Newsmakers with Kerri Elstub

Kate Watson

Introducing this week’s Newsmaker: Kerri Elstub from Nine.com.au

Kerri Elstub is one of those people you immediately want to have a glass of wine with. She’s relatable, energetic, positive, and she’s one of the most influential newsmakers in the country. Why? Well, she oversees the websites nine.com.au, 9news.com.au, wwos.nine.com.au and 9honey.com.au to name a few.  

That means she leads a team that produces news that millions of us read and watch every day. 

Before this gig, Kerri was a producer for A Current Affair and Today - big national news programmes where you have to be really connected to everyday Australia. She explains in our conversation how those jobs taught her a lot about what our nation cares about. (Note: she also tells the story of how she was featured on the Royal’s Instagram account).

Plus, she articulates her big concerns about the future of the news media - an industry she has worked in since starting as an intern at 2UE more than 30 years ago. 

You can watch the video of our conversation below, listen to the full podcast interview or scroll down for an edited transcript. 

Kerri Elstub on creating content for Australians…

KW: You worked at A Current Affair. Why did you love it so much?

Kerri Elstub: A Current Affair teaches you so much about storytelling and about what matters to Australians. The fact you don't have to take yourself so seriously all the time. And the fact that the cliche is true - that shows like A Current Affair fight for everyday Australians. You see it in the people who contact you, you see it in the stories. People, when they feel they have no option, when no one is listening to them, will come to A Current Affair. And when you can literally, as cliche as it sounds, change someone's life because they came to you and you were able to get an answer for them - there's nothing better.

KW: What you’re saying is that what you were able to do at A Current Affair was really stay in touch with Australia and everyday people. How do you do that now?

KE: Honestly, I took so much of what I learned on A Current Affair about putting your audience first, about understanding who your audience is. And I've said to so many of my team, look, this website that you work on might not be for you. It might be more for your mum, your neighbour, your school friends. The stories that you're writing, I know you're passionate about, but we need it to be something that our entire audience is going to care about. And I think knowing your audience, knowing who you're writing for before you put a single finger to a keyboard is key to the success of our website. And that's something we talk to the team about all the time - know your audience before you write a story.

KW: What do people love? As you and I would say in the media world, what is the stuff that goes off?

KE: In the news category, it's breaking news. Any day of the week, it is breaking news. But in terms of what they like in other verticals … For sport, it's Wimbledon, the Olympics is huge, motor racing. When it comes to lifestyle, it's Royals. When Kate turned up for the first time after her cancer diagnosis, I can't even tell you. We had a full team on at 11pm at night…They also love something quirky. Our biggest story for the past couple of months is why you should not tie a ribbon on your suitcase - half a million page views on that story, people loved it. It’s stories on how to stop mould and the best places to holiday, the kind of stuff that you might find yourself googling on your phone. The thing that every media person now has is so much data … you know what they're reading the second that they're reading it. You can analyse it in real time.

KW: I'm imagining in your office, you have like a big screen that says this is the top story. Is that how it works? And how much of it is data and how much of it is instinct?

KE: It's both, I would say. You need both. I'm a journalist who relied a lot of the time on her gut, and increasingly, over the past few years, I've relied a lot more on data. You need journalistic creativity because you need original content. You can't just have the same stories that every other website has. And increasingly, we are seeing it as that original content that will get the big numbers for you. Because otherwise, you're serving up the same meal on 6 different sites.

KW: We've all seen that before.

KE: Exactly.

Tell us what you think…

In my conversation with Kerri, I asked her what she thinks is the most overlooked news story at the moment. Listen to our chat for her answer, but it got me wondering…

Why we’re doing this Newsmakers series

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