SYDNEY, Thursday: Curious Film has signed British comedy director Lucy Forbes to its roster for Australasia. Known for her witty perspective and snappy storytelling abilities, Forbes is one of the leading voices of the new generation of comedy directors in the UK.

AUCKLAND, Today: The latest Nielsen research was released at noon. The data arrived too late for a thorough analysis of everybody – so our report focuses on the detail (scroll down).

AUCKLAND, Today: The New Zealand Herald has seen an 8% increase year on year in readership to 453,000 print readers, with 806,000 print readers across a week, according to the latest Nielsen survey released this afternoon.

AUCKLAND, Wednesday: The winners of the 2018 Deloitte Top 200 awards have been crowned at Spark Arena in Auckland, acknowledged for their business excellence and noteworthy leadership across 10 award categories.

A number of readers – mainly Radio Live staffers and their associates – have sided with M+AD’s negative take on the Radio Live/Magic ‘merger’ (in reality, a miserable MediaWorks capitulation and closure).

AUCKLAND, Today: Māori Television has taken an innovative step forward by utilising an external production company’s new media team, together with the MTS internal team, to grow sales and content partnerships.

GREY LYNN, Wednesday: We’ve all seen those big, bold marriage proposals in movies: the couple are at a basketball game when the question appears on the big screen and the crowd cheers with joy.

Or maybe it’s written in the sky as a pair share a romantic picnic and a plane flies overhead, puffing a “Marry me Sharon” above the city.

SYDNEY, Today: Consumer insights outfits Fiftyfive5 and GalKal have announced a merger to create a larger independent consulting business – with an office in High St, Auckland.

AUCKLAND, Today: Not everybody is celebrating the merger of MediaWorks stations Radio Live and Magic. One insider has written to M+AD saying: “It’s not so much a merger – more of a closure of Live” (which is exactly the way M+AD ed David Gapes – an old radio hand – sees it).