Woman's Day publisher touts McCaw wedding coverage with hefty copyright warning

Monday 16th January 2017

Woman's Day publisher Bauer Media spent as much space warning rival publishers from overstepping copyright bounds as it did hustling free publicity for its exclusive coverage of former All Black captain Richie McCaw's wedding with Black Stick Gemma Flynn over the weekend.

Bauer's 343-word media release carried a 340-word copyright notice, which it demanded be kept confidential, outlining the steps New Zealand's biggest magazine publisher would take to protect its "exclusive story about the wedding of Richie McCaw and Gemma Flynn".

While rival media are allowed to use an attached photo of the weekly magazine cover, Bauer warned the image wasn't to be "edited or cropped in any way and the masthead is not removed, obscured or otherwise rendered indistinct". The NZ publication hit North Island shelves today and will be available in the South Island tomorrow.

The approved Woman's Day image of McCaw and Flynn under the magazine's masthead is featuring prominently on the home pages of news organisations TVNZ, New Zealand Herald, and Newshub websites.

Bauer said it "will be vigilant in monitoring any republication of excerpts of this story and the accompanying photographs" and that if it believed those rights were had been infringed, "it may take any steps necessary to protect those rights, including issuing legal proceedings without further notice".

New Zealand Woman's Day had paid circulation of about 69,000 as at Sept. 30, 2016, the second most popular weekly magazine behind Fairfax Media's TV Guide, according to New Zealand Audit Bureau of Circulations figures.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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