KEY POINTS:
The anti-piracy Federation Against Copyright Theft (Fact) has finally canned its awful ad campaign that tried to frighten consumers against pirating films and videos.
The lobby group - owned by the Hollywood studios - is now taking a softly-softly approach with a "Buy Original, See Original" campaign.
It features Temuera Morrison and the movie Sione's Wedding, which suffered a substantial loss of income because of pirated copies.
The new approach is the brainchild of New Zealand Fact executive director Tony Eaton, a former policeman who now helps police to prosecute copyright thieves.
Eaton has convinced American studio bosses that its Big Brother approach does not work here.
The old ads were shockers, with blaring music and intimidating images, telling us that we wouldn't steal a car so we shouldn't steal a movie either.
The ads attacked the movie audience (who pay $15 to be entertained) and DVD buyers and renters, treating them like potential thieves.
If you weren't pirating movies before, you might be inclined after seeing those ads.
Is it just coincidence that while that ad has been running, piracy has been on the up?
This heavy-handed approach was developed for the Asian market - such as Thailand and China - which is swamped with pirated movies.
There, the Hollywood studios have now adopted a different approach to stem piracy. They charge consumers $2.50 for bona fide videos that cost more than $30 on Australasian shelves.
Is this goodbye?
How much longer will Robyn Langwell be heading the editorial team at North & South? Not long at all, judging by her editorial in the latest issue of the magazine that was mailed to subscribers yesterday.
Langwell's editorial all but waved goodbye. She referred to plans by ACP Magazines to disestablish the roles of editor and full-time art director at the magazine.
"If I am to be washed away from the role I love - honing words to a high shine and nurturing young writers - I'd like ... to pay tribute to the talents and tenacity of the North & South writers and designers. who have shared this wonderful journey with me.
"Twenty-two years ago I thought I had had the best job in journalism, and I did."
The Business Herald asked ACP Group manager Debra Millar whether Langwell's comments in print meant she was leaving.
"I have not got any further comment to make about that," Millar said.
"Robyn has chosen her editorial to make some comment, and those are entirely her views and not those of the company."
There have been rumours in the publishing world of an announcement as soon as today about the ACP restructuring.
Millar said she expected to confirm changes at the end of this week.
"There will probably be some announcements with regards to individuals and whether they continue with the company or not."
Angst at ACP
Meanwhile, the Press Council announced yesterday it had ruled that North & South had failed to meet its obligation with regards to accuracy and discrimination by publishing the Deborah Coddington article Asian Angst about crime in the Asian community.
Millar stood by the article, published in December, and said North & South had always been a provocative magazine and the Press Council decision was "igniting interest in the title".
Coddington also stood by her article and was dismissive of the Press Council decision. She said: "It's underworld crime, and for us to turn around to say this does not exist is just foolishness.
"Now I am starting to see how the tangata whenua felt when I wrote stories about Maori bashing their kids to death. But what did they do? Did they take it to the Press Council? No, they took a good hard look at it and did something about it," Coddington said.
These are indeed interesting times at North & South, which is being revamped to attract a younger audience and draw in advertisers. Subjects of recent cover stories, for instance, have included PR spin merchant Deborah Pead - surely anathema to the magazine's style of old. And last month the cover photo (relating to a story on NCEA) featured a schoolgirl made up like she belonged in FHM.
These are also interesting times for the corporate side of ACP Magazines New Zealand. Soon after last week's departure of ACP New Zealand chief executive Heith Mackay Cruise, commercial director Malcolm Holmes resigned, ending just eight months with the company.
Some thought the former CEO of Wellington Rugby was being groomed for the top job - but apparently not. We wonder if these upheavals have anything to do with the change of ownership at ACP's parent company, Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd.
PBL owners at the James Packer organisation have spun off 75 per cent of the company to private equity company CVC Asia Pacific. Supposedly there are no big changes to the way the company is run, but the upheaval has coincided with a revolving door at ACP in New Zealand.
More money online
Online media companies expect a big increase in estimates for dollars spent on online advertising after signing a deal with international accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Under the deal announced yesterday by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the annual comparison of spend on each media will include a new analysis for online advertising spend.
Bureau CEO Mark Evans said that currently figures from the Advertising Standards Authority estimates that around 6 per cent, or around $66 million, of ad revenue is spent online.
But the new information being collated would include ad sales to companies like employment site Seek and, significantly, payment for search engine marketing on websites like Google and Yahoo!Xtra.
Evans says that based on overseas experience, search engine marketing made up around 30 per cent of the total, so it was plausible that the new results - which will cover the first and second quarter of the year and will be issued in the third quarter - would push sales up over the $100 million mark.
Aspers away
TV3, C4 and half the country's radio stations will move from Canadian to Australian private equity control on Thursday. CanWest Global Communication - headed by the Asper family - has picked up $385.56 million now they have gone unconditional for the sale of its 70 per cent of the broadcaster to HT Media - aka private equity firm Ironbridge. Ironbridge insists there will be no substantial changes to the way the company is run.
This seems likely since the company has gone ahead in leaps and bounds, spending on programming and local content to maintain market share and ad revenue. Some in the production industry remain concerned that should it lose programming - especially the Fox studios - this plan will be dropped in favour of a low cost-low market- share approach that would still deliver profit. That option seems unlikely, at least in the short term.
