The AU Review to rebrand as part of 10th anniversary, calls for industry feedback
As part of its 10th anniversary next month, pop culture and lifestyle site The AU Review is going through an overhaul – and wants music industry feedback.
Most significantly, the format change of 2 ½ years ago, where the site was split into different segments, will be reversed.
Founder and publisher Larry Heath tells TMN said the change was initiated as part of an end of an era when he had stepped down as editor-in-chief and Sosefina Fuamoli took over the editorial reins.
“It was mainly to meet the needs of advertisers at the time, but also to allow us to focus more sections like food and travel,” he explains.
“But what we’ve found over the last 2½ years has been that the needs of advertisers have changed: they want to target our entire audience, rather than just segments of it.”
Running the separate sites logistically and financially proved a problem.
For now, only sister site Hello Asia! remains a stand-alone.
Heath continues, “The merge to one domain allows for easier site navigation and cross-pollination of our audiences.
“So our travel audience will connect with our music audience, our film audience with our arts audience and so on.
“This will create bigger numbers for each piece of content and more unique content opportunities in the first instance.”
There will be more travel content, and a new Spotify discovery playlist has already launched with the first 10 tracks here.
“The new site will allow us to run things better internally, meet the needs of advertisers better, and also provide a much better user experience.
“We’ll improve design and functionality, and get rid of a lot of advertising.
“We will also be communicating a better framework for the industry to collaborate with us.”
The home entertainment site The Iris, which covers games, film & TV and tech, is being closed. Its content will be spread through the rest of the site.
Before finalising the site, Heath invites the music industry to provide feedback on what it wants at The AU Review, to submit, click here
10th anniversary celebrations will include a number of events around the country.
The first is part of the Scouted events at Indie-Con in Adelaide on July 27 to be followed by Sydney, Brisbane, (BIGSOUND), Melbourne and possibly Perth.
These will be the final events under The AU Review brand.
But Heath’s company Heath Media will continue to run the National Live Music Awards, the Courtyard Sessions, and In The Round songwriter sessions at The Leadbelly in Sydney.
Tracing back the past ten years, Heath reflects “When I started the website, it was just me – The AU was never intended to be a commercial project.
“But within a year we had 12 people involved and were finding an audience. Within four years it became a commercial project.
“What was supposed to be a portfolio to lead me to other projects, ultimately filled a gap in the industry and now has been running for a remarkable decade – still with many involved from that initial year.”