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Hawke’s Bay
Changes are coming thick and fast at news website Scoop.
While former editor Alastair Thompson recently resigned to join Kim Dotcom’s political party – he is back at the news website but not as editor.
Mr Thompson has said in a statement he is committed to rejoining the effort at Scoop.
“It is now fully apparent to me that I had taken a wrong turning in my involvement with the Internet Party, especially given the fact that my life’s work has centred on Scoop.”
An announcement on a new editor for Scoop is expected within days.
Sublime Group – led by brothers Selwyn and Craig Pellett - now have a 60% majority stake in Scoop.
Mr Thompson’s family interests retain 20%, while the rest of the shareholdings in Scoop are split between several shareholders including journalists Gordon Campbell, Russell Brown and Patrick Smellie.
Sublime Group recently purchased NZX's NewsRoom service. Mr Pellett would not disclose how much was paid for the service, which NZX bought in 2007 for $1.18 million,
According to its website Sublime Group works in accounts payable and workflow automation.
NBR ONLINE understands the NZX newsroom service had fewer than 100 subscribers but the email automation software it uses is impressive.
Mr Pellett says the plan is to run NewsRoom and Scoop in parallel but there is an aspiration to introduce an improved technology platform.
He says the main attraction for buying NewsRoom and Scoop was not their impressive email platforms but to combine them into "something larger than the sum of their parts."
Victoria Young
Fri, 31 Jan 2014
Fri, 31 Jan 2014
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Thompson back at Scoop but not as editor
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