KEY POINTS:
Fairfax Media has laid off some Independent Financial Review columnists as it plans its second relaunch of the business weekly in two years.
The Indie's longtime columnist Bob Edlin and reporter Wilson Owen are being dropped from March 31.
The paper's parliamentary bureau closed at the start of this year and Tim Donoghue was transferred within Fairfax to the Dominion Post.
It is understood Chris Trotter has an arrangement with the Fairfax Group and has a good profile so may survive changes.
Trotter hung up his phone when asked about his status.
Independent editor Nick Stride said he could not comment on whether Trotter would be on board after March 31.
Fairfax New Zealand chief executive Joan Withers also declined to comment about wider changes at Fairfax.
It is understood that the new-look Independent will include a new masthead. But Withers dismissed a rumour that it will be renamed the New Zealand Business Review.
In May 2006 a new-look Independent was relaunched in a supportive speech by Finance Minister Michael Cullen.
"I look forward to the Independent Financial Review providing the New Zealand business community with the kind of trenchant, undogmatic analysis that we need.
"We certainly need more of that and less of the pseudo-scandals in politics and business that we often have had," Cullen said in a function at Parliament.
Cullen was referring, of course, to the National Business Review, a strident critic of Labour and, for different reasons, historical rivals to the Independent founders Warren Berryman and Jenni McManus.
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Fairfax bought the Indie only after its long overtures for the NBR were rejected by owner Barry Colman. But when Fairfax took over, the newspaper changed the approach to calculating circulation.
The number of papers that were counted as net paid circulation fell 62 per cent from 8640 to 3255. The ad industry praised Fairfax for its approach.
With Fairfax nurturing the Indie, its circulation has increased to 4090. But Total Media managing director Martin Gillman said the newspaper has a tough job against the NBR and the New Zealand Herald.
NBR editor-in-chief Nevil Gibson said after a period of stagnancy it had taken off and the Independent was no longer "above the radar".
Gibson said a new-look NBR would begin next week moving opinion pages on to newsprint which he said would allow more space for news and glossy adverts.
Meanwhile, the NBR website was being revamped and would be developed into what Gibson described as a right-wing answer to the Public Address website which had assembled left-wing commentators under its banner.
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Indie changes and the relaunch were decided last week amid an online shakedown at Fairfax.
Fairfax brands such as the Dominion Post and the Press have already broken away from the group website stuff.co.nz and Fairfax is expected to announce next week details of a new website, Business Day, to be edited by Gareth Vaughan.
The site is a contrast to the nzherald.co.nz site which has appointed Chris Daniels to upgrade and edit its online business coverage which remains under the Herald banner.
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Liquidators are hoping that Black Magazine will be back on newstands this month. The magazine is the creation of former rock star Grant Fell and fashion designer Rachael Churchward. Their company Black Light Publishing went into liquidation last week with creditors owed around $380,000, which Damien Grant at liquidators Waterstone said was largely because of over-ambitious print runs early on.
Grant said the magazine had good advertising support and he expected the eighth edition to be out this month.
Readers of a certain age may recall that Fell was formerly a singer with pivotal acts such as Children's Hour and Headless Chickens.
Liquidators say Black has worked as a product.
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APN News & Media's New Zealand deputy chief executive Rick Neville will continue to have a role in the editorial mix of the Herald On Sunday newspaper under a shake-up of the media company.
Neville has been the leading light behind the Sunday paper and before the appointment of Sarah Sandley as APN's New Zealand Magazines chief executive, had a significant role at the Listener. APN New Zealand chief executive Martin Simons announced the changes recently. Neville was named "editor in chief" of APN regional newspapers such as Hawke's Bay Today, the Bay of Plenty Times and the Daily Post. Simons said Neville would also be "heavily involved" in projects through the year but declined to detail these, saying they were commercially sensitive.
Simons has appointed Chris Jagusch as general manager for oversight of the Herald and the Herald on Sunday.
Simons said the new APN publishing structure would enable Jagusch to focus on the day-to-day management while freeing the CEO to have a more strategic focus on growing the business in New Zealand.
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APN News & Media is launching its events arm in New Zealand, headed by Michael Scott and linked with supplement content in the Herald.
Scott - who has headed the events arm in Australia - described events as a lucrative market that was probably underdeveloped in this country. At a corporate level APN will be up against DMG - the Daily Mirror Group.
"We are not moving in on their turf - they have established territory in Big Boys Toys and Home Show," Scott said.
"Ours will be consumers' shows and we have the combined group of media assets, outdoor and online."
He said the make-up of the group enabled events to be linked with papers, supplements and outdoor content.
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The relationship between politicians and media organisations becomes tense in election years and politicos monitor coverage to ensure they are getting fair treatment.
That is especially the case at TVNZ, which has traditionally kept stopwatch checks of the amount of time parties are on the air. This is based on the questionable assumption that time on air is good for them.
It provides ammunition to deal with party claims that they are being snubbed, which is important for a state-owned media company. The private sector and especially newspapers face less scrutiny.
But the Herald editorial campaign against the Electoral Finance Act has brought an added frisson in its relationship with Labour.
Some party faithful allege the Herald is campaigning against it, a claim strenuously rejected by the Herald.
The debate is played out most days in the left-wing blogs for Public Address and David Farrar's National Party-friendly Kiwiblog.
At the same time as taking an active role in the re-election of Labour, the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) is backing a campaign lamenting what it says is a sorry state of the country's media and criticising media companies. It is shaping up to be an interesting election media-wise.
* Declaration: The writer is a member of the EPMU.
