Like sands through the hourglass, these are the movings/shakings of our lives.
Changing faces
It’s been a solid year for MSN New Zealand, which, according to the blurb after it took out media brand of the year at the CAANZ media awards, “changed the face of online advertising in New Zealand during 2009″. And it’s decided to change a few faces internally as well, with David Rose appointed as business development manager and Mary Kiddie and Joash Dass joining the ‘performance advertising division’.
For the past three years Rose has been consulting on things digital to brands including Universal Music, Sky TV, and Orcon. He is also the founder of Satellite Media, perhaps best known for entertainment shows Top Of The Pops, Dave Dobbyn One Night In Matata, Robbie Williams Here Now. He also set up magazines Rip it Up and Back2Basics. The company was sold to South Pacific Pictures in 2007.
In what is a newly created position, he will spearhead MSN’s growth and commercial development and oversee MSN video production offerings.
Mary Kiddie has been appointed as account manager of the MSDR performance advertising division, which is an “online advertising solution for clients with direct marketing goals”, joining MSN from Microsoft, where she was an account manager. And Joash Dass, most recently Microsoft’s online marketing manager, has been appointed as MSDR campaign manager.
Walking on air
General manager of talk radio at MediaWorks Radio, Mitch Harris, has decided on a change of pace (and presumably a reduction in Michael Laws-related crisis management). And after nearly six years establishing and leading the RadioLIVE brand, and subsequently the LiveSPORT brand, he will be returning to an on-air role as a fill-in host across the stations’ various shows.
His management and programming responsibilities will be taken up by Jana Rangooni, currently group programme director of music for MediaWorks Radio, who will become group programme director across all stations.
“I would like to acknowledge the enormous effort Mitch has put in over the last six years launching and establishing RadioLIVE and LiveSPORT as significant players in the New Zealand radio market,” said MediaWorks Radio chief executive, Belinda Mulgrew. “It’s great we can retain his knowledge for the stations, and use his substantial broadcasting skills and experience in an on-air capacity. Mitch has the breadth of experience that enables him to host any show on the network.”
Despite a fairly substantial marketing effort, Research International’s Survey T1 2010 showed RadioLive had just 3.3 percent share of commercial listening Monday to Sunday 6am-12mn (all people 10+ in New Zealand) and LiveSport has 0.5 percent. In comparison, Newstalk ZB has around 14.1 percent of the total audience (the next survey figures are due on next Friday).
Rangooni has spent her entire career in the radio industry, commencing as a newsreader in Taranaki in the late 80s. Her broadcasting career has seen her programme various stations in New Zealand, as well as Heart FM, a high-profile London radio station. For the last five years, she has overseen the programming strategy for all the music stations in the MediaWorks radio portfolio, which include The Edge, The Rock, The Breeze, More FM, Solid Gold and Mai FM.
“I have followed the progress of both brands from the sidelines over the past few years, and look forward to working with the teams to achieve further success,” Rangooni says. “There are some brilliant people at the stations both on-air and behind-the-scenes. As technology continues to change the way news and information are consumed, the role of truly being a new voice in the world of news and talk radio is a great opportunity for RadioLIVE that will go beyond what it does on-air. It involves every platform we are able to interact on with news and information driven consumers.”
Last words
Respected business journalist, author and commentator Graeme Hunt passed away suddenly at his home in Auckland last week at the age of 58.
He became a journalist in 1974 and was the Auckland Star’s youngest business editor. He was also editor-at-large for the NBR, where, according to the Herald, he was a driving force behind the Rich List.
More recently, he was also heard espousing his political views for NewsTalk ZB and was running as a candidate for the Auckland Super City Council and Waitemata District Health Board in the upcoming elections.
Selwyn Manning has written an obituary on scoop.co.nz.
Boyle up
Intellectual property law firm A J Park has announced Pete Boyle will be the firm’s chief executive effective from 1 October, replacing John Lamb, who is retiring from the chief executive position, which he has held since 1999.
“We are pleased to welcome Pete on board,” says managing partner Greg Arthur. “We’d also like to take the opportunity to thank John for his 12 years’ service. He leaves the firm in a very strong position as the market leader in intellectual property legal services in New Zealand.”
Boyle has extensive management experience in the professional services sector. He is a chartered accountant, has worked extensively as a management consultant and was a partner in the corporate finance and management solutions team at Deloitte. He then formed Acuity Partners in Wellington.
Before joining A J Park (which is the trading name for A J Park Law and A J Park Patent Attorneys) Boyle was group manager business development of NZ Defence Force-Defence Shared Services.
Digital birth
Lisa Moore-Bocarro has joined Auckland digital design agency Born Digital as its service delivery manager, where she will be responsible for account management and project management of digital services.
She has over ten years experience working in media and advertising agencies, including Y&R, Ogilvy and DraftFCB in group account director or account director roles, where she managed a number of high profile retail accounts. Her previous role was as interactive executive producer for Y&R Auckland where she helped set up the interactive department.
“Lisa joins us at a key time in our organisation’s expansion,” says director Brett Hancock. “It’s great to be able to bring in a very senior digital producer who also has a thorough account management background to enable Born Digital to offer a higher level of service and improve the way we engage with clients.”
Janes departs
Close Up’s multi-Qantas award winning reporter Robyn Janes is departing for pastures unknown after seven years with the show. Prior to 2004, she worked as a reporter on Holmes and as a political journo in Wellington.
Janes, who was based in the Christchurch office but lived on the West Coast, was awarded Journalist of the Year at the Qantas Awards in 2009 and has left due to personal reasons.
Check out Close Up’s tribute to her here.
Jendy Harper, another Close Up reporter based in Christchurch, also recently said goodbye to TVNZ.
Word up
Andrea Stevens has brought her 14 years of experience as a writer within the digital, design and greater creative industries to the Pond.
She has managed website developments for clients including Neil Finn, Export Gold, Healtheries, Sovereign, BNZ Finance and Air New Zealand, which has given her an understanding of digital writing processes, from information architecture to SEO to content strategy.
“I love to see the big picture as much as diving into the detail, crafting astute and elegant text,” she says. “This requires a strategic approach; the grit of interviewing and fact-finding; and the art of pulling it all together to engage the online browser.”
Writing for a number of design magazines, including Australian title Indesign and New Zealand publications Habitus and Wallpaper* – she also brings interior, spatial, furniture, industrial, object and fashion design knowledge to the table.
