NZ Herald to launch Chinese-language platform

NZME and the Chinese Herald are launching a Chinese-language news site. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Selected articles from the Herald will soon be available in Chinese on a new website.

The new site, set to launch in early October, will be owned equally by Herald publisher NZ Media and Entertainment (NZME) and the Chinese Herald, an independent Chinese-language paper established in 1994 and bought last year by local businesswoman Lili Wang.

The site will publish selected articles from the NZ Herald, the print version of the Chinese Herald and other Chinese news sources.

Chinese languages are now the second most commonly spoken in Auckland after English, with 99,744 Chinese speakers making up 7.7 per cent of Aucklanders who were old enough to speak at the 2013 Census.

NZME chief operating officer Carolyn Luey said the site, chinesenzherald.co.nz, would have its own translation staff and editor who would be located at the Chinese Herald office but report to NZME managing editor Shayne Currie.

Stories chosen for translation would include NZ news, Chinese and other world news, business news and entertainment and lifestyle content.

"They will have access to all our content. The editor will pick and choose," she said.

NZME, Chinese Herald and the joint venture's own sales staff will be able to sell advertising on the site, often packaged with advertisements in print and on the NZ Herald website.

"The site will be responsive so it can be accessed via web, tablet and mobile, with articles being posted on WeChat making it easy for the Chinese community to stay up to date and share content," Luey said.

She did not rule out similar ventures in other languages, but said Chinese was chosen for NZME's first non-English website because 35 per cent of Chinese immigrants could not speak or read English.

NZME chief executive Michael Boggs said the company was "committed to its diverse audience engagement strategy and we strive to continuously develop new propositions to connect and engage with all New Zealanders".