Newstalk ZB's Northland journalists join Northern Advocate news meetings and the Northland NZME. team of advertising account managers is now able to work across the range of media on offer.
Publishing general manager Greg Alexander takes on an expanded role, and is now responsible for the region's radio operations as well.
Entertainment
"NZME. is saying we are NZ Media and Entertainment and this is our collective strength," he said.
"Both our radio and publishing brands are strong individually but together our audience share in the marketplace is massive.
"Across Northland we reach 94 per cent of Northlanders through our digital, print and radio assets so the company said it's logical to try to leverage on those strengths as one. It was better to have one centralised place of doing business so we can create better outcomes for our clients and come up with more tailored solutions based on our stable of assets," he said.
Instead of focusing on which media they wanted to use, advertising clients could decide they wanted to target a particular demographic. The NZME. team would then provide a plan showing how various media could be used to best reach those people, he said.
The brands Northlanders are familiar with won't change. They will still read the Northern Advocate, listen to Newstalk ZB and shop on Grabone.
Radio regional sales manager Mandie Skipps has been promoted to a group role, as commercial programme development manager.
She devises advertising packages based on target audiences throughout the country, but remains based in Whangarei.
"If you're targeting motoring, I've got to work out what stations [relevant consumers are] listening to, what they are reading across the country, so I can create advertising packages. And looking at our long-term business how can we make these products even better by providing a bigger audience," she said.
Cross-media
Ms Skipps said radio and publishing teams had been working closely together in Northland for the past 18 months. A range of cross-media packages she developed and trialled had been successful.
Mr Alexander said her success locally had "created an opportunity for her to work across the whole country".
Roi Smith-Iri will work as team leader for radio in Northland. Jan Hewitt and Chris Tansley continue as sales managers for publishing. Hayley Copsey heads up NZME.'s events arm locally.
Mr Alexander said having one general manager across radio and publishing made sense. "It was a logical step, after Mandie's promotion."
He said the combined weight of the new NZME. operation would be a powerful force in the Northland media market.
"As the biggest creators of locally produced news, sport and entertainment in Northland, we're uniquely positioned to deliver innovative solutions advertisers need to connect with their audiences so they can better market their brands, products and services. Over the coming weeks and months, Northland will be introduced to many more excited integrated offers and benefits."
He said more account managers would likely be added to the Whangarei team and they would be upskilled to help them understand the full range of assets that was now available to them.
"They'll be learning about the other products, the strengths and how they can multilayer their clients' campaigns. Rather than being radiocentric, the radio guys, they can actually now look at the audience they can reach with print and radio," Ms Skipps said.
Nationwide, every week NZME.'s brands reach more than 2.9 million Kiwis. News content reaches 2.2 million Kiwis every month and sport and entertainment content reaches 1.1 million and 2.7 million Kiwis respectively. With audiences of this scale, NZME. is able to connect advertisers with consumers across all platforms.
