KEY POINTS:
Fairfax Media is upbeat about support for the Independent Financial Review despite a 62 per cent circulation loss in the latest Audit Bureau of Circulation survey.
The survey, for the six months to September 30, showed circulation down for the country's two biggest newspapers, the Herald and the Sunday Star-Times.
But the percentages were small compared to the Independent Financial Review figures. It fell to 3255 from 8640 for the previous six months to March 31.
This is the first full ABC survey since Fairfax bought the business weekly in February and renamed it the Independent Financial Review.
Fairfax has given the Indie more resources and the newspaper has improved. So why has it lost more than 60 per cent of its circulation?
Readers did not walk away en masse from the new Indie, says Martin Gillman, managing director of advertising agency Total Media.
Rather, he says new owners Fairfax changed the way the paper dealt with distribution to the Exporters Institute and the Chartered Secretaries of New Zealand under promotional deals.
Gillman says the use of promotional copies have long been a subject of debate within the publishing and advertising industries. He says advertising agencies took account of promotional deals when allocating their spending.
The issue, he says, is that advertisers valued readers more highly if they paid to read a publication than those who received them without having to pay directly.
By including the deals as part of its net circulation the Independent was made more appealing.
"To their credit Fairfax have moved to put things in order," Gillman says. "This is their first survey since they took over and they did the right thing."
But beyond advertising support, the new status begs the question: Did Fairfax think it was buying a paper with circulation of more than 8000? Or one with half that number?
"We were aware that we would audit at less than the previous [ABC] number when we went through the due diligence process, and early management, due to our treating promotional copies in a different way than it was done previously," says Fairfax New Zealand chief operating officer Peter O'Hara.
"We had a different view and wanted different commercial arrangements with the parties getting promotional copies on special contract like the Exporters Institute and Chartered Secretaries New Zealand. We do not believe that it [had been] done in an appropriate way."
O'Hara says that the Independent Financial Review currently had a print run of around 6500 copies.
He says the Independent was doing well and was well supported by advertisers.
Fairfax has no issues with the previous ownership of the Independent over the way circulation was compiled.
"Absolutely not."
Similarly, there isn't any issue or liability to past advertisers. "No. We are auditing for the first time. The true number is only a few weeks old.
"We would point to the AC Nielsen readership figures which show us from low to mid 20s to 30,000," O'Hara says, adding that Fairfax was happy with progress at the paper.
The chairman of the Audit Bureau of Circulation, Heith Mackay Cruise, referred queries to Fairfax. The Independent was formerly owned by the former editor, the late Warren Berryman, and Jenny McManus, who were backed by businessman Tony Timpson.
Responding to the Fairfax purchase in February 28, McManus was upbeat about the future, saying: "We're committed to exposing the scams that have made this newspaper a force to be reckoned with, and to digging beneath the surface of business activity. As always, we aim to keep the record straight and the market informed."
A new face for Radio NZ
Radio New Zealand is launching new graphic images as part of a style makeover and is promising changes on air next year.
The new logo and graphics are officially under wraps until January but unbeknownst to RNZ, we have picked up a copy of the new-look logo (see "more pictures" link to picture of chief executive Peter Cavanagh with the logo above).
Cavanagh has called for the new imagery after surveys which found confusion about the disparate RNZ brands with some people still calling Concert FM and National Radio YC and FM.
"We're looking to lift our profile. It's vitally important . . the work we do is recognised by New Zealanders," he says in a brochure to staff.
Staff at RNZ's Terrace headquarters in Wellington are said to be pleased with the new logo, which is said to be a mixture of a koru and a microphone.
As well as officially unveiling the new look, RNZ is understood to be working on changes to the on-air promotions. However, it appears there are no plans to dispense with National Radio's traditional Morning Report birdsong.
Gridlock at NZOA
Broadcasting Minister Steve Maharey will finally announce a new chairman for New Zealand On Air next week.
Programme-makers say the appointment cannot be made soon enough. They say the delay replacing Don Hunn is symptomatic of an increasing muddle at the funding agency whose $60 million in taxpayer cash maintains local content on TVNZ and CanWest.
Hunn's three-year term as chairman has been extended twice, in part due to staffing problems and delays finding a new chief executive.
The last chief executive, Jo Tyndall, left in early 2005 on a 12 months' secondment, overseeing development of the new Freeview digital TV platform. Her job was kept open but few in the TV business ever expected her to return to a position that saw her battling TVNZ when applications for subsidies were turned down.
TV industry sources say Hunn delayed replacing Tyndall till the Government replaced him since the new chairman should have a say in the new chief executive. But for some reason it has been problematical.
The most obvious choice would be the current deputy chairman Judy Callingham, a friend of Prime Minister Helen Clark and Culture and Heritage Minister Judith Tizard.
A former producer for 1970s soap Close To Home, Callingham owns a company with husband and former broadcaster Brian Edwards, whose past contracts have seen her train government ministers to deal with the media.
Producers complain about growing disillusionment with NZOA, whose role has become tangled with government attempts to boost TVNZ.
An under-strength NZOA met secretly with TVNZ and gave $8 million funding for the new soap The Point on TV one.
Initially CanWest MediaWorks cried foul, questioning NZOA's independence. Last week though, NZ On Air gave a $10 million subsidy to South Pacific Pictures to make 22 episodes of the TV3 series Outrageous Fortune.
* John Drinnan's media column will appear on Tuesdays.
