BusinessDesk’s reputation as a great place to start a career in business journalism has been confirmed by our Wellington reporter, Jem Traylen’s award of Best Student Journalist at last weekend’s Voyager Media Awards.
Jem, a qualified economist with a previous career in senior government agency policy roles joined BusinessDesk last year to work on our public sector investigation, which was partially funded by the Public Interest Journalism Fund.
Jem is now a full-time member of the BusinessDesk team, bringing her strong analytical skills and knowledge of how Wellington ticks to her reporting.
“We’re stoked for Jem and look forward to an awards-studded future for her from here on in,” said Pattrick Smellie, BusinessDesk managing editor.
The judges said “Jem Traylen’s portfolio contained the keys to success in journalism – strong news sense, focus, stickability and fire in the belly. She tells interesting stories, too.”
BusinessDesk was also proud to have our data journalist, Andy Fyers, nominated as a finalist in the best data journalism category and the BusinessDesk website as a finalist in the best news website category, which was won by NZME’s flagship New Zealand Herald website.
“It’s been a huge year for BusinessDesk,” said Smellie. “Our sale to NZME in January has secured our future as the go-to choice for in-depth, trusted and timely business and economic news.
“We are proud to be among the impressive haul of trophies won by the NZME stable.”
Since its inception in 2008, BusinessDesk has launched careers in business journalism for numerous young reporters, most notably our own Head of News, Paul McBeth, who joined the business within months of its creation.
The PIJF is also funding positions for two cadet reporters, allowing BusinessDesk to bring on more young journalists into a specialist segment of our industry, train them up and add them long term to our growing newsroom of more than 20 journalists.
