Editorial catnip: The richest 250 list driving engagement at the Australian

March 19, 2026 9:56

White Fox founders Georgie and Daniel Contos and Nicola Forrest are among the top 250 (The Australian)

The Australian publishes its annual lift-out magazine The List on March 20. Subtitled Australia’s Richest 250, the annual publication is edited by John Stensholt.

Stensholt knows his way around rich people.

“I did the BRW Rich 200 in 2008, then that morphed into The AFR Rich 200, and I did that until 2018.”

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When Stensholt started working on the list at BRW, “all” it took was $80m to get a spot.

For the Australian’s Richest 250, that cut-off point is now $750m. Last year it was $635m.

Among the top career paths to wealth are property, retail, financial services and of course tech, which continues to mint billionaires. Inheritance can help too. Stensholt notes media is no longer a reliable way to the top.

John Stensholt has been ranking rich people since 2008 (The Australian)

“The rise of AI has brought a few new people to the list including Oliver Curtis and the Roberts brothers Dan and Will from Iren.

The 2026 edition of The List is Stensholt’s eighth since joining News Corp.

He was poached from the AFR because the Australian wanted something similar to its famous list, but bigger and better. One of the ways of doing that was to grow the list to 250 people.

He noted The List is one of the more popular annual events for readers of the Australian.

“It’s a really big subscription driver, and delivers big readership as well. The stories that have been published ahead of publication have been attracting a lot of readers. Despite there being war on, and interest rate rises, people are interested in this material.”

The group of Australia’s richest features 20 new faces this year, which means another 20 have dropped off.

Keeping it simple is one of Stensholt’s key to a successful project. “What we’re trying to do is write interesting things about interesting people.”

Getting access to as many people as possible is key. Talking to them is one thing, but convincing them to do a photo shoot is another.

“There’s a bit of ‘billionaire whispering’ I think that goes on with us. If you want to do a glossy publication in print these days, you have to make it look really good. The photography has been a big thing for me from day one when I came over, and also you’ve got to make it look really good online these days too. There’s a lot of digital builds, a lot of video, and a lot of social media clips.”

Finding a cover star for the List

Not everybody says no to a photo as the 2026 edition proves. The cover star this year is Matt Latimore, “a Queensland coal and resources guy” as Stensholt called the founder of M Resources.

Latimore was photographed at Brisbane airport with his Bombardier Global 6000 private jet which takes him around the world.

Joining Stensholt interview and chase down the richest people are some of the Australian’s finest business writers including Julie-Anne Sprague, Damon Kitney, Angelica Snowden, Perry Williams and Liam Mendes (who also takes great photos and video – just ask Peter Costello who ran into him at Canberra airport).

When asked about the process of convincing people to talk about their road to wealth, Stensholt said explaining their stories would be handled “tastefully” was the key.

“If you write it straight, write it properly, without any sort of sensationalism, you can tell stories that people will be very interested in.”

He noted investigating wealth had been made a little easier recently. “In the last few years there has been a change in the law which compels people with private companies to lodge reports with ASIC.”

One person not on the list is the investor and media proprietor Antony Catalano who is not yet playing in the $750m+ ballpark. Making that list is the very least of his problems at present.

Some of those who make the list seem quite happy to flaunt their wealth by owning the biggest houses and the biggest yachts. “You see this in an increasing amount of people who detail it all on social media as well,” added Stensholt.

“Some people do that to help with publicity, wanting people to know who they are. A lot of people live their lives on social media. There’s still some people though that are very private too.”

Getting the numbers right

When asked if there was much contact from people on the list after publication claiming the figures were inaccurate, Stensholt replied: “We try and head that off and go to people beforehand.

“You end up having conversations with people saying, ‘You’ve got me at $1.1b, but it should be $1.2b and things like that. You have some pretty crazy conversations with people. Some don’t want to comment, but more people than you would believe actually do talk to us on background.”

Tracking wealth is a competitive space in the media. Recent spoilers ahead of the Australian’s The List were Australia’s 50 Richest from Forbes and the Rich Women List from the Australian Financial Review. The list from the title that tracks the wealth of both sexes, The AFR Rich 200, is usually published late May every year.