Stuff boss Sinead Boucher: 'I asked myself what I wanted for the business'

Monday, 25 May 2020

Sinead Boucher explains her decision to buy Stuff.

Rumours had been circulating for a few days, but it was only on Monday morning that Stuff chief executive Sinead Boucher announced to her wider management team that she had pulled off the purchase of Stuff.

Boucher said she first suggested the plan to Stuff’s Australian owner, Nine, a couple of weeks beforehand, when it was clear a proposed purchase of Stuff by rival media business NZME “wasn’t going to go anywhere”.

The deal had come about very quickly 'and in some ways it has been a secret I have been happy to nurse because it is quite a momentous thing to think about,” she said.

* Coronavirus: $50m government package to help media through crisis

* Stuff asks website readers to donate to its journalism

“I had a discussion with Hugh Marks who is the chief executive of Nine and he was supportive.

“He said if he was in my shoes he would be doing the same thing.

“I am feeling quite overwhelmed in some ways, but excited.”

Being an entrepreneur will be new to Boucher, who started her career as a reporter with The Press in Christchurch.

But with the deal done and Stuff now in “control of its destiny”, she felt a huge sense of relief, she said.

“I did have a group of very smart advisers who helped me, and apart from that I discussed it a lot with my husband, and my children had a view, but I didn’t tell anyone else, because I really wanted to make sure it was something we could get done.

“They all in one way or another provided me with very sound advice and support that this was going to be a good thing to do.”

The deciding factor came when she asked herself “what do I want as an outcome for this business?”, she said.

The purchase price is a token one, but Boucher will need to hand over a New Zealand dollar by the end of May to cement the deal.

“I am hoping I will be able to pay it in cash - I quite like the idea.”

The next stage would be building out a new ownership model for Stuff that gave staff a “direct stake”, she said.

That would also open the door to other investors or partners who might want to come on board, she said.

Broadcasting Minister Kris Faafoi says Stuff deal 'maintains plurality'.

The need to find fresh capital for the business would come once it made the big decisions about what it wanted to do in the future.

But Boucher said she was not at that point yet.

The management buyout was unlikely to end the need for government support for the media, Boucher indicated.

“While this brings certainty to the business around ownership and puts the business back in local hands, it doesn’t change any of the overarching dynamics that have affected the media industry in recent years.

“Advertising that we relied on a lot - a lot of that has gone to the global platforms.”

Funding and developing New Zealand journalism could be much easier with some government support, she said.

But that support could be based on helping journalism flourish “not necessarily helping one company or the other”.

She hoped it might be easier for the Government to support the work of two major print and online news businesses, Stuff and NZME, now that both were locally owned.

Boucher said Stuff would focus on good quality local journalism and innovation.

Broadcasting Minister Kris Faafoi said the deal 'maintains plurality and competition in New Zealand's news media, as well as making Stuff New Zealand-owned again'.

'This is a bold move by Sinead and demonstrates her passion and commitment, both as a journalist and as chief executive of Stuff,' he said.

Myles Thomas, director of lobby group Better Public Media, said the management buyout sounded like it had a lot of potential.

'There are a lot of positives. Is it going to work though, that is the big challenge I guess.

'I really admire the bravery involved.'

A Nine spokesman would not comment on what if any assurances it had negotiated to ensure Stuff's new owner could meet any liabilities incurred by the business.

Broadcasting Minister Kris Faafoi announced the first stage of a two-stage plan to assist the media in April, 2020. (Video first published April 2020).

National Business Review owner Todd Scott, who had also expressed interest in buying Stuff, guessed last week that the business might come with $30m to $40m of liabilities.

But Boucher said 'liabilities are unrealised liabilities that would happen if we were to close down the business at some point in the future'.

'That is not what we are intending to do.'

WHO IS SINEAD BOUCHER?

Boucher is a journalist who started with the business and has risen through the ranks.

She played a key part in the company's transformation from a nationwide newspaper company with a small website tacked on, to an award-winning digital-led publisher and one of New Zealand's best-known brands.

Stuff's ownership had been an issue before Boucher became CEO in August 2017, with hopes at the time pinned on an ultimately failed merger proposal with rival NZME, owner of the New Zealand Herald.

