NZME owns the NZ Herald, NewstalkZB, BusinessDesk and OneRoof; inset: NZME chair Barbara Chapman and shareholder Jim Grenon.
NZME owns the NZ Herald, NewstalkZB, BusinessDesk and OneRoof; inset: NZME chair Barbara Chapman and shareholder Jim Grenon.
Stuff has withdrawn from discussions for a potential deal to sell its masthead division - including The Press and The Post newspapers and websites - to NZ Herald owner NZME.
NZME said, in a notice to the NZX early on Friday afternoon, that it had been in discussions with Stuffto buy the Stuff Masthead Publishing division but that Stuff had paused talks while it awaited the outcome of NZME’s board vote next month.
In its own statement, Stuff said it had withdrawn from the talks and had “no intention of resuming discussions at this stage”.
The masthead division includes the paywalled Post and Press websites but not the overall mass-market and free Stuff website.
“NZME confirms that it has had discussions with Stuff since late 2024 in relation to the potential acquisition of digital and print assets within the Stuff Mastheads business,” said the NZME statement, authorised by NZME chair Barbara Chapman.
The statement said today that on March 6 - following NZME’s announcement that Auckland businessman Jim Grenon was proposing new directors and a cleanout of the NZME board - “Stuff advised NZME that Stuff was pausing discussions in relation to any potential transaction until the composition of the NZME board is known following the outcome of NZME’s annual shareholders’ meeting”.
“There is no certainty that NZME will re-engage in any discussions with Stuff or that if such discussions occur, they will result in any transaction,” said the statement.
In a statement to Media Insider, a Stuff spokesperson said: “NZME approached Stuff in late 2024 to discuss [the] purchase of our Masthead Publishing business. We required them to provide us with more detailed information before we would consider progressing further. When events occurred with NZME’s board, we withdrew from any potential process. We have no intention of resuming discussions at this stage.”
In an email to Stuff staff, obtained by Media Insider, Stuff chief executive Sinead Boucher said: “For various reasons, we had some scepticism about this approach and asked them to provide us with more detailed information before we would consider progressing further.
“When events occurred with NZME’s board, we withdrew from any potential process.”
NZME and Stuff were prevented from merging in 2017 by the Commerce Commission, a decision upheld by the Court of Appeal in 2018.
Stuff chief executive Sinead Boucher.
Stuff was later sold by Australia’s Nine media firm to Boucher for $1. The Stuff business has since been split into separate operating companies.
NZME was likely to be of the view the NZ Herald’s print footprint is sufficiently different from Wellington’s Post and Christchurch Press newspapers and that maintaining the Stuff website as a separate business under different ownership would allay any anti-competitive issues.
NZME said in today’s statement it wished to grow its property portal OneRoof’s performance as part of a deal to buy Stuff’s masthead publishing company.
“The strategic rationale for any transaction was the acceleration of OneRoof’s revenue and audience, particularly in Wellington and the South Island, and the ability to grow NZME’s total audience, customer base and profitability.”
In her email to staff today, Boucher said: “We do get approaches of this nature from time to time. We have great products and it is not surprising a range of people have an interest in these. Some of these approaches we disregard immediately, others we consider.
“In this instance, we are not considering this approach from NZME further, and we wish them well with their AGM early next month.”
Grenon’s letter reveals dividend, OneRoof concerns
Meanwhile, Grenon has released to BusinessDesk excerpts of his 17-page letter to NZME, outlining concerns about the company overpaying dividends and downplaying costs related to its property arm.
Rebecca Stevenson, of NZME’s BusinessDesk, wrote that NZME’s OneRoof disclosures troubled Grenon and that the property division costs should be independently verified to ensure they were properly disclosed, including cross-promotion from other parts of the NZME business.
Allocating lower costs to OneRoof was tempting, Stevenson reported Grenon as saying, because the real estate business was more favourably viewed by the market than NZME’s publishing and audio divisions.
“The disclosure on these two critical elements is, in my opinion, lacking or even misleading,” Grenon wrote in the letter.
Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand’s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor and has a small shareholding in NZME.
