interested in building “a team of more than just traditional journalists”.
The Mail is the latest publisher to look to the creator economy as a core part of its future content output.
Many publishers, such as Reach and The Independent, have launched their own in-house studios to build both editorial and branded content. In the latter’s case, they have also approached and partnered with established creators to effectively bootstrap audience acquisition for new sub-brands around key verticals, like sport.
“This is where the audiences are,” Blake said. “We know social is the way to go.”
Mail Metro Media insights director, Luke Hand, further hit home that the publisher is “so much more than a news brand,” likely seeking to appeal to the advertisers in the room that have become squeamish about advertising against “hard” news, despite evidence that doing so leads to improved campaign effectiveness.
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‘You’re in safe hands’
For brands, the pitch Mail Metro Media is making by leaning heavily into its social footprint is that it can offer the benefits of the creator economy alongside the benefits of working with an established publisher.
That includes maintaining trusted client relationships, as well as what they claim is improved brand safety guarantees compared to investing in social platforms more generally.
“You’re in safe hands”, Blake added, likening content creators to the contemporary version of glossy magazines.
Advertisers will be able to work with Newmedia and Creator Media by sponsoring existing content series, collaborating to develop bespoke original content, partnering with individual creators in Creator Media’s network, and investing in long-term brand associations across multiple channels.
At the same time, Mail Metro Media’s commercial team will be challenged with walking the fine line between promoting its future-facing, social video proposition while not denigrating or otherwise diluting the value of its established news and lifestyle publications.
As a recent study from Newsworks, Peter Field and Lumen Research revealed last week, news brands’ online inventory is currently underinvested relative to its ability to drive effective outcomes for advertisers.
Dominic Williams, Mail Metro Media’s chief revenue officer, appealed to the audience that the publisher is “at the forefront of modern publishing and advertising”.
He continued: “We are creators, we are connectors, we are collaborators, and we are converters of outcomes.
“Trust us and test us.”