Media: Analyst at odds with boss after blasting buy

Mark Weldon says he is disappointed in Alan Robb's stance. Photo / Mark Mitchell

A business analyst critical of the NZ Stock Exchange says NZX's purchase of Country-Wide Publications will stifle information to farmers and the quality of the publications.

Alan Robb is a business commentator, specialist analyst on co-operatives and a 30-year veteran of the University of Canterbury accountancy school.

He has written vigorous articles about the NZX in Country-Wide titles such as NZ Farmers Weekly and the newly acquired NZ Dairy Exporter.

He said that NZX chief executive Mark Weldon perceived an anti-business bias in media. Robb said Weldon would clearly regard him as negative and in some circumstances some editors would now be loath to use him.

He said he found out only this week about Max Bowden's complaint to the Commerce Commission that NZX's purchase of Country-Wide is a breach of the Fair Trading Act, and was prepared to support him.

Salesman Dean Williamson and editorial director Tony Leggett bought Country-Wide in 1997 and it is seen as successful and independent.

Leggett said NZX would play no part in the editorial aspects of the business.

He stood by the Country-Wide reputation which he said had not changed. Farmers were smart and would recognise if content changed, he said.

But like Bowden - the publisher of the Trans Tasman newsletter - Robb is wary of the NZX interest in media.

The NZX is also involved in a joint venture with Fairfax which produces business news items on the NZX website.

'WHOM WE NOW PAY'

On Wednesday the Business Herald columnist Fran O'Sullivan and Fairfax's Business Day columnist Bruce McKay both questioned the Country-Wide purchase and interest in media.

O'Sullivan asked Weldon if the NZX would protect the editorial integrity of publications.

"The answer to that is, without question, yes," said Weldon.

"There is, I have to say, a fair degree of disappointment from myself and internally that we've got this person Alan Robb whom we now pay who apparently has issues with presuming what our level of integrity about editorial is."

Robb said that Weldon's comments were strange and signalled issues ahead.

Robb has been sceptical about NZX's treatment of Fonterra accounts and the "spin" from Fonterra's public relations agency Baldwin Boyle.

He believes Fonterra chairman Henry van der Heyden should not be on the board of directors of the NZX. Stocks Takes looks at the competition issues of the Country-Wide purchase on page 9.

HANDSOME AND HOT

Online media such as Stuff and nzherald.co.nz tend to sit on the tabloid side of their traditional media outlets.

But Fairfax's Stuff is treading new ground in inviting its business-section readers to vote for New Zealand's handsomest businessmen and "hottest" businesswomen.

In case you are confused, "hot" in Business Day does not mean bound for success or prone to wearing woolly coats indoors.

It is no secret that words like "sexy", "stripper" or "nude" attract the hit rates for news websites, and papers' hard-copy branding does not transfer directly to online sites.

Even the conservative Sydney Morning Herald site gets racy online. The "handsome and hot" polls seemed a bit old-fashioned but got a lot of feedback.

"Here at Business Day we take business very seriously. But as the recession rolls on and with unemployment tipped to top 120,000 this week, we feel there's room for a little fun as well," Stuff says.

One respondent noted: "The women on your list aren't stunning but do have an earthy charm about them. It is this I think which characterises the typical NZ woman."

One online insider said saucy headlines were a common way of increasing hits but was surprised by the use of the Business Day brand. However, online readers were typically younger and would read business coverage online.

News websites were also becoming popular with workers as employers limited the number of sites such as Trade Me or MySpace that viewers could use.

TORRID TIMES

Fairfax Media NZ chief executive Joan Withers has no problem with the polls and the distinction between handsome men and hot women. "If someone called me hot I'd be ecstatic," said Withers. "I think in these torrid times it is a bit of fun - we need a bit of light relief and [most business people] I know are numb from the neck down so I hope they enjoyed it the way that I enjoyed it."

Withers steps down on June 30.

CHANGE OF SEASON

TVNZ chief executive Rick Ellis and Bill Ralston were among the movers and hand-shakers at the NZ On Air annual Auckland get-together recently.

A naive soul might imagine a frosty reception when they crossed paths - after all Ellis dumped Ralston as head of news and current affairs when he came back.

But Ralston is not one to hold a grudge.

Neither was the chatty chief executive of state TV that night. He cheerfully lamented to Ralston - who has reinvented himself as a slightly right-of-centre political commentator - that he would be a welcome sight back on air.

Ellis suggested he might turn up now and again as a panelist on Russell Brown's TVNZ 7 programme Media 7.

INTO THE MATRIX

TVNZ says it is on track to complete its 3 per cent, $25 million budget cuts which will remove 88 staff from the payroll.

Insiders say that while new digital media operations have been spared in the cutbacks, the presenter for the digital TVNZ 7 channel's News At Eight, Geraline Knox, has left the building.

At the risk of appearing ethnophobic, as a regular News At Eight viewer I confess I never warmed to her strong accent, which made for difficult listening.

Anyway, Knox is apparently a trained lawyer and will not go hungry. In a farewell note to staff she pondered her next role. "Do you think they're doing another Matrix sequel? I could be Trinity's oriental Kick Ass tough-talking chick Sistah," said the departing newsreader.

MEDIA CUTBACK

About 10 roles are under review at APN News & Media's advertising sales department as the advertising downturn continues to hit media company revenues.

The cutbacks coincide with the receiver for trade magazine 3media scrapping 13 editorial jobs. And Fairfax Sundays is making big changes to the Sunday News, scrapping 10 jobs across it and the Sunday Star-Times. No names yet but long-time business writer Garry Sheeran and illustrations editor Neville Marriner are believed to have been in discussions.

ON FILM ON SALE

Among the 3media titles up for grabs is On Film, for a long time owned by film and television industry players.

The magazine has had just three appointed editors. Sue May held the job from 1983 to 1989. Rachel Lang - who went on to become a co-writer for South Pacific Pictures and for its hit Outrageous Fortune - held the fort for a short period till she was replaced by pirate radio pioneer David Gapes from 1990 to 2000 when he moved on to edit Ad Media.

The incumbent, Nick Grant - the son of writer-publisher Ian F. Grant - took over then.

Like all trade magazines it survives on a limited pool of advertisers, but I have a soft spot for the title. It has always tried hard to play with the big boys. A big part of its financial viability is linked to the Data Book directory, which gives contacts for productions filming in New Zealand.