The Herald is owned by NZME, which also publishes regional daily newspapers such as the Northern Advocate, Bay of Plenty Times, Rotorua Daily Post, Hawke’s Bay Today and the Whanganui Chronicle, as well as a stable of community titles. NZME’s publishing brands reach a total of 2.4m Kiwis weekly.
NZME also owns the leading business website businessdesk.co.nz, and the company’s radio brands include Newstalk ZB, ZM, The Hits and Coast. NZME’s total audience is 3.5m people across radio, print and online in radio and readership, according to GFK Commercial Radio and Nielsen Readership surveys.
Honest, impartial and independent reporting
Exclusives include the inside story of former Prime Minister Dame Jacinda Ardern’s resignation; publicly funded contracts awarded to family members of then-Labour Minister Nanaia Mahuta and award-winning political coverage.
NZ Herald’s journalism is guided by the NZME/NZ Herald editorial code of conduct and ethics.
- Our principal responsibility is to the truth – and to our communities and audiences. By being a member of “New Zealand’s newsroom”, we commit to ensuring our journalism is of the highest quality possible and earns the trust of our audience in all that we do, no matter the platform or the story. Trust is hard-earned and easily lost.
- We must ensure we are impartial – we take no sides and aim to be fair to all sides.
- We are independent and impartial and will not bow to improper internal or external influences.
- Our editorial team guards its independence zealously – it is a critical component in ensuring high-quality, trusted journalism and the foundation for our editorial and business success.
- We are committed to accuracy: If we do get a fact, or facts, wrong, we correct the record quickly, clearly and prominently, ensuring – wherever possible – the clarification/correction is given similar prominence as the original error.
Our editorial mission and priorities
We are here to inform, explain and entertain — reporting without fear or favour, acting with dignity and respect. Always at the centre of debate, agents of positive change, and unswerving in our pursuit of truth for all of Aotearoa.
We listen to our community and invite the public to participate in discussion and feedback via letters to the editor and Premium subscribers’ ability to comment on articles.
The NZ Herald promotes freedom of expression, freedom of speech and freedom of the press. By publishing balanced opinions on a wide range of topics, we place our platforms at the centre of debate and discussion. We balance the right of the individual with the public’s right to know.
It is critical that we differentiate, clearly, between news and opinion. Opinion articles on our websites will be clearly labelled as such in headlines and in the body of the article.
Our columns, commentary and opinion pieces are clearly identified and follow the Media Council’s rules and recommendations, especially ensuring they are honestly held opinions, based on facts.
How we fund our journalism
We receive funding from reader subscriber revenue, advertising and sponsored content. NZME has 221,000 subscribers overall, including 179,000 digital subscribers. This includes nzherald.co.nz, Viva Premium and BusinessDesk subscribers.
Of those 179,000 digital subscriptions, 123,000 are digital-only (the other 56,000 are print subscribers who have activated a digital subscription). NZME is aiming for 190,000 digital-only subscriptions by 2026.
All advertising and sponsored content is clearly disclosed. We do not allow commercial relationships to impact our news coverage.
Commitment to diversity
We tell the unique and diverse stories of Aotearoa. Our platforms reflect New Zealand’s multi-cultural fabric.
- We celebrate the Treaty of Waitangi as the founding document of New Zealand. We will strive to ensure the Māori voice, world view and language, where appropriate, are an essential part of our coverage and that our workforce reflects the face of modern Aotearoa.
- We embrace tino matatau [excellence], manaakitanga [duty of care] and pono [integrity] in everything we do.
NZME’s award-winning Te Rito journalism initiative is a 12-month cadetship programme aimed at increasing newsroom diversity.
Te Rito aims to amplify Māori, Pasifika, ethnic, LGBTQIA+ and disabled voices by giving people an entry point into media careers working in digital, print, television, radio and producing podcasts.
In May 2023, the programme won the International News Media Association (INMA) award for Best Innovation in Newsroom Transformation.
Te Rito was also named the winner of the Diversity and Inclusion Leadership category in the 2023 Deloitte Top 200 awards.
About our homepage
The top part of nzherald.co.nz’s homepage aims to provide a compelling mix of breaking news, investigative and in-depth journalism and the latest from our politics, business, sport, entertainment and lifestyle teams.
The selection of some articles is determined by algorithms (AI) based on articles we believe you personally will be interested in, or on what our system can anonymously determine on your location. For example, if we think you are in Christchurch, we will show you local news.
Recent major awards
In 2023, nzherald.co.nz was named Website of the Year for an unprecedented four consecutive years at the annual Voyager Media Awards, confirming its place as the home of premium journalism.
The Herald has won the highly coveted Website of the Year award in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 - judges praised the agenda-setting, watchdog journalism, great use of video and clear navigation across its digital site.
“The New Zealand Herald provides a confident model of boldly displayed, high-quality journalism. By highlighting the human face of important issues, this newspaper creates a real connection with the readers and country it serves,” the judges said.
As well as claiming the biggest digital journalism accolade of the night, the NZ Herald was also crowned Metropolitan Newspaper of the Year and New Zealand’s overall Newspaper of the Year.
Nzherald.co.nz was also named Best News Website in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
At the 2023 International News Media Association (INMA), the Te Rito cadetship programme was named Best Innovation in Newsroom Transformation.
In other INMA award categories, NZME’s Ukraine Crisis Appeal fundraiser took out third place in Best Public Relations or Community Service Campaign, its new Viva Premium platform was second in Best Subscription Niche Product, and NZME received an honourable mention for Best Idea to Grow Advertising Sales.
