KEY POINTS:
Publishers of a magazine edited by Judy Bailey look set to pull the plug after just three issues - though publisher Edward Aster says it may return.
The lifestyle magazine - The Best of New Zealand: The Warehouse Magazine - has struggled to attract advertising despite hiring Bailey as the editor and securing backing from the country's biggest general retailer.
Magazine industry sources said Best Of New Zealand: The Warehouse Magazine would close and Aster confirmed a February-March edition was unlikely.
He said that people involved with the magazine - which include Bailey - were being kept up-to-date.
Asked about advertising support Aster said: "What advertisers? We've been told from readers and advertisers saying they like the magazine and its content. But they wanted to wait and see."
Marketers said the lifestyle magazine was editorially credible and well produced but it was in a crowded lifestyle market.
Magazine industry sources suggested the association with The Warehouse had discouraged other retailers and advertisers - The Warehouse stocks limited name brands - but this view was rejected by Aster.
Warehouse Group spokeswoman Cynthia Church said the company was advised last month that Best of New Zealand: The Warehouse Magazine would not be continuing after the December-January issue.
The company name was included in the title but she said that The Warehouse was the "distributor" for the magazine and referred queries to Aster Publishing.
It is understood that the business model and the title were linked to The Warehouse paying for a specific number of issues - possibly 100,000.
Aster insisted that The Warehouse had minimal involvement, pointing to the size of The Warehouse logo on the masthead.
Aster said staff were being kept informed of developments.
The status of Bailey's employment and day-to-day role at the magazine have not been spelled out.
The remuneration package would have been a tiny fraction of the $800,000 a year she earned as One News anchor and Mother of the Nation.
Writers cramp
New Zealand television networks are shining up unknown shows and dusting off leftovers and repeats to cope with impact from the US writers strike.
They are confident that shortened series for established US dramas will not diminish audiences and advertising revenue.
But it will be another challenge for free-to-air TV in a fast evolving media market.
TV One has a lot of British and New Zealand material and Prime has limited US drama shows so are less susceptible to the shortage caused by the three-month-old strike. TV2 and TV3 are most reliant on American dramas so they are the most affected. Even if the dispute is settled soon - which some believe is possible - they face a complicated period ahead.
An American TV series typically runs for 22 episodes and is built on winning regular viewers but with the strike most shows have 12 or 13 episodes this time.
TV3 programming director Kelly Martin said TV3 was looking at careful use of more repeats. In the US there has been an increase in reality programming - which is not affected by the strike. But Martin said that was not likely to occur at TV3.
TVNZ programming director Jane Wilson confirmed TV2 was in a similar situation with its key series limited to 12 or 13 episodes.
"TVNZ is promoting all of our new shows, Dirty Sexy Money, Pushing Daisies as well as two new US comedies, along with New Zealand shows. We don't anticipate the need to increase the minimal repeats on the channel,"she said.
Still, we noted the recently launched new season promotions for TV2 heavily push its three biggest US drawcard shows - Lost, Desperate Housewives, and Ugly Betty.
TV2 has announced a Sunday night of three US dramas in a row - which will also use up its shortened series quickly. Wilson was confident that there would be plenty for the second half of the year.
Lachlan: It's personal
Nobody was surprised this week when Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Graeme Samuel said he would "closely examine" Lachlan Murdoch's position on the News Corporation board.
The issue would be in the broader investigation into Murdoch's joint A$3.3 billion proposal with James Packer's organisation to privatise Consolidated Media Holdings. The former scion to the News Corp empire, Murdoch insists the investment - which gives him a share of the ACP Magazines - is personal, and not linked to his role as a member of the News Corp board. News Corp picked up FPC magazines - including Vogue, Delicious and GQ - positioning the company group as one of Australia's main magazine publishers.
Meanwhile CMH owns 25 per cent of PBL Media which owns a big chunk of the Australian and New Zealand magazine business through ACP.
PBL Media also owns Channel Nine as well as 25 per cent of Foxtel and 50 per cent of Fox Sports. Newscorp also has 25 per cent of Foxtel, which is Australia's version of our Sky TV.
In New Zealand Newscorp's main asset is a controlling stake of Sky TV.
While the Packer-Murdoch combined 25 per cent stake of PBL Media is small fry, the remainder is owned by CVC which as a private equity company will sell out at a later date.
When that happens it would be interesting to see whether CMH was to pick up the remaining stake in PBL, giving Lachlan Murdoch a big role in Aussie media.
Gillman staying
Rumours of ad veteran Martin Gillman's departure from the advertising scene appear to be wrong. The managing director of media buying ad agency Total Media laughed when we called for a clarification of rumours that he was about to leave saying "I'd had a call from Wellington saying the same thing. I'm not leaving and - I actually quite enjoy my job," he said.
Gillman thought speculation had arisen from an invitation to a function promising to talk about the future for Total Media. The restructuring of the company from its parent company Omnicom may have also played a role.
