KEY POINTS:
Sir Anthony O'Reilly-controlled Independent News & Media is still looking look at asset sales to improve its balance sheet.
That is despite the parlous state of the world's credit system preventing it from selling its 39.1 per cent stake in APN News & Media.
APN controls New Zealand media interests such as the New Zealand Herald, New Zealand Woman's Weekly and the New Zealand Listener, as well a half stake in the Radio Network, with stations such as Newstalk ZB.
It is understood there was genuine interest in APN. Among them, an Asian source said, was Singapore Press and Media - publisher of the Straits Times - which had been interested in at least some of the assets.
An INM statement did not name parties but said there was "significant interest" in its APN stake but "the deteriorating state of credit markets made it difficult for interested parties to put together a fully financed bid at an appropriate value that would have been acceptable to INM and other APN shareholders."
One media industry leader - not associated with APN or INM - said in the current upheaval there were a lot of assets for sale around the world as companies tried to pay off debt.
Potential purchasers would look at APN as a company that appealed because it was efficient, but it had "very little fat" from which to cut and increase profits.
INDY TROUBLE
INM said in a statement to investors this week its strategy "encompassed the dual objectives of meeting the maturity of its 2008 200 million 5.75 per cent bond in May and achieving a net debt to ebitda of below 3 per cent".
British media have speculated whether that will lead INM to sell its loss-making British titles, the Independent and the Independent on Sunday.
FRASER'S FIGHT CLUB
Former Television New Zealand chief executive Ian Fraser was a surprising person to turn up in the David Tua camp press conference this week where he apparently has had a role in negotiating sports rights for the $1 million fight with Shane Cameron.
Fraser was, after all, the darling of the pashmina and cravat set. But an old mate of Fraser noted that boxing is nothing less than theatrical, and Fraser showed a pugilist side when scrapping with the Labour Government when he exited TVNZ in 2005.
TRADING PLACES
Media commentator Russell Brown floated gossip in his Hard News blog yesterday that Fairfax-owned Trade Me had been talking to the giant eBay organisation, the online auction site whose lack of interest in the small New Zealand market allowed Trade Me to flourish.
But Trade Me director Mike O'Donnell said he knew nothing of talks. Fairfax in Australia said there were "absolutely no plans" to sell Trade Me.
Fairfax spokesman Bruce Wolpe was harsh about the comments, calling them "a pack of senseless speculation that gives blogs a bad name".
KIRK LEGACY
Certainly it would be a big call and Trade Me would appeal to eBay. But are Fairfax's debt problems so large and looming it would give up the cashflow, profits and extraordinary dominance of the New Zealand online advertising market?
Maybe if the bailiff was knocking at the door and you could raise $700 million to pay off debt but Fairfax Media's New Zealand chief executive Joan Withers said the company was not in any such position.
There is a mood at Fairfax for change now that Rural Press has taken control and Brian McCarthy has replaced David Kirk as CEO.
Kirk pushed ahead the purchase of Trade Me for $700 million - a pricetag that raised eyebrows at the time.
I understand Kiwi founder Sam Morgan insisted on Trade Me - which reports directly to Australian management rather than Fairfax New Zealand - being kept distinct from the rest of Fairfax digital operations.
This requirement maintained Trade Me's independence from the other Fairfax digital operations, but might make it easy to sell. But signs are at the moment it is not for sale. I just checked and there are no listings on Trade Me for a used online auction site.
EVANS EXITS EARLY
Brian Evans stepped down suddenly this week as chief executive of the big Australasian print company PMP.
In an earlier role, Evans was a confident and key player in Fairfax's purchase of INL and the early days of Fairfax in this country.
He left to become chief Fairfax operating officer and applied for the chief executive role. Kirk won in 2005 and Evans moved to his old job.
In a statement released to the ASX, PMP said Evans will leave the company by "mutual agreement" though the Australian newspaper noted he had only signed a new contract in September which did not run out until 2011.
The Australian noted that PMP had faced trouble, not the least of which was the loss of the printing contract for Australia's largest publisher, ACP Magazines, from 2011.
MOVIE WITH THAT?
It is a buyers' market so not the best time for Tasman Pacific Foods to be selling its master franchise for Burger King. But the US-based company Reading Cinemas is understood to be the party with the most advanced interest in the operation and has been in talks with Tasman Pacific.
There is an obvious connection - having a burger before or after going to the movies - but one source noted that Reading, which is bigger in Wellington and Christchurch
than Auckland, is as much a property company as a retailer. Reading may well be interested. But TPF may well look at its long and protracted negotiations with SkyCity Entertainment for SkyCity Cinemas that eventually came to nothing,
TICKETS ONLY CELEBS
Television journalists are helping their old mate Rob Harley take on the PR industry. Former television reporter Harley has achieved an amazing haul of some of New Zealand's highest profile media people for his MediaBiz-09, in which people pay $1400-$2100 to learn to "understand how to make better use of the news media".
The conference - which has been hyped on Newstalk ZB - promises expert advice on how to deal with the media. And Harley - who is leading the conference with his TV3 journalist wife Alison Harley - stands to make a good profit.
Among the speakers from TV3 are political editor Duncan Garner, John Campbell, Mike McRoberts and news editor Mike Brockie. Head of news and current affairs Mark Jennings will also be there. TVNZ will be sending Fair Go presenters Kevin Milne and Mark Sainsbury, and TVNZ head of news and current affairs Anthony Flannery to the tickets only function. Others include Herald columnist Fran O'Sullivan and Paul Holmes.
Left-wing commentator Gordon Campbell attacked the function in Scoop as akin to shepherds telling wolves how they guard their flocks, saying it is part of disturbing trend for media to merge with public relations.
Harley said some businesses paid thousand of dollars to PR to understand how to make better use of the news media but the conference showed there were no dark mysteries to how the news was put together.
TVNZ insisted Sainsbury and its people were only going to the conference because TV3 was going.
On 30 January this column referred to the debt carried by Fairfax Media and speculated that Fairfax is also facing demands to pay back debts. That statement is incorrect. Fairfax Media is not facing any demands by any of its bankers or creditors for the repayment of any of its current debt. I retract and apologise to Fairfax for any adverse inference arising from the statement.
