Stuff & nonsense

The gutsy woman who took on ownership of media company Stuff for $1 scoffs at the idea that she's a mogul.

- MICHELE HEWITSON

Cool. An interview with a media mogul. As I've never interviewed a media mogul before, the prospect might have been exciting. I knew that Sinead Boucher, the owner and executive chair of Stuff, was a media mogul because I read it in the Guardian, so it must be true. That paper described her, in 2020- the year she bought the company for a buck - as "New Zealand's newest corporate media mogul".

Her latest possibly mogul-like move was to successfully negotiate a contract with Warner Bros Discovery to take over Three's now-defunct Newshub on a contract to provide the TV channel with a new news service. Alas, calling her a mogul is what is known in our trade as a media beat-up. I now know this because she laughed - she has a laugh like a tinkly bell - and assured me that she is not a media mogul, or even a mini mogul. She is not much of a scoffer, but she does scoff at that. She doesn't even think New Zealand has media moguls.

I might have known she was destined to disappoint. Moguls are supposed to be filthy rich and given to extravagant gestures, such as flying on private jets and going to lavish parties. A lady mogul would wear sky-high Dolce & Gabbana stilettos and head-to-toe Dior, say. Oh, and she would have homes in New York and Aspen and a little apartment/ mansion in London's Regent Park. On reflection, I don't think I would want to interview a mogul. Or even be capable of interviewing a mogul. I had to look up all of those mogul references on Google.

Boucher doesn't really go to parties, lavish or otherwise. "I'm a classic introvert and hardly ever go to anything outside working hours." Here is her idea of a really good time: "I don't count reading or watching news as work. I'm usually up early and love an hour or two of peace to read all the news sites and see what's been happening elsewhere."