Fairfax Media New Zealand has rebranded to Stuff, with the change announced in August last year but only coming into effect today.
This means the company’s collection of newspapers, magazines, flagship news website Stuff, and other digital businesses like Stuff Fibre and energyclubnz, will now operate under the overarching company name, Stuff.
Stuff’s chief executive Sinead Boucher, who was appointed to the role when the name change was announced, says the change recognizes the strength of Stuff’s news platform and that dropping ‘media’ from the company name was important.
“Calling our company Stuff better reflects who we are and what we do. We are no longer only a media company. While journalism is at the heart of our business and history, the ways we connect with our communities come in many new and different ways.”
In the past 18 months, Stuff has launched four new non-media brands and taken full ownership of Neighbourly.
The company partnered with telecommunications executives to launch internet service provider Stuff Fibre in September 2016 and more recently announced the launch of the blockbuster streaming service Stuff Pix.
Stuff also has a stake in at-cost electricity provider energyclubnz, has taken Done health insurance to market with NIB, and has a new partnership with Adzuna – a job search engine.
Additional to the name change, Stuff announced late last year it was shifting all Monday to Friday daily newspapers to a smaller, compact format in late April.
Boucher says switching the dailies to compact is a reader-driven move and one that readers have been asking for.
“We’re taking it as a chance to not only change the size but also reimagine the paper. The team is really excited about breathing new life into the print product.”
