KEY POINTS:
Fairfax Media is to fold its BusinessDay website back into Stuff.co.nz but insists that it is "an architectural change" and it is not backtracking on its online strategy.
The BusinessDay website was launched just five months ago and was part of a strategy linking the distinct site with Fairfax's popular and long-running website Stuff.co.nz.
Yesterday Fairfax Group executive editor Paul Thompson said that in a new initiative BusinessDay would continue as a search term but would be incorporated into Stuff.
The change - where BusinessDay will become the business section of Stuff - will take effect from early in the new year.
Thompson said the BusinessDay website had been a success and the branding change was not a retreat.
It was decided editorial content under the BusinessDay masthead in print editions would be better capturing the higher hit rates at Stuff, Thompson said.
Fairfax has invested a lot into its digital content, developing numerous brands. Some argue that the strategy of multiple or "hero" category websites with aggregated content on Stuff has been useful to some brands and not to others.
In the end BusinessDay has survived but not as a distinct website.
Nielsen online research suggests that the Fairfax site may have suffered from the upgrade of the National Business Review website.
BUSINESS BROWSERS
Over the past 15 weeks Nielsen Online Market Intelligence counted the average weekly unique browsers to business sites. They were:
* nzherald.co.nz/business: 187,000
* Stuff Business: 136,000
* National Business Review: 37,000
* NZX (with some Fairfax Business content): 33,000
* Yahoo!Xtra Business: 30,000
* Scoop Business: 18,000
* Interest.co.nz: 17,000
* TVNZ/business: 16,000
* BusinessDay: 12,000
Comparing the average audience over the last four weeks to the average audience for the four weeks ended August 31, NBR grew its audience by 102 per cent compared with 17 per cent for BusinessDay.
NBR's average for the last four weeks was 44,000 unique browsers, in March it was averaging 12,000.
BusinessDay averaged 12,000 over the last four weeks. Both nzherald.co.nz and Stuff have continued to grow their business audiences over the same period, peaking in the financial meltdown.
BFM HAVOC
On-air changes are expected at Auckland student station bFM after restructuring led to redundancies for station manager Helen Mabberly and programme director Aroha Harawira.
BFM Trust chairman Chris Hocquard said that under the earlier structure the music station had lacked direction. But he dismissed a rumour it faced financial issues.
Asked when listeners - who he said make up a 2 per cent share of the Auckland radio market - would notice changes, Hocquard said early next year. Inevitably there would be changes to the line-up, he said.
He would not mention names but the station is bringing forward its breakfast session, so if Mikey Havoc remains he may have to have more early nights. The station will be headed by radio newcomer Ben Cochrane with three people below him.
The most significant is new brand manager Manu Taylor, who was a key player as programme director at Mai FM before losing his job in upheavals there.
THERE YOU GO
Cultural sensitivity is alive and well in the film industry with a handover ceremony when NZ Film Commission chief executive Ruth Harley resigned for a new job at its counterpart Screen Australia.
Commission member and Maori cultural adviser Tainui Stephens and his wife Wiha Stephens, another Maori culture expert, led the handover in Sydney where Harley was welcomed to her new role by the "Aboriginal elder and Darug spokesperson" Richard Green.
According to Screen Australia the ceremony would include expressions of salutation and greeting and "the sharing of the breath of life".
The Film Commission said it spent no public cash getting commission representatives to the handover ceremony.
But we noted that if such handover ceremonies became common in the private sector and applied to Australian executives becoming business leaders in New Zealand it could be valuable to the struggling airline sector.
PICKING WINNERS
Brook Asset Management is keen to continue with its Financial Journalist of the Year Award despite the fact that two founders, Simon Botherway and Paul Glass, are to leave the firm.
Brook - which is a part of the giant Macquarie Group - has called for entries to its second award saying it is looking for in-depth investigation of issues and "independent insightful and fearless reporting in New Zealand".
But the award - which aims at the most complex and detailed business journalism - has taken what Canterbury University head of journalism Jim Tully says is "an unusual approach" to its judging.
Brook executives Mark Brighouse and Glass and another businessman Gavin Walker decide winners, raising the issue of whether good business media in the eyes of corporate players is in the wider interests of small shareholders.
Brighouse said that Brook - which has a stake in many NZ-listed companies - received a lot of positive feedback last year when the inaugural award was won by Fairfax's Denise McNabb.
I asked whether there should be someone in a journalist role judging good journalism.
"We may consider asking representatives of the press or journalism academics to be judges. Of course the appointment of practising journalists raises similar conflict issues to those that you rightfully identify with Brook's role," he said. Asked if there could be a conflict of interest with some entries Brighouse said: "At Brook, we are sometimes mentioned in the media.
"No conflicts have arisen as yet between the role of a judge and a contributor to an article but if one does the affected judge(s) would withdrawn from consideration.
"Jim Tully has not contacted us regarding the award, however if he has constructive criticism we are prepared to listen," Brighouse said. Herald journalists have entered for the award.
PINING FOR FJORDS
TV3 news and current affairs director Mark Jennings has blasted his TVNZ counterpart Anthony Flannery for taking two top news executives on a fact-finding trip that includes North America, Britain and Europe.
The three will be visiting the Norwegian public service broadcaster NHK.
Jennings says part of the trip is to look at another set for One News - a recent purchase TV3 made by shopping on the internet - and said the trip is part of a culture of extravagance at TVNZ.
"It's been around a long while and a leopard does not change its spots. I only hope that taxpayers and the new government put a stop to it," he said.
TVNZ spokeswoman Megan Richards said the Flannery trip - which takes in the US, Canada, Britain, Norway and Spain - did not include shopping for a new set and the budget for the three men was "prudent and conservative".
But I am told it has raised eyebrows in the newsroom.
With an advertising slide expected next year, media companies are laying off staff and government departments are battening down hatches.
Richards said Flannery's colleagues - news boss Cliff Joiner and TVNZ news technical specialist Darryl Walker - returned home yesterday and Flannery was flying to Spain today to attend a conference in Valencia.
"This is a regular international event for heads of news and current affairs from broadcasters around the world," Richards said.
SHORT TAKES
* Paul Holmes unintentionally got a laugh when he introduced fundraiser and former rock star Bob Geldof as Bob Dylan. The last month of Holmes' breakfast show on Newstalk ZB is delivering brilliant, if sometimes surreal, radio. He finishes on December 19.
* Radio New Zealand Morning Report host Sean Plunket has rejected rumours that he has renewed his contract for a two year term. "No - it is not true." he told Media. Plunket announced earlier this year he intended to leave.
* Maori Television chief executive Jim Mather objected to last week's report that he was in a standoff with the Maori producers body Nga Aho Whakaari. He points out that he has been Maori TV chief executive for four years not two, as reported.
