The Australian Financial Review’s Editor-in-Chief Michael Stutchbury on staying on top of the news

My guest today is Michael Stutchbury. Michael – or Stutch as he is known as – has been writing and editing on business, economics and politics for national newspapers in Australia for the past three decades, working out of Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Washington DC. Since October 2011, he has been Editor-in-Chief of The Australian Financial Review. So Stutch is basically the guy the sits at the top of the most powerful business newspaper in Australia.

My firm Inventium has had a long relationship with the AFR, having run the AFR Most Innovative Companies list for the last eight years, which compiles a list of the 100 most innovative companies across Australia and New Zealand.

I was keen to chat to Stutch to find out what goes on behind the scenes in his world. In this chat, we cover:
  • What his morning looks like
  • The daily and weekly news cycle
  • The four papers Michael reads every day
  • How Michael stays on top of the news
  • Why Michael has 43,000 emails in his inbox
  • Why downtime is non-existent in Michael’s life
  • The hardest part of Michael’s job
  • How Michael prepares for interviews and why he would never go into an interview with a blank slate
  • Michael’s strategies for building rapport quickly in interviews
  • Michael’s approach to his own social media channels
  • Where Michael’s best ideas come from
You can read the Australian Financial Review at www.afr.com