NZ Herald is marking the fourth anniversary of our Premium digital subscription service with a special offer for new members.

It’s been four years since the NZ Herald took the ambitious step of asking readers to pay for access to our best journalism by buying a Herald Premium digital subscription.

This week, as we celebrate the fourth anniversary, Herald Premium continues to grow beyond expectations – thanks to the support of you, our audience.

Every day we bring you expert reporting and commentary on national, business, sport and political issues, along with engaging and informative entertainment and lifestyle features, and stories from leading global publishers including the New York Times and the Financial Times.

To mark Premium’s fourth birthday, we’re offering new members a special deal – just 50 cents a week for 12 weeks, then $2.50 a week for the next 12 weeks and then $5 a week. An annual subscription – always a great option as a gift for those hard to buy for – is available for $99 for the first year.

For full details of this special offer click here.

The special Premium offer runs from Thursday, April 27 until 11.59pm on Monday, May 1.

Five-, six- or seven-day subscribers to the Herald’s print editions, or our regional newspapers, are entitled to full digital access; go to nzherald.co.nz/activate to activate your Premium subscription.

Win a stay at a luxury lodge

To celebrate our fourth birthday, all Herald Premium subscribers are in with a chance to win a two-night stay for two at a Robertson Luxury Lodge of their choice: either The Lodge at Kauri Cliffs, The Farm at Cape Kidnappers or Matakauri Lodge.

The prize includes a two-night stay in a share/twin suite. Breakfast, lunch and dinner, plus pre-dinner cocktails and canapes are included on the first night.

Extra highlights include a round of golf or a 90-minute spa treatment per person (depending on lodge and availability) and travel expenses compensation of up to $1000 if the winner is located in a different region than the chosen lodge. The offer must be booked and redeemed between May and September 2023.

For full details and to enter click here.

A Premium subscription helps Kiwis make sense of the fast-paced, ever-changing news cycle, from analysis of current events to in-depth investigations and absorbing features, to opinion pieces you won’t find anywhere else – on any device.

And this year there’ll be more to unpack than ever, with extensive coverage and analysis of the Government’s Budget in May, a general election campaign culminating with the October 14 polling day – and the Rugby World Cup in September-October.

As a Premium subscriber you also have access to gold-standard stories from international publishers such as the New York Times and the Financial Times to broaden your global perspective.

The best journalism from NZ and around the world

Our award-winning newsroom continues to produce some of the biggest and most important stories from around Aotearoa.

Four years from the day we started our Premium subscription model, access to journalism that you can trust has never been more crucial.

Among the exclusive Premium stories we’ve published recently were political editor Claire Trevett’s fascinating account of the inside story of Jacinda Ardern’s resignation and rise of a new prime minister. Trevett’s exhaustive research revealed who knew what and when about Ardern’s decision to walk away from the top job – including her eventual successor Chris Hipkins.

Our annual Business Herald Executive Pay Survey revealed how many of the country’s most powerful bosses have cashed in on the pre-Covid bull market, with the value of the average chief executive pay packet soaring over the past year.

Business managing editor Duncan Bridgeman crunched the numbers to confirm some of the pay packets at the country’s biggest firms increased by an average of 14.13 per cent in the last financial year.

Also in business, Anne Gibson’s investigation revealed the secret recipe for the making of “McMillionaires”, producing The McDonald’s franchisee power list. The owners behind the Big Macs and Happy Meals are often husband-and-wife teams who didn’t start out wealthy but have achieved thanks to a big serving of ambition.

Our journalism holds those in power to account: As parts of Auckland were under water in the January floods, senior reporter David Fisher tackled Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown in an extraordinary interview.

Brown was forced to defend and explain his message to his tennis group that he couldn’t play on Sunday because he had “to deal with media drongos over the flooding tomorrow”.

And as debate raged over who should coach the All Blacks, our sports team set out to rank The greatest All Blacks coaches of all time. It’s compulsory reading for any rugby fan (including Ian Foster and Scott “Razor” Robertson).

And it’s not just first-class journalism that Herald Premium delivers.

Premium: Have your say on the big issues

A Premium subscription also lets you have your say by commenting on selected articles and participating in live Q&As with experts on the hottest topics of the day, whether that’s about the cost-of-living crisis or our politics experts running the ruler over Chris Hipkins’ performance as prime minister.

Premium subscribers can join us for an exclusive live video Q&A featuring NZ Herald editor-at-large Shayne Currie, Newstalk ZB’s Heather du Plessis-Allan and Barry Soper and the Herald’s Simon Wilson. The quartet will discuss the political landscape and their expert predictions for the year ahead at midday on May 1.

Also, be sure to keep an eye out for a live Q&A with two of the Herald’s most experienced investigative reporters, Carolyne Meng-Yee and David Fisher, on Tuesday, May 2. It’s your chance to hear first-hand how the pair find their stories and dig up information.

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.

If you need a breather, Premium subscribers can save stories to read later, offline via the app, or get stuck into our daily crosswords and puzzles.