School rankings, property deals, All Black line-ups, restaurant reviews, fashion tips and a detective investigated after having intimate relationship with rape complainant.
Our award-winning newsroom continues to produce the best mix of important and entertaining stories from around Aotearoa.
They come in all forms on all devices - in-depth investigations, analysis, commentary, advice and video.
Six years since we started our Premium subscription model, access to journalism that you can trust has never been more crucial.
Readers can now access that journalism across the Herald, Viva Premium and the Listener for just 50c a week.
As part of our two-week bundle campaign, web prices are:
- All access weekly: $0.50 a week for the first eight weeks, then $3.50 a week for eight weeks. Then $8 a week ongoing. Billed every four weeks.
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To get access to Premium, sign up here. Readers have until midnight on Monday, June 23 to claim the offer.
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Since our sale started last week, journalist Katie’s Harris story about the Christchurch detective investigated after having intimate relationship with rape complainant has been our top Premium story.
The Queensland Police Service withdrew Luke Fazackerley‘s job offer while the allegations were looked into.
Education and property stories reigned supreme among the Herald’s Premium stories this year.
Want to know which high-achieving high schools are close to affordable housing? Our top Premium story of the year was in February by journalist Ben Leahy who cross-referenced the achievement rates of 493 schools with housing costs in their areas.
In April he looked at the schools that produced the highest-achieving students in the Cambridge International exams.
He also delved into $60 million of sales by one of NZ’s biggest property traders to reveal the buy and sell prices from each of the 71 deals and the traders’ investment philosophy.
In May, the Herald was recognised for its stories on the Philip Polkinghorne case at the Voyager Media Awards, winning Best Coverage of a Major News Event.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.The eye surgeon was acquitted of wife Pauline Hanna’s murder in an eight-week trial in 2024. Carolyne Meng-Yee continues to cover the case, in April obtaining secret recordings in which Polkinghorne’s lover Madison Ashton said she believed he killed his wife to be with her.
Meanwhile, after a two-and-a-half-year legal battle to keep their identities secret, court reporter Craig Kapitan told how posh doggy daycare Pets & Pats and the high-profile entrepreneur who runs it have been prosecuted twice by Auckland Council after hundreds of complaints from neighbours.
And investigative reporter Jared Savage is across the country’s organised crimes, revealing how an influential gang member was arrested after returning to New Zealand for a funeral.
Readers also love profiles on successful Kiwis. As part of his regular “lunch with” series, businesswoman Anna Mowbray sat down with editor-at-large Shayne Currie to discuss family, money and business values and the importance of creating a new generation of Kiwi leaders.
The perfect mix
We pride ourselves on having the perfect mix of national business, sport, politics, lifestyle and entertainment news with content from New Zealand’s best journalists as well as from leading global publishers, including the New York Times.
Last month, the Herald’s top rugby writer Liam Napier analysed last year’s starting All Blacks team and looked at what changes could come.
Viva, NZME’s leading lifestyle, fashion and culture website, also took out the Voyager Media award for Best Newspaper Magazine.
Beauty writer Ashleigh Cometti shared how people are shunning over-filled, frozen faces in favour of a more “natural” look, like Demi Moore’s.
At 62, her wrinkle-free appearance belies conventional beauty standards, writes Cometti.
Cometti is also behind the annual Viva Beauty Awards. Discover every winning brand, person and product from this year’s awards.
Top food writer and broadcaster Jesse Mulligan provides weekly restaurant reviews on Viva. His story on why he had a shocking experience at Auckland restaurant Kingi was his best read this year.
Mulligan was a judge of Viva’s annual Top 60 Auckland Restaurants. Expect a new list this year.
Readers also craved Viva’s fashion tips this year, including T-shirts for the office and wedding guest dresses to manifest your inner romantic.
Our second biggest premium story of the year was for the Listener by wine writer Michael Cooper’s analysis on the crisis facing New Zealand’s wine industry.
Readers of the Listener also enjoyed journalist and broadcaster Duncan Garner’s opinion piece on why he believes Christopher Luxon won’t lead National into the next election.
And Paulette Crowley’s feature on how people with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder are frequently misdiagnosed with ADHD also struck a chord.
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Premium subscribers also get access to exclusive newsletters, including our Premium News Briefing, which tells you everything you need to know for the day by the time you’ve made your first coffee, and our weekly Opinion newsletter, which rounds up the mood among our columnists and commenters.
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