Internet giants Google and Facebook continue to dominate online ratings for New Zealanders but increasing numbers of New Zealanders are visiting Stuff.co.nz and the NZ Herald, according to the latest Nielsen figures.
NZME confirmed today there would be a total of 15 redundancies across the business as part of its decision to bring news staff across radio, print and digital together in a single newsroom, which will house 280 employees.
NZME has officially announced the launch of a new women’s lifestyle magazine called Spy, which will be inserted into the Herald on Sunday every week from 25 October. The media company has pitched the move as an attempt to fill in the market left by New Idea after the publishing partnership between Pacific Magazines and NZME came to an end. And while NZME has said the publication will be covering much more than just celebrity news, it will see former co-workers Simich and Glucina going head to head for scoops in this space.
The annual radio ratings are out, and naturally competitors NZME and MediaWorks are flagrantly (and funnily) gloating about their achievements, using their most popular radio and media personalities to spread the news.
Earlier this week NZME announced plans for its print, digital and radio news teams to come together as an integrated 24/7 operation led by managing editor Shayne Currie, whose role has been elevated to report directly to NZME chief executive Jane Hastings. And as is usually the case with restructures, there will be a few staff changes, some of which were announced by Hastings and Currie to the newsroom on Wednesday afternoon.
A few months back, Radio New Zealand embarked on a bit of a public/private partnership and put its content on NZME’s iHeartRadio platform (before also snuggling up with MSN). Radio Rhema followed suit. And the National Business Review, which moved into online radio in February and added a personalised ondemand option in March, is the latest to add its name to the list.
This week has seen an executive shuffle at two of the nation’s major media players. Following on from reports that MediaWorks group head of revenue Liz Fraser had resigned from her post to take up a new position at Air New Zealand, NZME has today announced the appointment of Laura Maxwell as its group head of revenue and Sandra King as general manger of market solutions.
NZME has brought on board Irene Chapple as the NZ Herald’s new digital editor, who is returning to the Herald after ten years in other roles, and several years overseas.
The wine was flowing, the room was humming and the shutter was clicking at the NZME photobooth during last night’s TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards. Check out the glamour shots.
With networks financing audience surveys independently, broadcasters selling advertising packages across multiple media channels, streaming services selling video ads and national radio striking commercial partnerships, radio has gone gaga recently. Damien Venuto finds out if there’s method in the madness.
NZME contributed AU$203.7 million revenue and a net profit of AU$30.7 million to APN’s financial figures, but the performance of the various arms—publishing, radio and ecommerce—of the organisation was relatively flat when compared to the figures posted in the previous year. And while Hastings confirmed that digital registrations for the Herald were going to be launched, she said that there were no plans to introduce a paywall this year.
As the host of Seven Sharp, a columnist on the Herald, a talkback presenter on Newstalk ZB and a generous giver of opinions, Mike Hosking has reached saturation levels across Kiwi media channels. And the frazzle-haired media machine has in the last week extended his brand’s reach across social media, with his likes on the official Mike Hosking page increasing by 90,000 in the space of a few days. So what exactly drove all this engagement?
Industry happenings at Mediaworks, Y&R, NZME and Blockhead.
Programmatic is on the rise all around the world, and across many different media channels, with a recent Business Insider report saying programmatic transactions will make up 52 percent of non-search digital-ad spend growth in the US this year. Programmatic is growing at 20 percent a year, with real-time bidding growing even faster. And while most of the ad networks claim they have checks and balances in place to ensure no dodgy ads show up and harm publishers’ brands, or no ads show up on dodgy sites, there will always be a few that slip through the cracks.
In what looks set to be another big blow for local news publishers, StopPress understands that Progressive Enterprises will be shifting a significant chunk of its ad spend from press advertising to other channels and is also thought to be trialling a reduction of unaddressed mailers in some areas as part of its media strategy for FY16, which commenced on 30 June. And Foodstuffs is paying close attention to the moves.
Today the Radio Broadcasters Association announced GfK would be the new provider for the commercial radio survey from 2016, taking over longtime research contract-holder TNS.
Finalists for the 2015 TVNZ New Zealand Marketing Awards have been announced after marketers were invited in April to submit their best initiatives that represent the full scope of marketing.
