In the middle of a global pandemic, the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age watched lifestyle content numbers boom. They dropped the quantity and boosted the quality of non-news content, embraced newsletters, and it paid off in spades. “The top of the homepage can be so grim,” Executive Editor Tory Maguire says. “But if we present [other content] properly to our audience, they’re really engaging with it.” The Australia’s editor, Michelle Gunn, saw the same. “People yearned for lifestyle content, rich storytelling, stories which took them away,” she says. “We saw a strong move towards weekends.” The West Australian saw a surge in readers, but also for its late TV show and morning radio audiences. “Some of the numbers we were seeing during live streaming of press conferences would rival traditional TV and traditional radio,” says Editor in Chief Anthony De Ceglie. All of which presents advertisers with new options now Australia is opening up.