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Coconuts hires former Phnom Penh Post editor in drive to increase ‘hard-hitting’ news stories

South East Asian news platform Coconuts has hired an editor-in-chief as part of a new focus on publishing more serious news articles and fewer viral stories.

The multi-media company has appointed Chad Williams, editor of the Cambodian daily the Phnom Penh Post, to oversee editorial strategy across Coconuts’ eight regional news outlets.

Williams will join in April and will be based in Hong Kong. During his three-year tenure at the Phnom Pehhn Post, the newspaper won 16 awards from the Society of Publishers in Asia and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers. Prior to joining the Cambodian newspaper, Williams worked at The Hollywood Reporter in Los Angeles for eight years, most recently as international news editor.

Under Williams’ leadership, Coconuts will “aim to publish more hard-hitting and substantive stories – and thus depend less on viral traffic from Facebook – while retaining the irreverent style that has made it popular,” the company said in a statement.

Founded in 2011 by American journalist Byron Perry, Coconuts operates local news sites in eight major cities and destinations across Asia. These include Bangkok, Manila, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Hong Kong, Bali, and Yangon. All of these news sites are available in English. Coconuts also has two additional sites available in Thai and Indonesian.

Read Mumbrella Asia’s interview with Perry from 2015 here.  

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