Newsroom was started in 2014 by Mark Jennings and Tim Murphy, both who have extensive careers in journalism. Jennings worked in broadcast news in Australia for a decade, before returning to Aotearoa New Zealand to continue his broadcast career, where he was responsible for launching Newshub on TV Three. Murphy is the former editor in chief of the New Zealand Herald newspaper and has served as chairman of the Media Freedom Committee and the New Zealand Press Council.
Newsroom is independently owned, and operates a subscription model, Newsroom Pro, that offers access to exclusive content, the ability to post and read comments, a daily email newsletter and breaking news alerts. People can also opt to donate and contribute to the sustainability of the company as a whole. While Newsroom breaks exclusive stories, the team focuses on in-depth articles that explain the issues important to Kiwis. As well as written pieces, it regularly publishes podcast series' that investigate important national stories. It also produces another podcast, The Detail, for public broadcaster Radio New Zealand, which aims to make sense of the big stories currently making the news headlines. Both its investigative podcast work and The Detail have recently won national journalism awards.
It has specific sections: LockerRoom, dedicated to women's sports, ReadingRoom on books and authors, Personal Wealth, dedicated to finances and investing, puzzles like crosswords, and creates its own video content.
As well as its subscription model, it makes revenue via advertising, content partnerships and public funding from crown entity NZ On Air.
Newsroom has won national awards for its work every year since 2017.