Finalists for the NZ Voyager Newspaper of the year, just announced, include last year’s winner The Weekend Herald, as well as the Sunday Star Times, The Press, Otago Daily Times and The New Zealand Herald for newspapers with a 30,000+ circulation.

Adbreaks during sports events at the Commonwealth Games are now shorter than usual, and playing only in natural gaps, says TVNZ’s chief corporate comms GM Georgie Hills (not in a release, as you might expect, but in an interview with Sunday News reporter Kirsty Lawrence).

Y&R New Zealand Friday announced that CEO/CCO Josh Moore has resigned and “will leave the agency to pursue a new opportunity”.

The NZ radio sector is, not unreasonably, reminding ad & media professionals of the bleedin’ obvious – that radio has always enjoyed a very low level of ad avoidance compared to other media.

Australian start-up company Commtract, which markets itself as “the Uber of PR”, is launching in New Zealand, connecting organisations on both sides of the Tasman with its PR and communications professionals through an innovative online portal.

Auckland PR firm Thrive is managing the New Zealand end of a new global campaign for leading lingerie & underwear brand Triumph, which developed the creative in collaboration with international integrated communications agency VCCP London.

TVNZ has signed an exclusive partnership deal with Getty Images to license and distribute its news/doco/feature video clips around the world, bringing the broadcaster’s collection to a larger international market.

A Burger King campaign titled Backyard Burger King has won a place on the prestigious WARC 100 list which measures and awards the 100 most effective advertisements in the world each year.

NZ-based traceability company IDlocate has launched a traceability platform for start-up cosmetics brand New Zealand Secret.