After two-and-a-half years as executive editor of its metro mastheads, Tory Maguire has been named as Nine’s managing director of publishing.

She replaces James Chessell – who stepped down last month – and will take responsibility for all Nine’s publishing assets including metro mastheads the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, as well as national daily the Australian Financial Review.

Nine chief executive Mike Sneesby described her as a is a key leader. “Tory is a great executive, who has overseen renewal in our metro mastheads and has made some tough and brave calls about public interest journalism,” he said.

“We welcome her to this role and look forward to her contribution to the success of our business.”

Maguire was previously spent time at News Corp, the Huffington Post – of which she launched the Australian edition – and The Punch, before joining Nine as national editor at the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in 2018, the year the broadcaster acquired then publisher Fairfax Media. She is a founding member of the Australian chapter of the Online News Association, and has an arts degree from Southern Cross University.

She was appointed executive editor of the metro mastheads – the Herald, Age, Brisbane Times and WA Today – and has led newsroom transformations in the metro newsrooms “building significant growth in all areas”.

Maguire said the past two years of running Nine’s metro mastheads was “the absolute highlight” of her career, and has given her “a close up view of the extraordinary work that goes into producing Australia’s best journalism”.

“The opportunity to throw myself into growing the business behind that journalism is thrilling,” she added. “Our mastheads are a vital player in Australian society as well as a thriving commercial operation and I am very optimistic about their future.”

Nine said a process was underway to replace her in the executive editor role.