New content and new look for BusinessDesk

BusinessDesk's new website

Starting tomorrow, BusinessDesk has a sophisticated new design and a range of new features.

BusinessDesk, owned by Herald publisher NZME, has also taken over FundSource, the definitive data source for KiwiSaver and managed funds. It was originally a product of the New Zealand stock exchange (NZX), but was sold to Zenith Investment Partners in 2019.

FundSource is an esteemed investment research house that has provided data analysis to financial advisers and fund managers for several decades.

The BusinessDesk iteration of FundSource will launch later this month. It will offer detailed data on KiwiSaver and managed funds, including league tables, with the ability to compare funds and other performance data. It will also show the inflow and outflow of funds from each firm, and data will be updated daily.

New site

BusinessDesk worked with award-winning NZ designer Benek Lisefski and Turkish development firm PlusClouds to create the sophisticated new site.

Logged-in subscribers can now:

• Gift up to five articles a month to non-subscribers.
• Follow individual journalists via email.
• Corporate users can view a personalised home page.

Corporate team owners also get more information on how their colleagues are using the site, thanks to a new dashboard.

Managing editor Pattrick Smellie and General Manager Matt Martel said they were delighted with the upgrade.

“[It] complements the quality of our journalism and reflects our growth as NZ’s best source of business and economic news, analysis and data,” Martel said.

“The new website and acquisition of FundSource show BusinessDesk’s focus on supplying leading business news, data, analysis and expert opinions to its hundreds of thousands of readers across the country.

“We employ more business journalists than any other publication in NZ – more than twice as many as any other specialist business publication – and we have reporters in Auckland, Tauranga, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown.”

Growth story

Martel said the company has grown rapidly since the site was launched in 2020.

“We now have more than 250 companies and government entities across the country who subscribe for their teams, as well as thousands of individual subscribers. Last month alone, we added more than 700 subscribers.”

Unmissable: BusinessDesk advertising on Air NZ flights

Alongside the new upgrade, NZME is launching a multimillion-dollar marketing campaign, incorporating NZME publications and radio, Air NZ inflight screens, Kia Ora magazine, billboards and office tower screens from VMO.

In other BusinessDesk news:

• It will soon start publishing an investigation into the Business of Health, led by Victoria Young. Journalists Donna Chisholm and Cecile Meier will be key authors. Chisholm is among NZ’s best-known journalists. Meier is an accomplished Christchurch-based former Stuff business and health reporter.
• Linda Clark, Chamanthie Sinhalage-Fonseka and Rebecca Rendle have joined BusinessDesk as columnists. Clark is a former journalist who is now a partner at Dentons, Rendle is a partner at Simpson Grierson, and Sinhalage-Fonseka is a senior PR practitioner and board member of Auckland’s Heart of the City.
• Brent Melville is now BusinessDesk’s South Island correspondent, based in Queenstown.
• BusinessDesk’s Cooking the Books podcast, featuring investments editor Frances Cook, is NZ’s top business podcast, a position it fights for with Shared Lunch, which we produce with Sharesies.