[3] Stuff was founded in 2000,[4] and publishes breaking news, weather, sport, politics, video, entertainment, business and life and style content from Stuff Ltd's newspapers, which include New Zealand's second- and third-highest circulation daily newspapers, The Post and The Press, and the highest circulation weekly, Sunday Star-Times, as well as international news wire services.

[8] The former New Zealand media company Independent Newspapers Ltd (INL), owned by News Corp Australia, launched Stuff on 27 June 2000 at a cybercafe in Auckland, after announcing its intention to go online more than a year earlier.

On 30 June 2003, INL sold its publishing assets including The Dominion Post, The Press, and the Stuff website to Fairfax Media.

A story posted by Stuff touting the new design and also seeking feedback received over 300 responses with about a dozen positive and the rest negative.

Content from the Stuff Group's North Island newspapers Taranaki Daily News, Manawatu Standard and the Wairarapa Times-Age would be hosted on The Post's website while South Island newspapers The Southland Times, Nelson Mail, Timaru Herald and Marlborough Express would be hosted on The Press's website.

This reorganisation was part of the Stuff Group's transition towards a paywall system, with readers being offered unlimited access to content on The Post, The Press and Waikato Times websites for a NZ$1.99 weekly subscription fee.

[25][26] In July 2008, during the trial of Clayton Weatherston, press.co.nz, a subsidiary section on Stuff, accidentally ran the headline "Guilty of Murder" the day before the jury delivered the verdict.

Notable titles and topics have included Big Decision (abortion law reform), Life + Limb (New Zealand's military involvement in the War in Afghanistan), False Profit (which focused on conspiracy theorist and New Zealand Public Party founder Billy Te Kahika), Deleted (which looked at New Zealand companies alleged to be complicit in human rights abuses in Xinjiang), Disordered (which focused on the treatment of people with Foetal Alcohol Syndrome), and Fire and Fury (which looked at vaccine disinformation and conspiracy theories in the wake of the 2022 Wellington protests.