Fairfax NZ appoints editorial director
Fairfax New Zealand has appointed Mark Stevens as its new editorial director.
Stevens’ appointment fills the vacancy created when former editorial director Sinead Boucher was promoted to chief executive of the media company in August.
Boucher said it reflected Stevens’ long and successful career.
‘‘He has played a leading role in building Stuff to the number one news site in the country and has an instinctive understanding of telling the stories New Zealanders want,’’ she said.
Stevens, who was previously group editor, digital and visual, has spent most of his career in Wellington on Fairfax-owned titles as a reporter and an editor.
Stevens said he was excited about the opportunity to strengthen the role of local and national journalism in New Zealand and to be part of the company’s efforts to build a business model that would support highquality journalism at scale.
‘‘We’ll continue to dig deep, to investigate and to hold the powerful to account, whether that is in a national or local context. I take the responsibilities of the role very seriously and it is essential that we champion the needs and concerns of every New Zealander.’’
Fairfax publishes Stuff and 60 national, regional and community newspapers including The Dominion Post, The Sunday Startimes and The Press.
The company has newsrooms in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch, New Plymouth, Palmerston North, Nelson, Blenheim, Timaru, Queenstown and Southland, as well as smaller bureaus around the country.
Stevens said he was also keen to continue to develop a new model of local community journalism through Neighbourly, the company’s local social network. –Stuff