NZ’s largest business publishing unit opens

Media Release                                                                      5 December 2008

New Zealand’s largest business publishing unit opens for business

This week, Fairfax Business Publishing (FBP) was formally established to create New Zealand’s largest business publishing unit, encompassing The Independent, PC World, Computerworld, CIO, Reseller News, Unlimited magazine and youth publication Actv8.

Newly appointed FBP general manager Julie Gill, formerly the owner of Infego Communication (publisher of Unlimited and Actv8), says the new Fairfax business publishing unit has a unique opportunity to expand its reach, cross sell between titles and continue to enhance the credibility and quality of its mastheads.

“We’re now in a position to provide the most comprehensive business and IT media in the country across multiple platforms,” she said.

“We are also investing a significant amount of energy and resource into the business, particularly in terms of our online strategy. Our titles are already performing exceedingly well in this growth area.”

CIO, Computerworld, Unlimited and Reseller are among the top 10 ten sites for browsers in the high income category, according to the latest Nielsen ratings*.

The merger has resulted in some operational changes including changes to the frequency of Computerworld, which will become a fortnightly publication in 2009, and CIO, which will become bi-monthly.

“We’re keen to focus on quality rather than quantity and took into consideration the changing media habits of our readers. As a competitive business operating in an increasingly challenging economic environment, it’s vital that we retain the profitability of the division,” says Ms Gill.

Inevitably, when three separate businesses are brought together, there had to be some redundancies, however Fairfax Media has retained 26 of New Zealand’s most talented business and IT journalists, design and services staff.

Paul Thompson, Fairfax Media Group Executive Editor, said he was personally looking forward to working with the new members of the Fairfax team.

“We’re really pleased both with the new titles and the staff who are joining the Fairfax family. We now have a stellar line up of business and IT journalists, who will bolster the existing talent on our publications such as The Independent. This is great news for our readers.”

The new division will move to the Fairfax Magazines Building in Auckland’s Eden Terrace in January.

*Source: Nielsen online market intelligence, October 2008

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