Last week, after a few months of subscribing to the print version of The Herald, my wife decided to cancel it (despite my initial reservations given we have access to the internet, I actually quite enjoyed getting the paper version). With the circulation declines in recent years, this certainly wouldn’t have been an unusual conversation for those in the subscriptions department, but she said they sounded quite sad when she told them the news. And while there are a few areas of positivity in the latest readership numbers, putting a smiling man on the first page of the Nielsen readership report might have been overly optimistic.
Industry happenings at NZME, MediaWorks, Colenso BBDO/Proximity, Bauer, Chemistry Interaction, JustOne/.99, 2degrees, FutureYou, Ambient Group, Vena, eStar and Adhub.
Last year, as part of the Herald Advertising Challenge, NZME asked agencies to come up with a big media idea for a client that used its assets in an interesting way. FCB Media came out on top with Sony’s Sideline Challenge, a campaign that saw the Herald relinquish editorial control to a handful of passionate photography readers and publish weekend sporting highlights captured on the Sony a6000 DSLR camera (it went on to win three Axis Awards and four golds in the Beacons this year). Since then, the many media strands of the company have come together, so this year it has renamed the competition the NZME Ad Challenge—and the deadline has been extended by a week.
At a time when radio is being disrupted by digital technology, one thing that has remained consistent is the importance of the personalities that produce the content on a daily basis. The executives across both commercial networks have on numerous occasions posited the local voices behind the microphones as key point of difference that traditional radio still has over its digital counterparts. And at last night’s New Zealand Radio Awards, the industry commended those who have over the last year kept the airwaves alive with their voices, quirky promos and, increasingly, video clips. StopPress looks at who won what on the night. PLUS: see a gallery of snapshots from the night.
Generally, the radio survey coincides with a tornado of rushed interviews, press releases and victory-claiming promotions from both sides of the commercial network divide. This time, however, the survey results uncharacteristically wafted by with little response from either side. StopPress gives a rundown of the results and looks at the survey standoff between MediaWorks and NZME. PLUS: a consideration of how the survey might change in the future.
News from ASB, NZME, MediaWorks, Sugar & Partners, Datalicious, Yahoo New Zealand, CanTeen, Bite and NZ Women’s Weekly.
Whenever large entities merge, there is generally an expectation from those outside the business—and often from those investing in it—that things will change faster than they practically can. NZME’s group director digital Laura Maxwell-Hansen says that’s certainly the case at the moment as it attempts to bring “three businesses [APN, TRN and GrabOne] that have three different everythings” together, but she says its digital strategy is beginning to bear fruit, with audience numbers on the up and revenue growing ahead of the market.
Industry happenings at Adhub, NZTE, NZME, Vodafone, Socialites, Anthem, Beat Communications and Contiki.
13 March marked the fourth anniversary of the Syrian Civil War, an ongoing human rights crisis that has resulted in over 220,000 deaths, left 6.5 million people across the nation displaced and caused over four million to flee across the border. And although people in New Zealand are aware of the war, such statistics quoted in isolation do not provide a real sense of the loss that innocent people caught up in the skirmish. So in an effort to present the human side of a story that is often lost in big numbers, World Vision partnered with NZ Herald to launch The Forgotten Millions campaign, which uses a journalistic approach to telling the stories of the people in Syria.
NZME is set to launch its dedicated rural radio station Hokonui Radio in Hawera next week, with the aim of targeting the large farming community that lives there.
Until recently, advertising across MediaWorks’ various properties was sold by independent sales arms. And while this approach worked at a time when the lines between channels were clearly defined, it has become largely impracticable to a company that is already running integrated campaigns on major shows and is also on the verge of launching an ambitious cross-channel show fronted by Paul Henry. Since last May MediaWorks has been restructuring its sales teams, and the company’s head of revenue Liz Fraser and commerical director Paul Hancox believe they have now finalised a structure that is better suited to a landscape typified by blurred media lines.
Over the last month, much of the attention attributed to iHeartRadio has rather unsurprisingly been centred on the motley crew of beer-drinking funnymen who comprise the Alternative Commentary Collective. When news emerged of the now well-recognised caravan being banned from the stadium, it was almost disappointing to discover that something as innocuous as a Gatorade promotion venturing into a prohibited space caused the expulsion of the crew. And while this has done little to stop the ACC from adding a little flavour to cricket commentary, it did highlight the important commercial role that iHeartRadio is starting to play for NZME. So, StopPress recently chatted to iHeartRadio head Carolyn Luey to find out how the platform generates revenue for NZME. PLUS: iHeartRadio partners with 2degrees to bring Charli XCX to Auckland for a single show.