NBR’s Simon Shepherd on three decades in journalism and what turns a start-up into a story

After 30 years in the news, it’s safe to say former Newshub business correspondent and current NBR senior journalist Simon Shepherd knows a business story when he sees one. 

Though with mounting job cuts and the complete closure of Newshub earlier this year, the news sector itself has been the subject of many grim headlines on business pages for much of 2024. 

“I feel a little battle-scarred after this year, to be honest. But I’m fortunate that I’ve landed in a different iteration, and I’m really enjoying it,” Shepherd told Caffeine.

The veteran journalist, along with Mike McRoberts, moved to NBR following Newshub’s shuttering. He now hosts the bi-weekly NBR Podcast, which features a combination of interviews, discussion, and analysis. 

Full disclosure: I worked with Simon on Newshub Nation and in 6 PM news before moving to Caffeine. Thankfully, despite how messy my side of the desk was and how often I distracted him, he still took my call. 

I started by asking him what his goal was when starting the NBR Podcast.

“It’s a mix, getting to the CEOs and the C-suite and hitting them with blunt and honest questions about how the company is performing, what the industry is doing, and that top end of town. That’s one bucket,” he said.

“The second part is issues based. So we might drop a CEO on Tuesday, and then on Thursday, it’s an issues-based story that is seen through a business filter. And really, you can look at everything because everything is a business story.”

While business reporting tackles dense subjects and tends to favour a more niche audience, the NBR host says at its best, it should speak to something broader.   

“Business is everywhere, and it’s really about people. Good storytelling needs a personal angle, which crystallises the issue. You can take any issue people care about in their daily lives and show how business interacts with it.”

It’s that lens Shepherd uses when selecting what startups or businesses he thinks are worth writing about. 

“If you’re a start-up and you’re solving a problem, you’ve got to find out how that problem and how your solution is going to affect or solve the problem for a wider audience,” he said. 

“It may be the most incredible piece of tech or sophisticated technology, but if you can’t relate that to a broader audience, you won’t get picked up. You’re not going to get people saying, “Oh hey, now I understand what it’s about, and I’m excited!”

Shepherd has read literally thousands of press releases from startups and scale-ups seeking media coverage and advises that, just like when pitching to investors, too much complexity can be a killer.

“If you are jargon-dependent in your pitch or in your press release, then you’re already creating a hurdle to anybody picking it up,” he said.

“I’m afraid to say journalists are time-poor, and you’ve got to make it easy for them to actually see the reason for running the story. So get rid of the jargon, make it accessible.” 

Shepherd says this often hampers the deep tech sector, where there can be a temptation to champion an innovation's complexity over its broader application. 

“If you’ve got a breakthrough, that’s fantastic for the company, but if nobody understands what you’re doing, then it’s a breakthrough you won’t get any recognition for,” he said.  

“Your fantastic piece of work that you’ve slaved over and slept on the office floor for, and you’ve done all those hours for, has to be relatable. If the public doesn’t understand, those nights on the office floor haven’t paid off.” 

Asked for a general pulse check of how New Zealand businesses were feeling in 2024, Shepherd says even though economists and politicians might be displaying cautious optimism following rate cuts, times are still tough.

“It’s grim out there. People may talk about green shoots but that’s a way off. I hosted an Employers and Manufacturers Association meeting the other night and the number of small to medium-sized businesses that had closed in the last 12 months was 50,000.” 

As Caffeine readers will know well, the startup economy thrives on optimism. Even in the depths of recession, founders will still present a rosy vision of their future prospects when talking to investors or journalists. 

Shepherd says in either case, it’s important to balance idealism with hard facts in your pitches.

“I don’t think people are buying fluff at the moment. If you’re a start-up and don’t have the business record, you are offering a solution, and you’re hoping that people will buy into that solution,” he advises. 

“So you’ve got to do your homework. Show the problem you’re fixing and the numbers showing how you can help fix it while growing. If you’re just offering something which is a press release full of optimism but nothing to back it up, that is a hard pitch to a journalist or a VC.”

Despite the overall economic gloom, Shepherd says he still has his eye on business bright spots.

“The energy sector is going to be really interesting,” he explained.  

“I’ve just done a podcast on this, and the solar industry has so much work consented but not yet built. And that’s an industry I’m keen to keep watching because we need renewable power to try and bridge ourselves to a 2030 renewable target.” 

After three decades in generalist free-to-air TV, Shepherd says shifting to a publication with a subscription model has changed his perspective. 

“It’s the best kind of data you can have because they’re paying for it. They don’t like it; you’ll find out about it.”

Echoing Caffeine’s conversation with Substack founder Hamish McKenzie, he says a direct financial link with the audience means you have to earn their trust to keep them coming back.    

“It’s very targeted, and you are held responsible by the audience directly because they have a vested interest. I’m appreciating the fact that you have to know your audience because your audience is paying your bills directly in this role, and that’s crucial.”