KEY POINTS:
A director of the Government-owned broadcast transmission company Kordia, Tony Baird, has been appointed managing director of rural broadband company BayCity Group, raising the question: Are these important companies in the broadband and broadcast industries developing a closer relationship?
BayCity Group recently signed a deal for Asian satellite operator IPstar to deliver broadband to rural communities.
Baird resigned his directorship at Kordia and left his executive job at TelstraClear recently to be managing director of BayCity in Timaru.
One week earlier, BayCity signed a $100 million, 12-year contract with satellite company Ipstar, giving BayCity a potentially big role in getting broadband internet into rural areas not served by existing telcos and ISPs.
Meantime Kordia is the central figure in the introduction of the new Freeview digital platform for free-to-air television.
Telecommunications industry sources say there had long been speculation that Kordia - a former TVNZ division and state-owned enterprise known as Broadcast Communications - might eventually buy BayCity Group.
Broadcast Communications recently rebranded itself, saying the new name Kordia "comes from the Latin accord meaning harmony - bringing people and technology together".
Certainly Tony Baird would provide harmony between Kordia and BayCity.
Kordia chief executive Geoff Hunt could not be reached for comment.
Yellow Pages staff sent walking
New owners who paid Telecom $2.24 billion buying Yellow Pages have wasted no time wielding the axe. They have laid off five senior people in the production department - the part of the company that makes the advertisements for the phone directories.
A company spokesman this week said the change, which led to the departure of staff last week, had been planned by Telecom, and was not part of any new approach by new owners CCMP and Canadian fund Teachers Private Capital.
The company claims staff head count will increase in the long run.
Elle hath no fury like a columnist scorned
Media editorial exposure is good for brands but what happens when the exposure is in the gossip pages and you resist the opportunity? Herald on Sunday gossip columnist Rachel Glucina was not impressed when her approach to Elle Macpherson was rejected.
Last week she lambasted former supermodel and Bendon bra marketeer Macpherson, who said no to an interview for her pages in the Herald on Sunday.
Headlines for the Glucina page complained Macpherson had "An Elle of an Attitude" and asked "Who The Elle Are Ya?" What followed was a spirited rubbishing of Macpherson, mentioning her relationship break-up and complaining Elle was a "boring, bland, snobby brand".
So how do these social pages work? PR companies are always organising social functions and sponsored gallery openings to attract the right people with their brand. The Macpherson relationship with Bendon was obviously designed to sell undies, and no doubt to capitalise on her media profile. Even ignoring the Glucina blowback the brand linkage seems to have become counter-productive - mainstream coverage in the Herald on Sunday and Campbell Live questioned her role as a brand. PR consultant Deborah Pead said the Glucina blast would not be a problem for the Elle brand.
Labour in hole - keeps digging
Radio New Zealand Morning Report presenter Sean Plunket is denying a claim made in Parliament by Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen that he had applied to become chief press secretary for the National Party.
Plunket said yesterday that he had never applied for a job with National and that under parliamentary rules he was able to approach the Speaker to correct the matter. He said he would not, because he did not want to become bogged down in the issue which relates to Steve Maharey's Botswana gaffe, and Plunket's suggestion it could be implicitly racist. But he did say he was surprised by Cullen's February 6 comment in defence of Education Minister Steve Maharey who had told Opposition broadcasting spokesman Jonathan Coleman to "F*** off".
Cullen said: "I am aware that Mr Plunket applied for the job of chief press officer with the National Party" - which could be said to undermine Plunket. This column has lodged a request under the Official Information Act to find out whether the Broadcasting Minister has complained directly to the board in the past. There is no reply yet, and there is no reply from Cullen's office as to whether he was in breach of the Radio New Zealand Act by claiming the presenter of Morning Report had sought a job with the Opposition. Any message here for state broadcast employees who embarrass the Government?
APN and TVNZ - cuts, outsourcing and links
The president of the International Federation of Journalists, Chris Warren, sees links between the APN News and Media move to outsource sub-editing for its New Zealand newspapers and last week's 59 job cuts at Television New Zealand news and current affairs.
Warren was in New Zealand last week to look at the APN move, which he says is a world first and is being watched by journalists around the globe. He said that and the TVNZ cuts were both cases of established media companies dealing with challenges from new media by cutting costs.
"We want to convince the management at APN that the approach is bad for newspapers and they should be investing in journalism."
Warren is also federal secretary of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, a union which covers Australian journalists. A campaign by the New Zealand union, the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union, has elicited letters from the local body leaders of North Shore City, Manukau, Auckland and Napier who have written to APN opposing the plan. APN New Zealand chief executive Martin Simons said newspapers compiled by a centralised sub-editing team - "should the company go down this path" - would retain all their individuality and local and regional perspective.
"Some regional newspaper pages, for example the world news, could end up looking the same," he said.
"But does this really matter? Each regional paper circulates in its own area. None overlap. Readers will neither notice nor care."
Editors and news editors at each title would continue to control content and most of the design on main local pages.
"Once pages are assembled, local editors and news editors will have final sign-off on each page before it is sent for printing," Simons said.
* The Herald is a part of APN News and Media, and the writer is a member of the journalists' union, the EPMU, which is opposing the move.
