In a recent interview with the Rugby website ESPN Scrum, Hansen acknowledged a problem in the way he dealt with media. Hansen told ESPN Scrum he still spoke regularly with Fraser.
The frog-to-prince transformation is a great advertisement for Fraser, who made his name in the 1970s as an expert in the long-form interview.
He was a controversial chief executive at TVNZ from 2002 - 2005, but fell out with the Labour Government.
Fraser has made no secret of his media-training business, but like others in the same line of work, he does not like to identify his customers.
There were rumours last year that Fraser had been engaged by Auckland mayor Len Brown to improve his image after the Bevan Chuang affair.
Brown's media image has not been transformed like Hansen's - but then, some might say every workman is limited by his raw material.
The look of love
People in the public relations world say that media training - which is part of their offering to business clients - is changing.
One long-established Auckland media training consultant, Greg Ward, believes the business has become focused more on video presentation skills rather than handling aggressive interviewing techniques.
A senior business communications executive at a major bank agreed with that analysis, saying that with fewer openings these days for hard-nosed interviews, media training focused more on broad advice about presentation.
Citizen's advice
The appointment of Amy Adams as Minister of Communications and Broadcasting was greeted positively in the media at the start of National's latest term.
She is ruthlessly efficient and political observers see her as a possible contender when National next looks for a new leader.
The role of Broadcasting Minister has been largely redundant during previous National terms because it had no broadcasting policy beyond ensuring in my view that Sky TV maintained its dominance - a policy shared with Labour. But it seems Sky no longer has most-favoured status.
The Government has issued a white paper which deals with the convergence of broadcasting and telecommunications, and is seeking feedback. The key aim will be that the highly regulated telecommunications industry should veer towards the largely unregulated broadcasting sector, rather than the other way around.
In telecommunications, she has taken steps to distance herself from David Ware, the head of mobile radio company TeamTalk, who is her brother-in-law.
Asked for comment, Adams said, "I meet with a range of stakeholders in regards to my portfolios but no particular company more than others. In respect of TeamTalk, I have transferred responsibility for them to another Minister due to a family conflict and have therefore not met with them since becoming Minister."
Digital days
The rapid progress towards the digital future continued apace on three fronts this week.
One was the launch of Scout, the gossip, showbusiness and promotional website co-owned by MediaWorks and Rachel Glucina.
As well, Television New Zealand launched its new short-form format, running items of three to five minutes through its OnDemand site, including branded content supplied by advertisers.
And NZME, publisher of the Herald, revealed proposals for a converged newsroom, encompassing print, digital and radio. The NZME announcement described a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week newsroom and a new management structure.
At TVNZ, sales and marketing boss Jeremy O'Brien unveiled the new initiative to develop short content for its OnDemand site, aimed especially at viewers using mobile phones. The content is focused on entertainment, not news, with a mix of branded and non-branded content.
