Kishor Napier-Raman

Kishor Napier-Raman follows the money and power behind Australia’s media and political class, treating corporate decisions, institutional scandals and cultural flashpoints as part of the same story arc. He is a senior business writer with The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age who combines business reporting with deep familiarity with politics, law and the mechanics of influence. His work ranges from close-grained analysis of major media companies to a regular CBD column that tracks the intersection of boardrooms, party machines and the social circuits around them.

Media companies, star talent and corporate risk

A defining strand of Napier-Raman’s reporting is his focus on media companies, their on-air personalities and the commercial risks created when star talent crosses into polarising politics. His coverage of Karl Stefanovic’s deteriorating relationship with Nine follows the presenter from being billed as the network’s “heart and soul” to becoming unwelcome, and ties that shift directly to changes in Nine’s leadership, its revenue pressures and its appetite for controversy. He details contract renegotiations, cost-cutting in response to a weakening advertising market, and the latitude Stefanovic was given to launch an independent podcast, then tracks how that podcast’s embrace of populist-right guests created friction with Nine’s brand and governance settings.

The piece is structured around corporate chronology: executive departures, new management priorities, revised pay and deal terms, and the business calculus behind whether a marquee presenter remains an asset or a liability.

Napier-Raman uses behavioural and political changes in high-profile media figures as a route into questions of audience, revenue and reputational risk.

In the Stefanovic story, he connects the host’s shift toward more ideologically narrow content, his stated ambition to emulate Joe Rogan and his flirtation with the online manosphere to the commercial constraints of a mainstream broadcaster. The narrative is grounded in concrete decisions - attendance at flagship events, contract length and value, executive reshuffles - rather than personality gossip, which underscores his orientation toward business impact even when the subject is a television star.

This approach makes his media coverage directly relevant for organisations watching how cultural politics feeds back into shareholder, advertiser and regulatory concerns.

CBD column: politics, boardrooms and the social circuit

Alongside long-form features, Napier-Raman co-authors CBD, a daily column that sits at the junction of politics, business and elite social life. The CBD archive shows his byline on items about internal Liberal Party tensions, including a party elder telling women that “nobody cares about the Liberals,” as well as pieces on election-night scenes around senior Labor figures. He writes on Parliament House smoking rules and the quiet habits of political insiders, and on how AFL executives or corporate figures navigate crises while literally out of contact, such as being on wilderness treks during reputational emergencies.

Many CBD pieces trace how political decisions, corporate troubles and cultural events play out through invitations, parties and off-the-record briefings, treating social settings as another arena where power is exercised.

The column regularly follows the media industry itself, from controversies at writers’ festivals to the fallout from social media posts involving political figures and slogans associated with Donald Trump. Napier-Raman’s CBD items often hinge on sharp, concrete vignettes - a private “sunset garden talk” at a Baillieu mansion, a MAGA cap in a Christmas family photo, or the accessories spotted at high-profile racing events - to illuminate status, alignment and tension among political and corporate actors. Across these pieces, he brings the same concern with reputational management and informal power as in his business reporting, but in a brisk, diaristic format that centres named individuals, specific events and the small decisions that signal larger alignments.

External profiles describe him as a CBD columnist who covers government, politics, public policy and the intersections of media and law, which matches the mix of subjects visible in his recent CBD work.

Institutions under pressure: universities, media and science

Beyond corporate and social coverage, Napier-Raman reports on institutions facing legal, ethical and governance strain, particularly where those strains intersect with speech and accountability.

At The Age he has written about University of Melbourne students expelled over pro-Palestine protests, highlighting disciplinary measures and the time frame for appeals, which places campus politics and administrative power within his beat. In another feature he recounts the relationship between physicist Lawrence Krauss and Jeffrey Epstein, foregrounding the role of Australian whistleblower Melanie Thomson and the handling of misconduct complaints inside scientific and academic circles. These pieces share an interest in how institutions respond to reputational and ethical crises, and whether internal mechanisms are sufficient to address them.

Earlier in his career, Napier-Raman worked as a federal politics reporter in the Canberra press gallery, writing on foreign policy, legal affairs and government transparency, after starting as a general reporter focused on news and analysis. That background in politics and law informs his current business and institutional coverage, which often treats corporate and university decisions as extensions of broader struggles over governance, accountability and public trust. He has discussed major national stories on journalism podcasts, further underlining his interest in how media and politics shape public understanding of contentious events.

Across outlets, he tends to use documents, timelines and the actions of specific decision-makers to show how formal power structures intersect with informal networks, whether in broadcast companies, party organisations, campuses or scientific institutions.

Taken together, Napier-Raman’s recent work positions him as a reporter who connects the business logic of media and organisations with the human and political dramas around them.

His coverage is characterised by attention to contracts, governance, disciplinary processes and reputational stakes, and by a consistent interest in how those factors play out among executives, politicians, scientists and activists. The result is a body of work that treats corporate stories, political manoeuvres and institutional scandals as different expressions of the same underlying contest over influence and accountability.