Sinead Boucher named as Stuff chief executive

Tuesday, 22 August 2017

Sinead Boucher was previously Fairfax's group executive editor in New Zealand for four years.

Sinead Boucher has been named as the chief executive officer of Fairfax Media's New Zealand business, which is being renamed Stuff.

Boucher replaces former managing director Simon Tong, who left Fairfax in March, shortly before its proposed merger with rival publisher NZME was rejected by the Commerce Commission.

Andrew Boyle had been serving as acting managing director for the past six months.

Fairfax Media chief executive Greg Hywood said Boucher had established herself as an impressive force in modern media.

* Fairfax NZ managing director Simon Tong resigns**

'She steps into the chief executive role having had a long and distinguished career in traditional and digital media,' he said.

Boucher was previously Fairfax's group executive editor in New Zealand for four years.

Prior to that she was appointed Fairfax's first group digital editor in 2007, tasked with developing the then fledgling Stuff website.

In 2015, Boucher was awarded Fairfax's internal Woman of Influence award in recognition for the role she has played in advancing gender diversity, at Fairfax and beyond.

'Sinead has done an outstanding job leading our journalism in New Zealand over the past decade,' Hywood said.

Boucher joined Fairfax's The Press in 1993 and worked there for several years, initially as a branch office reporter in North Canterbury.

She later relocated to the United Kingdom to work at the Financial Times and Reuters before returning to The Press as associate editor in 2004 and then developing her digital and newsroom leadership in group-wide online and digital roles.

Boucher said the decision to rename Fairfax NZ as Stuff reflected the unique position and direction of the New Zealand business which was 'charting our own course' and its status as 'the country's biggest digital brand'.

'I feel privileged and proud to have the chance to lead a company with such a strong connection to New Zealanders and the communities we live and work in,' Boucher said.

Hywood said the name change to Fairfax Media's New Zealand business would take effect over the coming month.

Stuff attracts an audience of 2.1 million. Fairfax NZ's portfolio also consists of newspapers, including the Sunday Star-Times, The Dominion Post and The Press.

Fairfax NZ had been working on a strategy over the past three years to grow the digital side of the business and diversify into businesses such as community site Neighbourly and internet provider Stuff Fibre and 'incubate' those businesses which it had done successfully, Boucher said.

'We are committed to pursuing that direction and ensuring we have a really strong sustainable business to keep funding New Zealand journalism.

'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.