The Guardian has dropped the ball in Australia - The Daily Mail needs to avoid making the same mistakes

Being Australian, I thought I’d cast my eyes over Guardian Australia and see what measures they’ve taken to cater for our local audience. My initial thought is they’ve dropped the ball, and now have a few tips on how dailymail.com.au can gain an edge in traffic volume over everyone else.

The homepage makes for easy accessibility to all sub-categories, so naturally I chose to view the sport section first. I’m greeted with last night’s Champion’s League results in Soccer, and all down the left hand side is more news about Soccer predominately from overseas.

Arguably the greatest rivalry between Australia and England The Ashes are on, yet I only see two maybe three articles dedicated to the series. Our most popular sport, Australian Rules Football, might be in its off-season, but the most important day of this period being the National Draft only occurred recently and yet there’s no coverage, in fact the AFL don’t have any space at all.

A quick investigation of Victoria’s leading Herald-Sun will reveal the most searched item is still the AFL Draft. There’s always something to talk about no matter what time of year, so to have nothing devoted to the game is either not doing your homework or just plain lazy.

It’s been noted the news was to be a 50/50 mixture of both local and international stories. The biggest story in Australia today, a murder trial lasting for months ending in a guilty verdict, doesn’t seem to be print-worthy, instead four political stories of little significance and reports on a panel being created to ‘save the possums in victoria’ is deemed far more important.

As a reader I fail to see any real identity – is it local or international. There’s no pizzazz or any daring articles to make me go wow I want to keep reading! If I’m going out of my way to source a website for news, I want something different to the same old stories in the local newspapers – something edgy and out of left field. Guardian Australia doesn’t appear to have that, let alone the main story of the day covered.

I turn my attention to the TV section where all I see is UK based programming. BBC this and BBC that – where is the local content? Over 30% of homes in Australia have Foxtel installed in their home; I can’t imagine too many have the BBC. Why would I need to see the pick of the week is Dr.Who? It’s as if this area has just been labelled a no Aussie zone, which completely lacks rationality.

My advice to Martin Clarke, Publisher of MailOnline, is to be different. Show different opinions when it comes to politics and news as opposed to printing what every other publication is printing.

Think like an Australian. We want to see AFL, Rugby League and Union – AFL and League especially need their own section. We’re a sporting nation – the first thing spoken about at the water cooler or on-site is the weekend’s sport; follow this and you’re half way there. Don’t get me wrong, Soccer needs to be reported on too, but the balance needs to be right. The TV section needs a local guide – what to watch and when it is on, both free to air and pay TV channels.

Where I feel Guardian Australia has gone wrong is they’ve greatly miscalculated the Australian demographic. We like being diverse, expressing opinions and having a voice – we don’t just want to see sporting results, but dig deeper in to how the result came about. Don’t be biased politically, cover all angles and please Mr Clarke; we’re watching Australian television, is it possible to have Australian guides?

All news sites and publications stand up and take notice, The Daily Mail mean business and they’re bringing the Nine Entertainment Company with them. One can only hope they live up to the hype and deliver news, sport and entertainment in a completely new way, and make it Australian in every one of those ways.