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A few months ago, we signed a unique strategic partnership with SmartNews Japan, the country’s largest news platform
Since launching our first localization and translation service in September 2025, we have, at Nordot, brought high-quality reporting from publishers around the world to Japanese readers through a strategic partnership with SmartNews Japan, the country’s largest news platform.
“In just a few short months, we’ve tested, iterated, and accomplished far more than we expected,” says Cindy Li, VP of APAC at Nordot.
Beyond already generating millions of monthly page views and delivering some early revenue growth for our publishing partners, the initiative has validated a clear market signal: Japanese audiences are eager for distinctive global journalism.
Many of the top-performing stories aren’t Japan-focused. Instead, they feature original, on-the-ground reporting on topics that local media seldom cover. This performance data has enabled us to sharpen our editorial judgment and more precisely curate the stories most likely to engage and retain readers.
Equally important is the editorial infrastructure we’ve built to support this effort. From day one, we developed a hybrid workflow that combines advanced AI translation technology with experienced human translators and editors. This approach allows us to scale efficiently while maintaining the accuracy, nuance, and quality that premium journalism demands.
While AI has dramatically improved speed and productivity, it still requires human oversight. Every article passes through an editorial layer to ensure clarity, cultural relevance, and fidelity to the original reporting. That human touch remains essential, not only for quality control, but also for maintaining trust among publishers, platforms, and readers.
With no established playbook for this kind of cross-border news operation, we designed the process ourselves, drawing on our team’s expertise and the strength of our editorial talent.
We are now focused on further optimizing the workflow and onboarding additional high-quality publishers to the platform this quarter. At the same time, we’re preparing for our next market expansion into South Korea. This is just the beginning.
Bertrand de Volontat is VP of EMEA at Nordot, where he helps publishers make the most of their content across platforms and borders. With a background in both journalism and media business, he led editorial operations at upday and launched several digital media ventures in the past.