Today marks the third birthday of the Daily Business Alerts service, which broke new ground in November 2005 when it started providing Western Australia's business community with breaking daily news in what was then the early stages of a long bull run.
Today marks the third birthday of the Daily Business Alerts service, which broke new ground in November 2005 when it started providing Western Australia's business community with breaking daily news in what was then the early stages of a long bull run.
The new service has grown quickly as the market learned about the news bulletin which hits email inboxes around 4.30pm every day, containing very relevant WA news.
The number of subscribers has trebled in three years while page views (articles opened) has jumped significantly, hitting more than 820,000 last month.
WA Business News editor Mark Beyer said the DBA's launch three years ago reflected the market's appetite for timely news and the growth in readership of the web-related stories strongly supported this view.
"Business people are getting busier and they want a service that makes their lives easier," Mr Beyer said.
"The Daily Business Alerts gives them a snap shot of the day's news in an easy-to-read format, and it arrives before they leave the office, rather than on the lawn the next morning."
The afternoon email has been complemented by the successful launch last year of a morning product, Today's Business Headlines, which is an early morning service providing a wrap-up of the main political and business news from around the country.
These products complement the weekly newspaper which provides more in-depth coverage of the overall WA marketplace.
Recent news such as Premier Colin Barnett's new ministry and the Reserve Bank's decision in October to slash 100 basis points from interest rates have had a notably high readership on the DBA, with iiNet's criticism of the national broadband plan being the most read story ever carried by the DBA.
But it is not all recent news. Among the top 10 stories on the DBA was the tragedy of motor racing legend Peter Brock's death in a WA rally on September 8, 2006.
Other big stories during the past years have been the Opes Prime collapse and its dramatic impact on WA mining investors, property prices sliding, Murchison Metal's Oakajee port win, iiNet's shock 2006 loss, AngloGold Ashanti's hedge book closure amd Wesfarmers' bid for Coles.
While many of the recent top stories contain news relating to the downturn, the very first DBA bulletin was full of positive news for the business community.
The lead item was that Len Buckeridge's BGC had won a long running battle over environmental objections to its quarry expansion at The Lakes near York.
In other leading news of the day, Woodside Energy Ltd awarded a Transfield-WorleyParsons joint venture a $700 million three-year engineering and maintenance contract and junior explorer Cazaly Resources secured financial support from a banking group Investec for the development of the Shovelanna deposit at the centre of an ownership dispute with Rio Tinto.
Generally the tone of the email that day was positive, especially with the buoyant markets rising on the back of strong prices for base metals.
Three years ago, the S&P/ASX200 index closed at 4,608.4 while the All Ordinaries finished the day at 4,547.8 - both substantially higher than they are today.
