David Higgins returns to journalism, launches specialist business news platform

Foxtel’s former editorial lead and news.com.au editor, David Higgins, has teamed up with business journalists Tim Boreham, Tim Treadgold, and Barry Fitzgerald, to launch a new specialised news site focused on ASX-listed companies.

Stockhead.com.au will be led by CEO and editor-in-chief Higgins, and will feature stories about companies listed on the ASX across technology, healthcare and resources.

Higgins will lead the new business platform

“By specialising, from day one we can cover our area better than any newspaper, because we have more journalistic resources trained on one area – whereas big city newsrooms have their staff spread thin across many topics,” Higgins said.

“It’s this broad church approach to journalism that is sadly in decline. But it is also creating opportunities for specialist journalism plays like Stockhead.”

Stockhead marks the return to journalism for Higgins, who was previously editor in chief of news.com.au and smh.com.au.

More recently, Higgins worked as head of social editorial at Foxtel before creating his own company, Social Creative Australia.

He said Stockhead will be “the place to read business news you won’t find anywhere else”.

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“Young people are the fastest-growing demographic of investors and there’s a huge opportunity for Stockhead to breathe new life into business journalism the same way new media brands like Vice, Mic and BuzzFeed have done in other areas,” Higgins explained.

“There are more than 2,000 companies listed on the ASX, but only a fraction of those are being covered by existing business publications.

“At the same time, there’s a renewed interest among young people for investment opportunities as housing prices continue to skyrocket and interest rates remain low,” he said.

“There are so many stories going untold every day about the hundreds of emerging companies striving to cure diseases, invent new technologies or find the next big deposit of ‘tech metals’ like lithium and cobalt.”

While Higgins said the company has many revenue opportunities, the initial focus will be on display advertising to help build the best journalism site possible.

Display sales are through Dianomi – financial advertising specialists who sell to the ASX site.

Higgins said advertisers will be assured their money isn’t “wasted on general audiences found in broad church news sites”.

“Brands are focusing more and more on the performance of digital campaigns, which means they are naturally interested in the quality and relevance of the audience,” he said.

“The better the audience quality, the better the campaign performance – that’s why the market is moving towards small, highly focused, best-of-breed journalism outfits.

“Journalism sites that focus their editorial entirely on a single, valuable audience segment –  in our case active Australian stockmarket investors interested in emerging ASX-listed companies – give confidence to media planners.”