Your favourite New Zealand media company is hiring a business journalist to join our cool team. 

This September, we launch The Spinoff Business, a section dedicated to New Zealand’s private sector. We are seeking a journalist – or journalists (more on that further on) – to write, edit and commission within the section.

It’s an area of coverage we’ve long wanted to get into, and have finally secured a long-term partner to facilitate it. The work will consist of features, columns and opinion and is focused on quality, not quantity.

Conceptually our business coverage will centre on what we conceive of as the coming New Zealand economy. Startups, small to medium-sized businesses, tech, social enterprise and high-growth industries – the diverse and fast-evolving entities which will help propel the next phase of our economy.

We’re focusing here because we think that larger corporates are pretty well covered by New Zealand’s existing business media, and we believe that for our audience the risk, opportunity and dynamism of these sectors are more relevant. Additionally, we are a small business with big aspirations – we feel like part of this community and therefore well-placed, even obligated, to cover it.

What we definitely won’t be is a cheerleader. Smaller businesses stumble and fall, act out and make strategic errors at least as often as their larger counterparts. New Zealand’s investment sector has demons as well as angels. For every blazing success there’s a shocking failure, and we’ll cover each with an even hand.

We’re seeking a journalist with at least three years’ experience in the field, with a strong portfolio of writing and a desire to translate the sometimes arcane elements of business to a broader audience with creativity and style. The person we hire will have a broad knowledge of the business sector, and an ample contact book to help map the circuitry of the area and develop a programme of content which will consistently grab our audience’s attention. Tonally we want to shoot for the best magazine-style business coverage we can: think Businessweek or the Economist, only looking at the world from down here.

Finally, we’re open to different ways of handling the position. If you’re a parent returning from maternity or paternity leave with limited hours available, or a younger journalist with less experience, or based in a different city, or otherwise think you’re right for the role but have a different idea from the stated remit – we’d still like to hear from you. We’re open to hiring two people with complementary skills to make it happen.

If you’re interested in applying for this position, please send a CV, a brief cover letter and links to or PDFs of your work to duncan@thespinoff.co.nz by midday Friday 21 July.