KEY POINTS:
The editor of the Sunday Star Times' Sunday liftout, Emily Simpson, is said to be devastated after a negotiated settlement that she leave the glossy title.
The parting follows two controversial interventions by Fairfax management in Sunday this year.
The first was in March when Fairfax paid tens
of thousands of dollars hiring people to remove four pages of Sunday because of sexual content in an editorial.
The approach - removing offensive content - drew widespread support among those who had seen the material.
The second incident concerned the issue marking Breast Cancer Awareness Week on October 7, which included associated advertising content.
Fairfax pulped an entire edition - at a cost believed to be $70,000 - saying it included an inappropriate front cover featuring sunbeds and a girl in a bikini.
But an insider said disagreements between Simpson and Fairfax over that matter were more complex.
The insider suggested Simpson's departure was due to tensions between the roles of advertising and editorial content at Sunday.
That view was rejected by group executive editor Paul Thompson. He declined to go into detail about the background to Simpson's departure but insisted that was not the case and editors maintained strong control over editorial content. It's not clear whether the first incident affected Fairfax's approach to the second.
The insider said that Simpson - who is the partner of Sunday columnist Steve Braunias - had objected to advertising involvement in the editorial decisions in the Breast Cancer issue.
Officially Sunday is a part of the magazines division.
But the Sunday Star Times editor at the time, Cate Brett, and deputy editor Donna Chisholm had supported Simpson, the insider said.
Brett had previously resigned to take a role with the Law Commission and Chisholm resigned about the same time for a new role at ACP Magazines.
An insider said the Sunday Star Times newspaper still maintained a strong separation, but Fairfax advertising maintained a greater role in the Sunday liftout.
CHURCH & STATE
This column has pointed out in the past the number of plugs that appear in the Sunday magazine "Going Up Going Down" column for commercial products.
But Thompson repeated his assurance that advertisers could not buy space in the column - which amounts to a "what's hot, what's not" list.
Use of advertorial and arranged content can be a vexed issue with all media keeping advertising and editorial distinct - a policy known euphemistically as the separation of "church and state"- and there are some advertisers who would like to see looser rules.
Newspapers have been obliged to maintain the longest arm's length relationship between advertiser and editorial - arguably more than magazines. Now advertisers are keen to stand out and some would like to blur the lines between advertising and editorial content for the obvious reason that editorial has extra credibility.
With the tough times times ahead media companies have to weigh up demand for innovative advertising while maintaining the integrity of their brands.
Based on figures supplied by Fairfax there are no signs that the Sunday brand has been hurt yet.
EXPERIMENT ENDS
Fairfax Magazines has abandoned its structure of high-profile titles Cuisine and NZ House & Garden without dedicated editors.
Fairfax made former Cuisine editor Simon Wilson redundant in November 2006. This week it appointed a new editor, Eric Matthews, who will bring a different flavour to its award-winning food magazine. He starts in May.
Fairfax is advertising for a new editor of House & Garden.
Fairfax announced this week that Michal McKay, who has been leading both Cuisine and House & Garden as editorial director, is leaving Fairfax at the end of March 2009.
She is to become a consultant.
WEIGHTY READ
Air New Zealand is taking its in-flight magazine Kia Ora off its international flights, in part because it is too weighty. Not weighty in an intellectual sense, but because of the cost of carting them around the world. The move is part of a bid to reduce emissions. The magazine, which is produced by ACP, will stay on domestic services and has been rejigged with a domestic focus.
It will go from 60,000 issues to 40,000. The change is part of a revamp of back-of-seat entertainment resources and will take effect from March next year.
WORLDS COLLIDE?
Warehouse Group controlling shareholder Stephen Tindall has seen hundreds of millions of dollars disappear from the value of his 50 per cent stake since the takeover plays fell over and the retailer became victim, like all other stocks, to the global downturn. He looked relaxed and affable as ever last week at the Warehouse annual general meeting, chatting with shareholders. Which only exaggerates what one observer noted was a disturbing
similarity between Tindall and the dyspeptic American comedian Larry David, the star of television's Curb Your Enthusiasm, co-creator of the classic TV series Seinfeld and the template for Jerry's terminally irritable buddy George Costanza.
STEINKE EXITS
Former APN New Zealand chief executive Ken Steinke has stepped down from his CEO role at West Australian Newspapers after a WAN boardroom putsch by Australian media magnate Kerry Stokes.
Stokes' Seven Network has taken a 22.3 per cent share and Steinke - who a Sydney Morning Herald report said helped resist the boardroom play - has left along with some directors. Stokes' Seven Network, by the way, is part of a joint venture with Telecom in Yahoo!Xtra.
The changes in Perth are part of a wider shakedown in Australasian media and of course the global financial crisis and massive changes in people's media habits.
This column has suggested in the past West Australian Newspapers or Stokes' Seven Network might be potential buyers for Independent News & Media's 39 per cent stake in APN News & Media (publisher of the Herald) or some of its assets, if it came to a break-up of the company. If it were interested, then Steinke - with a first-hand understanding of APN New Zealand - would have been useful.
FULL BACKING
Radio New Zealand board of governors chairman Christine Grice has given her full backing - and the backing of the Government-appointed RNZ board of governors - to RNZ management after its handling of Noelle McCarthy's plagiarism.
The Business Herald asked Grice if the handling of the admitted plagiarism had damaged the brand of Radio New Zealand. RNZ sings the glories of "the most public and transparent editorial policies and operational processes of any broadcaster in New Zealand".
Grice said: "The importance of Radio New Zealand's high editorial standards has been upheld and further reinforced, through its handling of the matter."
This column has questioned RNZ's processes including head of networks manager John Howson urging staff to quell unspecified rumours about McCarthy he said were "100 per cent wrong". Radio New Zealand, by the way, has said that up to December 3 it had logged 13 emails and five phone calls with concerns about "Noelle's failure to adequately attribute essay material".
An interesting point. Because there are no official broadcasting standards for plagiarism - it is viewed as being up to the broadcaster - the callers will not have the option of taking any concerns about Radio New Zealand's handling of their complaint to the Broadcasting Standards Authority.
Grice thought it was fine there was no apology to listeners, and that it was acknowledged in an unsigned statement. Grice may be right. But with that approach it will be hard to argue that RNZ took the matter very seriously and it will be harder for it to take the high ground.
EURO-NEWS
Live TV3 first and second-night coverage of the Air New Zealand crash at Perpignan in the South of France was far better than One News' with the TVNZ team unable to get live coverage for more than 48 hours.
Apparently there was trouble locating an outside broadcast truck to feed the satellite images. One newsman half seriously wondered whether the TVNZ crew should have called in help from its head of news and current affairs, Anthony Flannery, who had ended a round-the-world trip with a newsmen's conference in Valencia, in nearby Spain. Which is unrealistic. The conference would have been well and truly over by then.
