About AusBiz Media

AusBiz Media

Overview

AusBiz is an Australian business publication published by Publishing ByChelle, a boutique Sydney content agency, covering Australian business, finance, technology, mining, agriculture, property, charity and the environment. It operates principally as a news and features website at ausbizmedia.com, supported by an email newsletter and, since 2023, a biannual print magazine distributed through airline lounges, business events and hotels. The title should not be confused with the similarly named ausbiz financial streaming channel: the publisher and media directory Medianet state explicitly that AusBiz the magazine is in no way affiliated with the ausbiz live streaming service.

The editorial formula is deliberately accessible. Founder and publisher Michelle Hespe has described the magazine's selections as stories readers in airline lounges and hotels will enjoy — not too hard-hitting, but all Australian, all timely, and spanning interesting topics from organic wine and workplace menopause to mining innovation and finance in uncertain times. That breadth is visible on the website's front page, where business profiles and industry reporting sit alongside agriculture, property, charity and environment coverage, much of it built around profiles of Australian companies, founders and community organisations rather than market news.

History

Publishing ByChelle was launched in Sydney in 2017 by Michelle Hespe, a publisher with more than 25 years in the industry whose earlier roles included launch editor of National Geographic Traveller in Australia and New Zealand and a long association with inflight publishing for Rex Airlines, where she won the tender for the airline's magazine and renamed it True Blue. Hespe and a small team of three others created AusBiz and its sister travel title in 2017, building both first as websites with social and newsletter audiences.

AusBiz moved into print in February 2018 as an inflight magazine for Rex, compiled, in Hespe's words, from the best content of the previous few months arranged in the sections the title has always covered: business, finance, tech, mining, agriculture, property, charity and the environment. She launched it alongside deputy editor Emily Riches, with sub-editor Claire Hey and designer Ryan Vizcarra on the founding print team. The website, meanwhile, continued as the title's daily publishing base, and the publisher built an email newsletter whose recipient list Publishing ByChelle put at more than 150,000 in June 2023.

The standalone print magazine in its current form was launched on 8 June 2023 at a Mines & Money investment event in Sydney. Publishing ByChelle described it as a biannual magazine, launched as print-first publishing enjoyed a small revival, and at launch it was available in the Rex lounges in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane, at Mines & Money events in Sydney and Melbourne, and in select hotels. The sister title True Blue was renamed TrulyAus in 2023 to match its website, leaving Publishing ByChelle with two consumer brands: TrulyAus for Australian travel and AusBiz for Australian business.

Content and Coverage

The website is organised around the title's long-standing sections. Agriculture coverage ranges from avocado production and farm confidence surveys to native ingredients and rural finance; the mining section covers decarbonisation of steel, mine closures and mining technology; business stories profile companies and founders, from food manufacturers and honey producers to tailoring and deodorant start-ups; and the charity section is a distinctive fixture, regularly profiling Australian charities and community campaigns. Property and environment sections round out the mix, covering housing policy, insurance and conservation projects.

Recent publishing on the site shows the same spread in 2026: business stories on hiring delays and workplace reflection, a report on the Run2Cure fun run returning to Sydney to raise awareness of the childhood cancer neuroblastoma, a science story on ancient ice sheets and Australia's climate, and a magazine feature asking whether AI agents are part of the fix for Australia's productivity problem. Hespe also writes for the title herself; her bylined features in 2026 include a series profiling the global honourees of the International Housewares Association's gia awards. The tone throughout is feature-led and explanatory rather than news-driven, aimed at general business readers rather than specialists in any single industry.

Audience and Reach

AusBiz addresses a general Australian business audience: the owners and managers of small and medium enterprises, professionals who encounter the print edition in airport lounges and hotels, and the broader readership of its website and newsletter. Publishing ByChelle's own figure, given to Medianet in June 2023, put the AusBiz newsletter's recipients at more than 150,000; that is the publisher's number, not an audited one, and no audited circulation or readership figure is published for either the print magazine or the website.

The print distribution was designed around dwell time rather than newsstand sales: lounge readers in the four Rex lounges in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane, delegates at Mines & Money investment events in Sydney and Melbourne, and guests at select hotels, as the publisher described the arrangements at the magazine's June 2023 launch. The website is the freely accessible face of the title and carries its archive of business, agriculture, mining, property, charity and environment features to a national online audience.

Digital Presence

AusBizmedia.com is the title's publishing hub, carrying daily features across its sections together with the content of the print magazine, including the "AusBiz. magazine" features showcased on the home page. The newsletter is a significant channel in its own right, and the publisher has said it surveys which medium its readers enjoy most in order to focus the team's energy on the most popular verticals and platforms. Publishing ByChelle also publishes the AusBiz team's sister travel content: material from TrulyAus magazine appears online for Rex passengers, and the two brands share the small agency's production resources.

The brand's name invites confusion online with the unrelated Sydney-based ausbiz streaming channel for investors, founded by Kylie Merritt and David Koch's Pinstripe Media and launched in March 2020 at ausbiz.com.au. The two are separate businesses with separate websites, and AusBiz magazine's publisher has put the distinction on the record through Medianet: AusBiz is in no way affiliated with the ausbiz live streaming show.

Ownership and Organisation

AusBiz is published by Publishing ByChelle (PBC), a boutique content agency based in Sydney that was launched in 2017 by founder and director Michelle Hespe. Hespe serves as publisher and marketing manager across both of the company's consumer titles, AusBiz and the Rex inflight magazine TrulyAus, and Publishing ByChelle also works as a content agency producing publications and material for clients. Its 2021 media kit listed the company at Neutral Bay on Sydney's lower north shore, with advertising and production contacts at publishingbychelle.com addresses.

The company is small by design: AusBiz and TrulyAus were created by Hespe and three others in 2017, and the titles are produced by a compact editorial and design team. Publishing ByChelle's stated approach, in Hespe's words, is that an editorial team should blend as seamlessly as possible with a sales team while balancing revenue against editorial integrity, and the agency has positioned itself as a supporter of Australian small business, collaborating with other small businesses and covering stories — from homelessness and mental health to menopause in the workforce — that sit outside conventional business coverage.

Contact and Availability

AusBiz can be read free online at ausbizmedia.com, where its business, agriculture, mining, property, charity and environment coverage is published continuously, and readers can sign up for its email newsletter through the site. The biannual print magazine has been distributed through Rex airline lounges in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane, at Mines & Money events and in select hotels. Advertising and editorial enquiries are directed to Publishing ByChelle, the Sydney-based publisher, through the contact details published on its website and in the AusBiz media kit.