KEY POINTS:
The chief executive of magazine publisher ACP New Zealand, Heith Mackay-Cruise, has resigned to take on the role of global CEO at an unnamed Sydney-based education provider that has just been set up.
Mackay-Cruise - an Australian who has been with the company for 14 years and headed the New Zealand operation for three of those years - is to leave at the end of May.
Mackay-Cruise said until he was replaced, ACP New Zealand would be overseen by parent company Publishing & Broadcasting and its Sydney-based general manager of operations, John Rowsthorne.
Mackay-Cruise played a key role in developing the New Zealand magazine sector, saying he recorded "double digit" growth over his three years.
His highest profile initiative has been launching the successful food title, Taste. But overall ACP New Zealand has had mixed results in recent circulation and readership surveys that, if entrenched, would influence revenue.
Mackay-Cruise said his decision to leave was not linked to the change of ownership at PBL - and consequently at magazine division ACP Magazines. Under that new deal, private equity company CVC Capital is taking a 50 per cent stake, allowing owner James Packer to secure $3.75 billion of debt.
