KEY POINTS:
Sports monthly Player has shut-up shop for three months but owners at Armada Publishing insist it will be back on magazine shelves on July 1.
Armada co-owner Martin Mongan says the decision to not produce three issues after March does not signal that Player has dropped out of the magazine game.
Armada is writing to subscribers and advertisers this week to explain its plans to revamp Player and promises it will be back.
And it could well be better.
But most magazine makeovers are done without breaks to circulation.
And Armada - which is one of a few independents in an industry dominated by big companies Fairfax, ACP and APN - is taking the risk of alienating existing subscribers and advertisers.
It is - as they say in rugby league - "a big ask" to back the mag.
Mongan and another Queenstown businessman, James Boult, bought Player and golfing title The Cut magazine from Lisa Phelan's Max Publishing two years ago.
Mongan said when Armada bought in, the titles had been "stressed" and after improving The Cut it was now time to focus on Player.
He said Armada decided it was best to give staff the time to concentrate fully on the revamp rather than try to implement changes while producing the magazine each month.
There would be more staff and resources for Player not fewer, he said.
Mongan said Armada had hired market research company Yellow and advertising agency Colenso BBDO to examine the title and was looking at more lifestyle content.
Unlike most consumer magazines, Mongan says Player is not audited and does not take part in Nielsen Media Research readership surveys so it is hard to know how it is faring.
But the decision to shut-up shop for three months for a makeover follows soon after the launch of a new sports magazine - Sky Sport The Magazine - that is targeting the same readership as Player.
Sky Sport is a 50:50 joint venture between Fairfax Magazines and Sky Television and is edited by Eric Young, the news anchor for Prime Television.
And Young has a special interest in the sports magazine market having been a sports presenter in New Zealand and Australia .
He was also the founding editor of Player when it was started by Max Magazines in 2001.
He left after eight months but the early days of Player were good and it was named Qantas Magazine of the Year in 2003.
After a gap from sports, Young said he was relishing his return and being back in magazines.
Young confirmed that Sky Sport would be aiming at the same market as Player.
The connections with Sky Sport channel would be useful.
But he said that the magazine would be an old-fashioned sports magazine and would feature sports that were not covered by Sky.
Our man in Hollywood
The Weekend Herald ran a story this week about Economic Development Minister Trevor Mallard flying to Hollywood at taxpayer's expense to attend New Zealand's Academy Awards party - even though no New Zealanders or Kiwi films are in the running for an award. Mallard is not the only Government minister from around the world to latch limpet-like on to the movie biz - politicians love the photo opportunities. And given that this Government has laid out so much to bring Hollywood Down Under - its only to be expected they want something back.
No plans for privatised TVNZ
Halfway through a third term of Labour, many public relations companies will now be adjusting their thinking to the real prospect of a National-led Government. And with the latest speculation about privatisation of state owned enterprises there will inevitably be questions about TVNZ.
Admittedly, TVNZ is not a SOE but a Crown owned enterprise, but it should be ripe for the picking. Not so, says Jonathan Coleman, National's recently appointed broadcasting spokesman. He says there are no plans whatever for TVNZ to be privatised.
Oggi on board
The outdoor advertising industry has reined in maverick billboard operator Gordon Frykberg.
Frykberg's company Oggi has agreed to pull down signs cocking a snook at Auckland city councillors advocating a ban.
But he has not been silenced completely and is planning new signs about the plans that are expected to remove 430 billboards from the CBD.
Submissions close on Friday for the public to convince an Auckland City Council committee stacked with anti-billboard councillors to reconsider the proposed ban.
And the full council is expected to decide on the proposal in April.
Nine of the 14 councillors have yet to decide their stance and the ad industry led by the Outdoor Advertising Association of New Zealand needs to convince five of them to oppose it.
Oggi is not a member of OAANZ but if the Auckland ban goes ahead the ad industry is concerned that billboards will be killed as a national advertising medium.
The four Oggi billboards featuring the councillors and highlighting their role in a controversial council research trip to global hot spots was not helping their public softly-softly attempts to turn Auckland councillors against the ban.
Frykberg said last week that the industry had to use the advertising medium to get the message across.
It's not clear whether public opinion will have a major role - it could just be down to politics.
Mayor Dick Hubbard needs business backing in the next election so will he risk alienating the business community by backing the ban? There just seems to be too few pro-business councillors on the Auckland City Council.
Councillor Vern Walsh, who featured in a cheeky Oggi billboard, had said that if he were not convinced to back the ban before the ad campaign, he was now.
Amid concern that the unsanctioned Oggi campaign would put councillors backs up, OAANZ issued a press release last week in which Frykberg confirmed he wanted to work with the rest of the industry. He said that the billboards were not personal and he was moving on. New ads on vacant sites would focus on the "absurdity" of the ban and its effects rather than at individual councillors.
But the Oggi campaign will be a reminder about the hazards for councillors promoting a ban and facing an election later this year. The proposed ban would not be implemented for 12 to 18 months.
