The New York Times - Australia's latest publishing import - is building readers and team-members, according to bureau chief Damien Cave.

Local content is being added to a full digital edition, produced by a team of American and Australian journalists.

Cave says the NYT was expanding globally had already built up a significant number of digital subscribers in the country.

A "small bureau" of around a half-dozen people in Sydney is supported by contributors in Melbourne and elsewhere. Cave and his wife Diana - who oversees video efforts - are American, while Jacqueline Williams, "audience reporter" Tacey Rychter, Sydneysider Isabella Kwai (newly returned from Washington), Melbourne-based Iraqi Adam Baidawi, intern Vicky Xiuzhong Xu (who was born in China and is a student at the University of Melbourne) and photographer Adam Ferguson (from rural NSW) are all from Austrlia.

Managing editor Joe Kahn will be here to deliver the Andrew Olle Media Lecture in October, while columnist Bret Stephens is currently in the country and was a panellist on the ABC's Q&A show.

Results so far have been promising: Readership is up 30 per cent on last year and active subscribers up 45 per cent since January (95 per cent yoy).

Cave says it was felt that Australia - and its role in the region - offered a rich vein of reporting, "especially in relation to issues of global importance such as climate change, migration, gender, and the role of China".

While money is reported in US dollars, distance in miles instead of kilometres, Cave says they have "lobbied successfully" for a change to the NYT style guide to allow Indigenous and Aboriginal to be capitalised. A geo-targetted technology solution for currency, measurement and date formats is also being explored.

Prioritising coverage emphasises themes that speak to global issues playing out in Australia: "We aim to stay above the fray here in a very partisan media market," he says. "We aim to be bold with visual stories. We aim to listen and connect with our audience in new ways - our subscriber-only Facebook group, for example - and aim to evolve as we go."

The team is being bolstered with a local restaurant critic, extra members for visual journalism and business development, plus "some new community experiments".