Best of BusinessDesk: My top columns from 2025

Pattrick Smellie is BusinessDesk's founding editor.

Thu, 08 Jan 2026

The future of news: yet another reckon(published April 28)If there’s one thing journalists are talking about a lot at the moment, it’s the future of their vocation as a career. The loss of advertising is lamented. Its return has long been expected. However, it has failed to materialise and may now never do so. Former New Zealand Herald editor Gavin Ellis has tracked the numbers for years, and the findings are stark. NZ advertising spend shows an exponential increase on digital platforms that has not gone pro...

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