KEY POINTS:
The launch of the Herald on Sunday in October 2004 delivered advertisers a welcome sign of growth in that sector. But the latest figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulation suggest that the growth in the early days has a downside as well.
The ABC surveys of newspapers to March 31 this year shows the Herald On Sunday down 1942 to 91,521, compared with 93,193 at the same time in 2006. Losses were concentrated in the first half to September 30 and the paper's circulation actually rose 367 in the second six-month period.
But the recent slide has been more dramatic at Fairfax Media-owned Sundays the Sunday Star Times - named weekly newspaper of the year in the Qantas Awards on Friday - and the Sunday News.
While the number of copies goes up and down and the figures are open to massaging, these two titles have lost nearly 10 per cent of their circulation in recent times. The ABC figures issued last week showed that the circulation for the Sunday Star-Times at March 31 this year was 181,127, compared with 200,991 on March 31 in 2006, a fall of 19,864 or 9.9 per cent per cent in 12 months. The losses were evenly spread, with 10,187 fewer copies September 30 and a further 9617 for the following six months to March 31.
The Sunday Star-Times stablemate the Sunday News has taken slightly longer to lose nearly 10 per cent of its circulation. Its first fall was between September 30, 2005, and March 31, 2006, when it dropped 5001 from 100,547 to 95,546. It was up 733 for the six months to September 30 then dropped 5422 to March 31 this year, bringing its loss over 18 months to 9690 or 9.6 per cent.
Daily newspaper circulation was largely stable in the latest survey. The New Zealand Herald was down 4628 in a comparison on March 31 figures in 2006 with 2007, but of that fall, 4127 occurred in the six months to September 30.
Bloody Sundays
Advertising media buyer Martin Gillman is disappointed that the Sunday market that had begun delivering growth to the newspaper market has slowed. The managing director of Total Media has a soft spot for the print sector - and especially likes Sunday News - but he laments that the newspaper sector in this country has not delivered innovations as occurred in newspaper markets overseas.
"I'm not knocking the changes that have happened," says Gillman, "but in order to keep the sector moving we need to have more innovative content.
"There is a danger in getting caught up in formats - like the size of the papers - when people are not interested in appearance but new things to read about."
There is nothing new in a slide in newspaper circulation.
Newspapers and free-to-air television are both facing a big challenge retaining their readership or viewership. Revenue is falling in traditional media but it still has to finance the shift to new media, where numbers are growing but in many cases are still uneconomic. Both Fairfax and APN are developing their new media arms in the expectation of picking up some of that diaspora of young consumers drifting to the new media.
Shand exits top spot
New Zealand-owned public relations company Baldwin Boyle Group is going through interesting times, with Steve Fisher replacing Greg Shand as managing director for New Zealand. Fisher reports to Melbourne bureau boss Kylie Taylor, who remains managing director for the group.
Shand - a former political editor for the Herald, who joined Baldwin Boyle in 1986 - has headed the New Zealand arm of the PR firm for 12 years.
The change comes at a pivotal point, with Baldwin Boyle chairman Brenda Baldwin saying it marked a "generational change at the agency". Baldwin Boyle has recently picked up accounts for Southern Cross and Metro Water but six months ago lost Mighty River Power, worth around $300,000.
Eighteen months ago Baldwin Boyle faced a significant fall in its billings when it no longer held the lucrative Auckland University account, believed to be worth $1.8 million.
Fisher king of NZ
Shand is a director and shareholder of Baldwin Boyle Group and the company says he will retain a full-time role as a senior strategic consultant. Brenda Baldwin said she hoped that Fisher would also become a shareholder.
She said Shand was overdue for one of the generous sabbaticals available to senior management but didn't think one was imminent.
PR industry sources said that the promotion had followed approaches for Fisher to join a rival but Baldwin said that was not her understanding. Fisher had been the heir apparent to Shand for the past 18 months, she said.
Fisher - who is the son of New Zealand rugby administrator Rob Fisher - started his PR career at Baldwin Boyle in 1999 and rejoined the company in 2005.
Prior to his return he headed up the consumer PR team for the insurance and investment group Prudential in London. Fisher declined to specify which accounts he worked with at Baldwin Boyle but confirmed he had worked on the important Fonterra account.
Varsity challenge
Baldwin Boyle and Greg Shand are significant players in the New Zealand public relations sector and Fisher believes it may be the only one of the big PR agencies that is New Zealand-owned.
Baldwin Boyle is renowned as an agency that is well connected in the corporate world and is adept at winning valuable contracts with an approach focused on top management.
One PR source said the danger of that approach was that it was likely to be vulnerable to a review when they moved on and were replaced by new management. Brenda Baldwin confirmed that the Auckland University account had been due to the rapport with vice-chancellor Dr John Hood.
Certainly the profile of Hood - who now heads Oxford University - rose significantly early this decade.
In her version of events, Baldwin says that BBG walked away from the account when Hood moved, but PR industry sources say that the university was not enamoured with its outlay in the past.
Outsourcing
In negotiating for Herald publisher APN's outsourcing of its subediting to new provider Pagemasters, union delegate Simon Collins said the union was still fighting the APN plan and national secretary Andrew Little was considering whether it should go ahead with a legal challenge.
Collins was among the Herald staff at the Qantas newspaper awards in Wellington on Friday who unfurled a banner calling for the company to reconsider.
"You can be sure that we will also continue to kick up as big a stink as we can about it in public in an attempt to get the company to rethink before it's too late," he said.
But the change will also deplete the union ranks at the Herald, with three of the delegates expected to leave if the change goes ahead.
Meanwhile, Labour Department mediators meet the NZ Herald and EPMU journalists union today over the existing NZH collective for many of its journalists.
Collins says they will meet in the next few days to either ratify a settlement or consider industrial action. Renewal negotiations began in February.
Managing editor Wayne Harman said Labour Department mediators were called in after parties had been unable to agree on wages.
The company has offered a two-year agreement with a wage movement of 3.4 per cent in the first year and 3.2 per cent in the second year. The EPMU is seeking 3.5 per cent in each of the two years.
The union has also sought a two weeks increase to the redundancy formula or the EPMU call for an extension to the five weeks' annual leave. The Herald company has not accepted this claim.
