James Chessell has been appointed editor-in-chief of The Australian Financial Review, replacing Michael Stutchbury after 13-years.
Stutchbury, 67, known universally as Stutch, will return to the Financial Review in a writing role as editor-at-large later in the year.
"After facing a potential loss just over a decade ago, the Financial Review has never been more profitable as it has built a business model around premium digital subscriptions,” Stutchbury said.
"As the team has managed the shift out of print, the masthead has never had more paying subscribers. It has doubled its audience share compared to its national rival. It has been judged Australia's most-trusted newspaper brand.
"This fundamentally rests on the Financial Review’s high-quality journalism that has never won more plaudits and awards than in the past year. This has been led by the story of 2023, the PwC tax leaks scandal, that is now being capped by the story of this year, the CFMEU investigation."
Chessell was until January the managing director of Nine Publishing and before that executive editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. He has also worked for The Australian and was part of Financial Review teams that won the 2014 Walkley Award for Business Journalism and the 2013 Citi Journalism Award for Excellence.
Stutchbury’s last day leading the Financial Review will be August 9 and Chessell will start on August 12.
“I’m very excited about taking over from Stutch who is the best editor I’ve worked for bar none,” Chessell said.
“He made the Financial Review sharper and smarter than at any other time in its 73-year history and I’m delighted he will be writing for the masthead for many years to come. The AFR has done an outstanding job exposing corporate and political profligacy under Stutch without forgetting its mission to champion authentic innovation, entrepreneurism and success.”
“The Financial Review has always been a critically important voice in the financial and political conversations that matter in Australia through rigorous news, analysis and public interest journalism. The current media landscape means the work is not without its complications but there is no better editorial team to face up to these challenges than the Financial Review newsroom.
“I’m also very excited to be reunited with Tory (Maguire, managing director of Nine Publishing) and the Nine Publishing team, who are the best in the business. I’m incredibly lucky to be stewarding a masthead in such great shape but there is still plenty of work to do and I can’t wait to get started.”
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