Five years of bluenotes; that’s not all we’ve got…

Our stated aim was to “bring together news, insights, opinions and research about the economy, business and finance, technology, innovation, investment, inclusion and sustainability”.

"There’s an even greater imperative for us to be transparent and engage.” - Ries

That content, together with breaking news from ANZ such as earnings reports and strategic announcements, was to come from inside and outside ANZ. bluenotes’ ambition was to be part of a broader conversation with our audience.

Actually, re-reading our first edition today, not a lot has changed - as far as the ambition goes. But much - beyond our font and design - has changed in how we pursue that ambition.

That’s because the world has changed; the media world has changed; you, our audience, have changed. We know from our audience data you want insights, analysis, a diversity of opinions, news about ANZ – indeed more than ever – but you want videos, infographics, animations, podcasts, not just text. You are not just readers but also watchers and listeners.

Moreover we have to acknowledge there has been a global crisis of trust in major institutions, in corporations, in banks. So we have a much greater obligation to explain why ANZ does what it does; how the bank plays a role in shaping the growth of communities and individuals; and the role of the corporate world.

As bluenotes publisher Stephen Ries says “there’s an even greater imperative for us to be transparent and engage with our customers, our shareholders, our staff - all stakeholders - than when we started this project”.

To meet that demand, ANZ’s newsroom has expanded beyond bluenotes, incorporating a richer media site to meet the much broader demands of the media industry and a new platform, ANZ News, in response to an appetite for more stories about ANZ.

“Five years doesn’t seem that long but our media stakeholders now want much, much more than a PDF of a stock exchange announcement – they want video, interviews, infographics, quality images,” Ries says.

“Meanwhile, we found a great desire to know more about what ANZ is doing in the community and in the way we run the bank – from our staff and from the communities where we operate.

“bluenotes has an ever-growing audience but really its success has shown we can do even more with our newsroom.”

Certainly our ambition at bluenotes remains to provide insight, analysis, a diversity of opinion - in ways that our audience want to engage with us.

Over five years we have changed and strived to improve bluenotes. We want to keep doing so over the next five so please let us know any thoughts, suggestions, ideas, criticisms.

Andrew Cornell is managing editor of bluenotes