New Zealand’s biggest news publisher Stuff has seen “extraordinary” pace of growth in the past 18 months after splitting the business in two and launching digital subscriptions for its legacy newspapers. In April last year, Stuff Ltd restructured into two distinct businesses with different strategies: Masthead Publishing, which launched digital subscriptions for its legacy titles, and Stuff Digital for the un-paywalled flagship Stuff website. Digital subscriptions were first launched for The Post, The Press and the Waikato Times before six more regional brands and one national Sunday paper were added to the package.
The main bundle, which gives access to all the company’s digital news publications together and also includes some magazines, costs NZ$149 (about £69) per year. Digital and print subscribers now deliver almost double the reach of print alone. Although digital revenue is still smaller than print for these titles, the “pace of growth has been extraordinary,” head of content development Elise Johnson told Press Gazette.
Johnson said the decision to split the business into two divisions “was a logical one, as they both served very different purposes. “Stuff, as the most-read news website in New Zealand, has a focus on reaching the widest audience possible, giving Kiwis reliable and fast news coverage. Whereas the newspapers focus on in-depth reporting on issues relevant to a smaller but highly engaged audience.
” The three Masthead Publishing titles .