Selected speakers at Bank of New Zealand Freelance 2008

		John Cranna was managing editor of AA Directions magazine from 2000 to 2006. One of his first steps was to increase the rates for freelancers to the highest in New Zealand, and he attributes much of the 40% readership growth (from 5th to 1st in NZ) to this initiative. 'Paying your writers top rates is the smartest thing you can do as a magazine editor,' he says. 'They more than repay the trust.' During this time, net advertising revenue nearly doubled to $1.3 million pa, which also reflected the increase in quality of the magazine. The NBR noted: "There's been an amazing transformation in AA Directions magazine. It's quite extraordinary in NZ media history." John has worked as a caretaker, rent collector, media and publications manager at the Human Rights Commission. He has also worked as communications manager at Hesketh Henry lawyers, and as a lecturer in the AUT journalism school. He has published three books, is the winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book and the NZ Book Award for Fiction. He is a former Chair of the Auckland Society of Authors and is currently the Director of the newly launched Centre for Modern Writing at AUT University, a graduate school for fiction writers. He is a fanatical tango dancer and sails a Paper Tiger cat on the Manukau Harbour.

		Virginia Larson, editor of North & South, has a long – for journalism – history with the magazine, having started as a subeditor in 1992 and worked thereafter as a staff writer, senior writer and deputy editor. Her journalism career prior to North & South is as chequered as the past 15 years have been stable, however. She began her career in magazines, first as a staff writer for the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly, then as a feature writer on Cleo in Sydney, where the editor also unwisely set her loose on the beauty and home pages. She lived in Los Angeles for four years from the late 1980s, where she was West Coast correspondent for the London Daily Mail, a stringer for a tacky but harmless US tabloid The National Examiner and an occasional Hollywood reporter for an Australian radio station. Back in New Zealand in 1992, she switched to current affairs, with some award-winning results and much satisfaction.

		Brenda Ward is the editor of Next magazine. Brenda started her career as a fire engine-chasing reporter in newspapers in New Zealand then moved to Britain where she covered major stories for papers in Leicester and London. Back in New Zealand, she was chief reporter of the Auckland Star, before moving into magazines, leaping on to what she describes as the ‘weekly magazine treadmill’ as editor of New Idea. She helped launch Grace, the NZ Herald Canvas magazine and the Sunday Star Times’ magazine, Sunday, and then was lured to ACP Magazines, to edit Your Home & Garden. In 2006 Brenda was the MPA Editor of the Year, Home & Food, and YH&G was joint winner of the Launch/Relaunch of the Year. She took over the helm at Next earlier this year.

		Nicky Hager is a researcher, author and, since 2002, New Zealand  representative of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. He also lectures on journalism. He has written four bestselling books. The first documented New Zealand's part in the US intelligence network, including exposing a world-wide intelligence system called Echelon. The second on public relations, co-authored with Bob Burton, exposed an unscrupulous anti-environmental PR campaign run on behalf of a state logging company; and the third investigated New Zealand Labour Government political management of the genetic engineering issue. The most recent is The Hollow Men, an in-depth look at the New Zealand National Party between 2003 and 2006.