The journalist heading up a regional publisher’s new football project has touted the possibility of opening a office in the USA in future.

Kristian Walsh, left, is lesding Reach plc’s Liverpool.com venture, which is aimed at supporters of Liverpool Football Club based over the Atlantic.

Three Liverpool-based journalists have so far been hired as part of the project, and Kristian is currently meeting US-based freelance contributors while covering the club’s pre-season tour of North America.

Kristian says a full-time overseas bureau is part of a “wider vision” for the website’s expansion.

He told HTFP: “We have looked to bring people in who really understand that and can reflect that in their writing. Words about the players and manager matter but it’s also about how the general feel of the club and city coincides with all that which also matters.

“In terms of our US recruitment, that is still ongoing. We believe a nation so diverse and with so many excellent writers – and being involved in different disciplines such as analytics, culture and comedy – should be reflected in the voices of our US-based team. We are accepting paid freelance contributions and part of my trip to the States is about meeting some of these people.

“To begin with, they will begin by reporting into Liverpool. But the world is a village now and they would be in contact with me and our content editor, Dan Austin, in the same way a national club correspondent would do.

“We’ll listen to pitches, pitch things ourselves and hopefully create something US fans will love. The wider vision is having a full-time office over in the States too.”

Kristian has been promoting the site’s launch as part of his assignment in the USA, and says it has been received “really well” so far.

He said: “[We’ve had] a lot of promising comments on social media, which can be a rarity, and the content has been received as hoped too. There are some really good opinion pieces there, some really good explainers, and some articles which feel very US-based. I like how it uses analytics and statistics, I like how there’s more of a first-person feel to it.

“Sometimes, and I say this having been and still being involved in UK sports journalism, it can be a little bit too serious and statesperson like, so this provides an alternative. I’ve just written a piece about how wrong I was about a player – and there’s nothing wrong with that.”

Quizzed whether he believed the Liverpool.com model could work for other UK regional publications covering Premier League football clubs, Kristian added: “I do with particular clubs in terms of the US audience, although I am of the mind Liverpool is the perfect club for this sort of venture. But I do think it raises a wider point and hopefully offers hope and possibilities about diversification.

“In my previous role before taking on this project, I oversaw sports writers who specialised in tactics, gaming and finance, providing the sort of in-depth, expertise content sports local journalism hasn’t seen before. Whether it’s that, or location, video or even paying for good quality content, I feel like experimentation and seeking new audiences in a fairly packed market isn’t a bad thing. The more jobs and opportunities it creates, the better.