KEY POINTS:
MediaWorks chief executive Brent Impey - whom Metro magazine recently named one of Auckland's toughest bastards - is taking a more hands-on role running TV3 and C4.
The longtime radio man told the Business Herald that the radio operation headed by Sussan Turner - including RadioLive, The Edge,
The Rock and MoreFM - was operating well.
He would be able to fill the gap left by MediaWorks television boss Rick Friesen moving to new duties and focus more of his attention on the TV business.
As well as the day-to-day role Impey will still be chief executive of the broadcast group which is owned by Australian private equity company Ironbridge.
Friesen - who has headed MediaWorks television for eight years - is to take a new "special projects" job preparing two new MediaWorks digital channels on Freeview to launch in April 2009 and 2010.
He will also spend half his time as chief executive of the Television Broadcasters Council lobbying politicians for the free to air TV sector.
The change comes as free-to-air broadcasters TVNZ and MediaWorks have been calling for more controls to cap the growth of Sky Television.
Impey insists the media market is doing okay, despite a slowing economy.
But clearly the business is in a period of rapid change.
New weekly
ACP Magazines says it will be happy if its new weekly title Lucky Break starts out with 35,000 sales, around 10,000 fewer than Pacific Magazines' established rival That's Life.
ACP launched the new title with a cover price of $1.50 yesterday.
ACP Magazines Group publisher Debra Millar said the mix of real life stories, puzzles and prizes would be in the same market as That's Life. But the Pacific Magazines title is based in Australia. Lucky Break has ties to ACP Australia's Take 5 but with four staff based here, Millar said.
Lucky Break will be edited by former Woman's Day editor-in-chief Megan McChesney. It will be printed by PMP but Lucky Break will use fluoro print with super bright colours.
Marketing slush fund
National's secrecy over its use of marketing and media consultants is going to hurt it, mark my words.
Last week the Sunday Star-Times and activist journalist Nicky Hager produced a breathless article warning that the party had fallen into a dark bind with political consultants Crosby Textor.
National Radio's Kathryn Ryan calmed Hager down in an interview this week, but the National Party's media advisers were in dreamland, neither confirming nor denying it was using the firm.
The secrecy is endemic. This week despite Labour naming some but not all of its consultants, National refused to name who would be working on its election campaign, alleging that should Labour win the election they would be vindictive and not assign government work. What is more certain is the impression that the Nats have something to hide.
The Business Herald sought confirmation that John Key's media training was being handled by Deadline, whose directors included journalist Janet Wilson and Bill Ralston. National confirmed that the media training budget was paid for by taxpayers from the leader's budget, but would not say who got the money or how much.
A Parliamentary Service spokesman said the budget has to be spent on party parliamentary business, but declined to say what it could be spent on. Funding in the last Budget gave National the biggest allocation of $6.9 million, with Labour slightly less at $5.4 million because ministers get other allocations, NZ First $927,000, Greens $864,000, Maori Party $703,000 and United Future $314,000.
Which is a reasonable amount of money for what could be a nice marketing budget slush fund.
Love-hate relationship
Advertisers have an upbeat take on their recent survey that shows nearly a quarter of consumers either hate advertising or avoid it. The Association of New Zealand Advertisers yesterday released its survey by AC Nielsen about consumer views of advertisers.
ANZA noted that "despite the view promoted by some" only a small portion of people (8 per cent) hated advertising, while 18 per cent did not mind it at all.
Headline figures will be welcomed by the media sector as it faces huge challenges from digitisation and new competition from social networking website such as Bebo and Facebook. Details provide a more nuanced result.
Of the 8 per cent of people who actively hate advertising 47 per cent are aged over 50 and 58 per cent are male. The ad haters were particularly resistant to direct mail and very unlikely to remember outdoor advertising.
"There is a sense that some in this group are slightly disgruntled with their lives, the survey found. Another 15 per cent are advertising "avoiders' who hold traditional values and think the technology is moving too fast.
At the other end of the spectrum are people who love advertising, 22 per cent in the 15-24 age group. Ad lovers were more likely to be female, saw and liked outdoor advertising and saw themselves as similar to people in magazines.
Monkey business
Cadbury has enjoyed a good reaction to their commercial featuring a Phil Collins 1980 hit In the Air Tonight, which was also a hit in the UK when it screened last year. And for those who wondered - No, it is not played by Phil Collins in a gorilla suit.
The Daily Mail in Britain noted the part of the gorilla is played by a little known but rather handsome actor named Garon Michael.
Kiwi-philia
Veteran adman David Walden is unimpressed by the branding for the newly nationalised Tranzrail operation as KiwiRail.
"Kiwiburger, Kiwibank, KiwiSaver and now KiwiRail - does everything that has a nationalised aspect to its branding have to be a kiwi.
Walden, who is is head of the advertising agency TBWA Whybin, said he came up with a spur of the moment alternative which we thought was not bad - Aotea-rail.
