Stuff CEO Sinead Boucher and Trade Me CEO Anders Skoe Photo: Supplied / TradeMe
The owner of media company Stuff says it remains committed to news despite the sale of its digital arm.
The company has agreed to sell 50 percent of Stuff Digital, which runs the Stuff website and ThreeNews, to online marketplace Trade Me.
Under the agreement, Stuff's property section will become Trade Me Property branded, with listings, ads and some content shared across both platforms.
Stuff Group chief executive Sinead Boucher told Morning Report the change was about expanding and diversifying the business.
"We've done a very good job over the last five years of securing our own future. But we're in a industry and in a world where there is lots of change, lots of things still to be done and lots of opportunity," she said.
"We want to make sure we're in the best position to harness that and keep growing."
Since last July, Stuff has been providing an evening news bulletin, replacing the former Newshub news service, after the company announced an agreement with Warner Bros Discovery New Zealand.
"There isn't going to be any changes as a result of this deal to any of our products or our staff of people," Boucher said.
"Whatever happens to that, that's up to Warner Brothers, it's not up to Stuff."
Boucher said she had no concerns about the future business moves of Trade Me's owners.
Trade Me was bought by private equity company Apax Partners in 2019.
Stuff's mastheads, The Post, the Press and the Waikato Times, its events business and Neighbourly were not included in the deal.
Last year the media company was divided in two - Stuff Digital and Masthead Publishing which runs newspaper brands and its own websites.
"[Masthead Publishing] is also a very digitally focused business," Boucher said.
"It has spent the last couple of years building up very strong subscription audiences. We have re-positioned The Post for example as a national publication around politics, business, economics, etc. That's continuing to go really well for us."
Boucher did not rule out a future sale of the mastheads but said she had no immediate plans to do so.
"We're in media, nobody should ever say 'always' or 'nevers', but that's certainly not on my agenda at the moment."
The property section of Stuff would be clearly delineated, Boucher said.
Editorial assurances from Herald needed
Meanwhile, former editor of the New Zealand Herald and media commentator Gavin Ellis said the Herald had been drifting of late and there had been a clear signal that there needed to be more media experience on the board.
He was commenting after media company NZME, which owns the New Zealand Herald and Newstalk ZB, revamped its board.
Canadian businessman and activist shareholder Jim Grenon launched a bid to replace the board with himself and three associates.
He ended up with a seat on the board and former National government minister Steven Joyce has taken over as chair.
Ellis welcomed the appointment of Joyce who brought not only political expertise but also a lengthy association with the radio industry.
He was a lot more "nuanced" than people realised and would be good for the board.
However, he was less sure about the impact of Grenon and his attitude to editorial matters.
"New Zealand media for as long as I can remember have been free of political interfence from their boards."
Editorial independence was "a precious thing to preserve".
"I think that anybody who crosses that editorial line does so at their peril. I think the paper would suffer and levels of trust would suffer."
No assurances had been given so far, Ellis said, and the Herald's soon to be created Editorial Advisory Board should have a binding charter which should be made public.
