Scouts New Zealand taking legal advice over new gossip website

Scouting leaders in action. Photo / Supplied

Fears a new gossip website is being confused with Scouts New Zealand has prompted the youth movement to take legal advice.

Entertainment and celebrity news site Scout launched yesterday with an "exclusive" of radio host Mike Hosking vacuuming his car.

The gossip site's domain name of scout.co.nz has led to concerns from Scouts NZ that it is too similar to its long-established scouts.org.nz online portal.

The youth organisation has taken legal advice and posted messages on its website and social media, including Facebook and Twitter, distancing itself from the MediaWorks celebrity news venture.

"Clearly [the MediaWorks site] would have a different set of values to the values we would be espousing which is around having respect and doing what's right and being positive," Scouts NZ chief executive Niamh Lawless today.

Ms Lawless said she was made aware of MediaWorks' intentions last week.

There were "immediate concerns", she said, that the site could potentially breach the Act of Parliament which helped create Scouts New Zealand.

Two senior Scouts NZ officials met MediaWorks in Auckland last Thursday to raise their concerns.

Ms Lawless wouldn't reveal the outcome of those talks. But she admitted that after the meeting Scouts NZ "proceeded, and are continuing", to take legal advice.

"Our concern and reason for doing that is to look after our own brand," Ms Lawless said.

"Our view was that this unlaunched website, as it was at that stage, could misconstrue members of the public around the Scouting brand.

"We're concerned obviously about the brand reputation and risk of members of the public confusing the two sites."

Since the site, edited by former New Zealand Herald gossip columnist Rachel Glucina, went online yesterday, Scouts NZ said it has received "quite a lot of queries and concerns" from its members.

"We are reassuring our membership that we are taking the issue very seriously and acting on it," Ms Lawless said.

Asked if Scouts NZ would seek an injunction to stop MediaWorks from using the domain name, Ms Lawless would not comment.

She said she was working closely with her board to "actively manage the issue".

A notice published prominently on the Scouts NZ website stresses the gossip site is not "connected, associated, nor authorised in any way with our positive youth empowerment organisation".

"We wish to distance ourselves and our strong, established brand from that site; any perceived links between Scouts New Zealand and it are not accurate and should not be pursued."

It also tweeted: "Scouts New Zealand would like to clarify it is not connected or associated to the scout.co.nz website."

In a statement, a MediaWorks spokeswoman said there should be no confusion between the two brands.

"Scout is a brand name for one of our products. It is also a verb. There are a number of other organisations in NZ using Scout (or a derivative of that word) in similar circumstances.

"We consider our use of 'Scout' in our product name to be legal and there should be no confusion with the brand of Scouts Association of NZ."