When Michael Stutchbury suffered a minor heart attack in early 2022, he was rushed to hospital to have a stent put in. He still managed to dial in to The Australian Financial Review’s editorial conference on the afternoon of his operation. “I kept the camera off,” he says.

It is that commitment to producing a high-quality news publication, six days a week for 13 years, that has prompted him to make the tough decision to step back as the masthead’s editor-in-chief after August 9. He will be succeeded by James Chessell, a former executive editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Stutchbury announced the change to the Financial Review newsroom just after midday on Monday.