The Telegraph has launched a new tech vertical, Technology Intelligence. The Telegraph has hired 15 new staffers for the vertical, mostly in editorial, across London; Brussels; Silicon Valley; Taipei, Taiwan; Tel Aviv, Israel; and Washington, D.C. This is its biggest editorial investment to date, according to the publisher.
Technology Intelligence will cover device reviews and news, technology companies, technology developments in areas like cryptocurrencies and augmented reality, the political and social effects of technology, plus the U.K. startup scene. Aside from online and print coverage, The Telegraph will launch two new email newsletters, a weekly podcast, Amazon Alexa briefings, weekly columns, in-depth analysis and Snapchat content related to Technology Intelligence. The Telegraph is also publishing a five-part series that explores the hunt for the world’s first trillion-dollar company, written by technology special correspondent Harry de Quetteville.
“The aim is to establish The Telegraph as the leading newspaper of tech journalism,” said Allister Heath, editor of The Sunday Telegraph. “We’ll be creating globally relevant content from the British Telegraph perspective. It will enable us to generate a large and broad audience of registered users spanning every demographic with an interest in tech.”
The Telegraph has an ambitious goal of 10 million registered users; it is aiming for 3 million by the end of 2018.
“Just as the chief technology officer role has shifted from IT services to a critical business role, technology has moved from a specialist subject to one that is fundamentally part of all our lives,” said Nick Hugh, CEO of Telegraph Media Group. “It’s time to rethink our definition of technology and all the debates surrounding it — that’s the basis for launching Technology Intelligence.”
A key topic of coverage for the new vertical is regulating and taxing technology companies, with The Telegraph highlighting comments from Matt Hancock, U.K. secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport, in the wake of Cambridge Analytica’s data breach of 50 million Facebook profiles.
“Cases [like the Cambridge Analytica] cannot go unchecked and unanswered; the harms are too great,” said Margot James, U.K. minister of state for digital, culture, media and sport, speaking with Heath on March 19 at Advertising Week in London, where platforms and their role in the media ecosystem are under scrutiny.
James stressed the need for government regulation that doesn’t stifle growth and creativity with too much red tape. “There have been voluntary codes of practice that have been successful in certain areas — terrorism, security and child abuse — without [platform] legislation,” she said, “but there is an increasing skepticism that we won’t get to where we need to be purely on a voluntary basis.”
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