Last Word: Where’s NBR headed?

When 23-year-old Henry Newrick founded the weekly broadsheet The National Business Review in 1970, with relatively little publishing experience, he could never have imagined how it would look now.

Half a century on, and there’s no print newspaper to browse. Instead, it’s a busy digital service that’s refreshed with news throughout the day, complemented by studio and on-site video interviews with newsmakers and columnists, and promoted on social media for further debate.

A new website launched last month – not without teething issues of course – and the annual The NBR List, formerly the Rich List, was published last week. It’s had a long history of publicising who has how much, but its focus shifted in the past couple of years to highlight purpose as well as profit. We hope you’ve had a good read – we’re all nosy parkers after all – and been inspired by some of our country’s most impressive individuals.

To cap off a busy time for NBR’s newsroom, there’s been an editorial leadership change. NBR’s freshest column, Last Word – written on a Friday by new co-editors Calida Stuart-Menteath and Hamish McNicol – will take a look back on an issue or two of the week through an editorial lens.

But, for this week, we’re looking forward.

What do we stand for?

As new editors, we have fresh focus. We are independent – as is NBR – and free from advertising, Government, and corporate influence.

We’re curious story-tellers. Our newsroom will take the dry facts and data and find the human element to present business news in a way that draws you in. We’ll get you the context and analysis behind those numbers, so you can be confident you’re up to date with what you need to know.

We want to widen the voices of business. Just as diversity of thought is crucial around the board table to make sure the company doesn’t fade into obscurity, it’s essential in the way we present stories, to make sure we have a sustainable product that changes as business does.

This isn’t to say the views of older white men – who feature heavily on this and other business news sites – are not valid or respected, but there are more views out there and we need to make space in our reporting for this. The ‘minority’ view is just as important and we want to hear more from young leaders, women, Māori, Pasifika, and Asian business people.

More global business and economic news and how it affects New Zealand is on the cards to stop us from getting too insular, as is expanding our reporting on the Māori economy. We want to introduce readers to new ventures and technology, fresh business owners and ideas – including green and sustainable businesses that hope to tackle climate change and other problems in society.

But, as we champion companies big and small and the initiatives set up to help them succeed, we’re here to hold businesses and business leaders to account. Are they doing what they said they would in their upbeat press release? If they’re stuffing up, you’ll hear about it from us. We’ll also focus more on the advisers, consultants, and lawyers operating behind the scenes with enormous influence.

What is business doing to adapt and tackle climate change?

Heavy hitters

The NBR has always been known for its heavy-hitting reporting on business issues. Our journalists consistently bring in awards for the best work in the country, after doggedly pursuing a story to the end.

We’ll keep you up to date with the latest on the CBL lawsuit, the tangled developments in FE Investments demise, whatever Simon Henry does next, and under-fire small business accelerators.

You’ll also continue to regularly hear from our strong bench of insightful, fearless columnists and ever-popular analysis in Hunter’s Corner and Shoeshine.

The range of what we cover is broad – agribusiness, politics, capital markets, professional services, aviation, finance, law – it’s a varied list. But along with the bread-and-butter business news comes investigative journalism that’s the hallmark of NBR.

There’s plenty of local competition these days, and you might also subscribe to overseas outlets such as The Economist or Financial Times.

But we want to remain the site that you come back to for your daily news, where you can trust that what you’re reading is truthful, insightful, and reliable.

At 52 years old, The National Business Review is older than us. We’re millennials, as are many rising through the ranks of business to become senior associates, vice-presidents and chief executives.

We don’t discount the wealth of knowledge that age often brings, but we’re quick to learn and keen to try new things, even if it doesn’t work out. “Fail fast,” as NBR publisher Todd Scott is fond of saying.

Not every article is going to please everyone – some love reading about sustainable finance and others call it greenwashing; some can’t wait to see an entrepreneur’s profile each Thursday, while others couldn’t give a toss.

But, we’re listening – so talk to us, and tell us what you’d like to see more of. If you have your ear to the ground and think there’s something worth covering, then let us know at editor@nbr.co.nz. It’s what we’re here to do, after all.