Back in Kiwi hands

Your Manawatu¯ Standard is back in Kiwi hands. It feels good.

The bold play by Stuff chief executive Sinead Boucher was announced yesterday. She has bought the Standard, a stable of regional, metro and community mastheads, and the Stuff website from its Australian owners.

The buyout follows an anxious and uncertain couple of months as the media landscape in New Zealand has been rocked by the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, as well as industry squabbles, subterfuge, layoffs and grim ultimatums.

Whether Boucher’s courage under fire, which includes signalling plans for an ownership model that will give staff a shareholding stake in the business, provides a secure footing remains to be seen. It does not protect Stuff from the pervading challenge of global behemoths Google and Facebook soaking up advertising dollars. But it means we know whose hand is holding the compass, whose arrow to follow.

It means the money invested in Stuff from the advertisers who have stayed with us, the readers who are supporting us in growing numbers, and the staff who have given up 15 per cent of their pay for 12 weeks is now supporting a New Zealand institution with journalism at its heart.

It means the groundswell of support in our communities to ‘‘buy local’’ is not just a creed we report on. We are part of it.

It means we will approach the 140th anniversary of the Standard in November with optimism and renewed moxie.

— Matthew Dallas, editor

Ajunior employee rising through the ranks and buying the company is common fodder for business fables. Yesterday Stuff’s chief executive, Sinead Boucher, who started with the company as a regional reporter in Rangiora in the 1990s, became one of those stories when she announced she had bought the company, which owns the Stuff news website and numerous print titles including The Dominion Post, Sunday Star-times and The Press.

The buyout brings some welcome certainty for Stuff’s 700 staff and opens up a range of possibilities for business viability and growth. It comes hard on the heels of previous owner Nine putting a stop to messy negotiations over a sale to NZME, publisher of the New Zealand Herald.

It has been a torrid year for the business of news and entertainment. The media industry was struggling even before the restrictions imposed by Covid19 decimated advertising revenue. NZME axed 200 jobs, Mediaworks, which owns Newshub, was in desperate straits and trying to sell, and German company Bauer Media closed its New Zealand magazine operation. Overnight the New Zealand Listener and North and South were no more. Even yesterday, when Stuff returned to New Zealand ownership for the first time in about 30 years, Mediaworks said it was shedding about 130 jobs.

The finer details of the management buyout need more clarity and development, but some positives can be readily identified. Stuff can set its own destiny untrammelled by the demands of being a small cog in an Australian-basedmachine. Australian ownership has had its advantages, but they did not include sending profits to overseas shareholders and deferring to overseas managers.

Settling ownership will also improve the company’s prospects of getting Government help if needed, and provide more certainty to advertisers and customers. It ensures the healthy competition between Stuff and NZME continues.

In a staff address, Boucher said print publications remained robust and an important part of its audience offering. She said news of the move to New Zealand ownership had been positively received by advertisers.

One of her priorities was enshrining the independence of editorial (news direction) from ownership. ‘‘Our business is built on a long and proud heritage of great journalism. Some of our mastheads are more than 150 years old, and New Zealanders have turned to us for trustworthy news for generations. We will cement the independence of our editorial team for the future so we can continue to build on that trust.’’ Cementing editorial independence can be done before new investors are invited on board, and should be applauded by all journalists. The shareholding scheme giving staffmore skin in the game should produce a better service for readers and customers. But staff share schemes are tricky, and Stuff’s will need to be carefully structured. Opponents argue they can entrench poor management and handicap competitiveness. Supporters claim they help companies take amore long-term perspective. With ownership comes responsibility and acceptance of losses as well as profits.

As Boucher said, the purchase does not mean ‘‘the road ahead is going to be easy’’. The aftermath of Covid-19 presents many difficulties, but Boucher’s purchase is an expression of confidence in the inherent strength of Stuff’s platforms, be it print media or digital, and the quality of its staff.

In amessage to staff, Boucher referred to a phrase suggested by Stuffma¯ori affairs reporter Carmen Parahi to support some editorial initiatives earlier this year. The phrase ‘‘Kia tu¯peke te toa’’ means ‘‘Let the brave leap’’. Boucher’s move is certainly a courageous step. The trickwill be to ensure the leap is onto solid ground.

Boucher’s purchase is an expression of confidence in the inherent strength of Stuff’s platforms ...