NBR owner Todd Scott agrees to sell stake in the business
Thursday, 26 January 2023
The ownership of The National Business Review, New Zealand’s oldest business publication, is set to change with a new shareholder in the wings.
Todd Scott, who owns the publication with his wife Jackie Scott, said he has agreed to a part sale of the NBR.
He declined to provide further details, except to reject speculation that the new owner was Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.
The couple took over management of NBR in 2012 through their company Fourth Estate Holdings (2012), after Todd, an advertising salesman, was hired by former owner Barry Colman in 2008 to monetise the website. They later took the business fully online, ceasing weekly publication.
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The Scotts only took over full ownership of NBR in 2020, the same year the publication celebrated its 50th anniversary, as they paid Colman off over time which led to tensions in the relationship.
The couple were forced to sell their house in Auckland’s affluent seaside suburb of St Heliers to complete the purchase, moving into a motorhome, according to a profile of Todd Scott in the Spinoff. The couple now live in Fiji.
The NBR, which operates behind a paywall, carries no advertising and received no government funding, which Scott suggested had prepared it better for the tougher economic times ahead.
“Media will arguably be in for the toughest year in decades. 2023 will be the worst year many in the industry will have ever experienced,” he said.
“While other media companies will be cutting costs due to dried up government funding and a significant downturn in advertising due to no more Covid messaging, along with the much promised/promoted recession that will see even less advertising investment on media channels, the NBR is 100% funded by our member subscribers.”
He said NBR was no longer a newspaper or media company, but a software-as-a-service that delivered business news, data, analysis and opinion.