Fairfax Media to Launch RugbyHeaven

MEDIA RELEASE

05 June, 2007

Fairfax Media to Launch RugbyHeaven

Fairfax Media is set to a create a dedicated rugby website with the launch of RugbyHeaven.co.nz next month.

The website will cover all aspects of the game, from in-depth game analysis through to opinion editorial, and will give die-hard rugby fans and enthusiasts the chance to participate in a full multi-media experience.

It will cover every aspect of the game in New Zealand.

In addition it will also keep fans abreast of results internationally, as well as putting a New Zealand perspective on developments and happenings.

“This country's passion for its national game deserves a dedicated rugby site,” says Bernard Hickey, Head of Digital for Fairfax Media.

“When launched, the site will give fans immediate updates of rugby from around the world, and we’re intent on making RugbyHeaven.co.nz New Zealand’s number one rugby website well before the start of the World Cup.”

Fairfax Media today takes a step closer to the launch of the site by announcing the appointment of leading rugby journalists Marc Hinton and Duncan Johnstone as co-editors of RugbyHeaven.co.nz. They will also write columns for the Sports section of the Sunday Star-Times.

Hinton and Johnstone have covered All Blacks rugby since the early 1990s and have between them been involved in reporting on four of the five previous Rugby World Cups.

Hinton is a former Qantas Award winner and has been twice named the New Zealand Sports Journalist of the Year. Johnstone authored Sean Fitzpatrick's best-selling biography Turning Point and is a host of the Press Box programme on Sky's Rugby Channel.

Both have worked for the Sunday Star-Times previously, Johnstone as sports editor and Hinton as the paper's senior rugby writer

They have successfully transferred their skills to the internet medium over the past four years running the NZRU’s official website, allblacks.com, and both currently write for YahooXtra.

"We enjoy the immediacy and multi-media approach that comes with producing rugby coverage for the web and see huge potential for development in this area," say the co-editors.

Peter O’Hara, Fairfax Media’s Chief Operating Officer, says the appointments will allow Fairfax to “take rugby journalism to new heights in a World Cup year”.

“RugbyHeaven, is already well entrenched in Australia, and has a strong New Zealand following.

“Co-editors Duncan Johnstone and Marc Hinton are outstanding journalists and have a high standing within the sport.

“They have the background and skill to make our site the world’s No1 Rugby website.”

ENDS

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