Stuff

What is Stuff?

Stuff is a New Zealand news website, published at stuff.co.nz and titled there "Stuff: Latest breaking news | New Zealand".^[4] It is the digital arm of the Stuff Group.

RNZ reported on 18 March 2025 that the group runs two entities: Stuff Digital, which operates stuff.co.nz, Neighbourly and audio and video divisions, and Masthead Publishing, which owns The Post, The Press and the Waikato Times. A Stuff spokesperson is quoted in that report saying both entities "continue to be 100 percent part of the Stuff Group, owned by our owner and publisher, Sinead Boucher".^[1]

What does Stuff cover?

Stuff is a general news publisher with a standing sport section. Its own advertising release of 22 April 2026 groups the Stuff Group's output as a "suite of brands" reaching New Zealanders monthly, and its release of 17 April 2025 reported growth across Masthead Publishing's three newspaper titles.^[3][2]

The sport index at stuff.co.nz could not be read: the page returns metadata without a navigation structure when fetched, so no list of the sections and competitions it carries could be retrieved from the outlet's own site.^[4] What can be dated is the print side: RNZ names The Post, The Press and the Waikato Times as the group's newspaper mastheads as at 18 March 2025.^[1]

The mastheads' own sites are no more readable: an about page on The Post returns page metadata without body content when fetched, so no publisher statement, founding date or circulation figure could be taken from it.^[5] What is on the record about the group's sport output comes from its own audience releases and from the RNZ report rather than from a published section list.^[3][1]

How large is Stuff's audience?

The measurement Stuff cites for its online audience is Nielsen Online Ratings, named as such in Stuff's own release of 17 April 2025, which said "the latest Nielsen Online Ratings are the highest since the 2023 election and Rugby World Cup". That release gave stuff.co.nz "2,347,000 users" in March 2025, "522,000* more than its nearest competitor" and "14% increase in audience over the previous month", together with "35% audience growth year on year (March 2024 to March 2025)" for Masthead Publishing and digital subscribers "up 79% across the year".^[2]

Stuff's advertising site reported on 22 April 2026 that "new Nielsen data shows 2.25 million Kiwis aged 15+ got their news from the Stuff website in March, almost 400,000 New Zealanders ahead of the nearest competitor and a 3% lift on the year before", and that the Stuff Group reaches "3.5 million Kiwis per month across its suite of brands".^[3]

The two headline figures are not on the same basis: the 2025 release counts users of the site and the 2026 release counts New Zealanders aged 15 and over. Both are figures published by Stuff about Stuff, citing Nielsen; no Nielsen Online Ratings table could be retrieved directly for this page.^[2][3]

Since when has Stuff existed?

The dated facts run to ownership rather than to founding. RNZ reported on 18 March 2025 that Sinead Boucher "bought Stuff from its Australian owners Nine Entertainment for $1" in 2020, and that changes filed on 7 February 2025 took her from holding one share to being "the sole holder of one million shares". The same report quotes a Stuff spokesperson describing the increase as "part of the internal transaction to finalise the reorganisation of the business".^[1]

No date of first publication for stuff.co.nz, and no founding date for the individual mastheads, could be retrieved from a primary source for this page; the outlet's own about pages return metadata without body content when fetched.^[4]

Why does Stuff matter in New Zealand's sport?

Because it is privately owned, and the ownership is documented and dated: a single owner and publisher since 2020, the shareholding consolidated in filings of 7 February 2025, and a group carrying three daily newspaper mastheads alongside the site.^[1] That structure is set out in a third party's report rather than in a corporate disclosure the group publishes, and it is dated to 18 March 2025.^[1]

Its audience claims are the only New Zealand news figures on the Nielsen Online Ratings currency retrievable for this page, and they are published by the outlet itself.^[2][3] New Zealand and broadcast rights carry the wider market.