Boucher has led the business during a time when already squeezed media revenues have come under increasing pressure, and the coronavirus has dealt another blow. Also on Monday, radio and channel Three owner MediaWorks announced plans to cut 130 jobs.

Media commentator Dr Gavin Ellis said the management buyout was good news.

'I am so pleased it hasn't gone into private equity ownership,' he said.

Ellis, a former editor in chief at the New Zealand Herald, had not worked directly with Boucher but said he had great respect for her understanding of the industry, both the traditional print part of the business and the digital side.

Having Stuff back in New Zealand hands was good news, said Gavin Ellis. PHOTO RICKY WILSON/STUFF

'She was the champion of Stuff's digital strategy but has never lost sight of the fact that newspapers continue to provide the revenue, at least in the interim.

'There aren't too many people who've got breadth and depth, and I think she's got both.'

Boucher now had some very hard decisions to make.

'I sense that she has a real empathy with her staff, a sense that she actually does care about what happens to them,' Ellis said.

'There are really tough times that still need to be worked through and she is going to have to make some tough decisions, there is no doubt about that, but I think that, for want of a better phrase, her heart's in the right place. I'm just so delighted Stuff's back in New Zealand hands.

'Not only Stuff staff but I suspect many members of the public are breathing a little easier now as a result of her buyout.'

Boucher's commitment to the editorial side of the business was commendable, he said, 'and to have an owner with a journalistic pedigree is a great step forward for journalism.

'She doesn't come across as a bold, in-your-face character but by God she gets it done. There's a steel there that isn't immediately apparent but it's there alright - and I think she's got it, and she'll need it.

'To do what she's done, and to do what she's yet to do takes guts, and I think she's got that.'

Boucher had been supportive of editorial campaigns, such as The Forever Project, and particularly in terms of investigative journalism, he said.

'Her commitment to the Stuff Circuit team should be applauded because that's a big ask - they are expensive items, investigative teams, and she's been committed to investigative journalism right from the outset.

'I think it makes sense because it's where the future of journalism lies, in investigative journalism, and she's grasped that - and I think that played out in the Voyager Awards, for example.'

Paul Thompson, head of RNZ and previously group executive editor for Fairfax NZ, said the buyout was good news for journalism.

'What an amazing announcement today, showing real backbone. It's about time we had some good news for New Zealand journalism, and this qualifies so good on her,' Thompson said.

'Throughout her career she's shown a real ability to step up and lead, and do it her way. Stuff as the company now, just look at the name, really does reflect her passion and her skills, and what I really like and admire is the clear focus on a sustainable path for New Zealand journalism, local journalism, which I think is so important.

Throughout her career she had taken on more and more responsibility, 'and this one's a really big step and I think everyone in New Zealand journalism will be wishing her the best'.

Boucher joined The Press straight out of journalism school in 1993, when it was owned by Independent Newspapers Ltd, working for three years as a reporter in the North Canterbury branch office.

A period working in the United Kingdom, as a digital journalist at the Financial Times and as a reporter at Reuters in London, followed, before she returned to The Press as associate editor in 2004.

Three years later, Boucher became the first group digital editor at stuff.co.nz, which was then owned by Australian media company Fairfax Media as part of its New Zealand newspaper stable.

In 2012, Boucher won the prestigious Wolfson Fellowship prize, a 10-week research stint at Cambridge University. Boucher used her time to study digital community in relation to journalism, visiting other media companies such as the Guardian, BBC and Huffington Post/AOL.

In 2013, Boucher was promoted to group executive editor, and in 2015 was awarded Fairfax's Woman of Influence Award for her achievements in advancing gender diversity at the company.

When she became CEO, Fairfax New Zealand's business rebranded as Stuff. It has expanded to grow its revenue streams, with assets included Neighbourly, which Stuff has owned 100 per cent of since 2017, and Stuff Fibre, which had 20,000 broadband customers when it was sold to Vocus earlier this month.

'Journalism and New Zealand has always been at the heart of our business and will always continue to be, but the ways we are funding that is changing, and has changed,' she said at the time.

CEO at rival NZME, Michael Boggs, spoke of a constructive working relationship with Boucher, and said 'all of us at NZME wish her the very best with this initiative'.