The Fold

Could live events be the TV commercials of the future? Spark thinks so

02 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Matt Bain spent a career working across prestige brands in digital contexts before returning to New Zealand to become Data and Marketing Director (CMO...

What the hell happened to traffic? + Stuff's pivots and RNZ's regrets

30 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Anna Rawhiti-Connell is head of audience for The Spinoff, but spent most of the last decade working in social media for BNZ and the Auckland Theatre C...

Have advertisers forgotten how to build brands?

25 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

James Hurman is a globally recognised expert in advertising effectiveness – and believes many businesses have become transfixed by generating presen...

More cuts at TVNZ, more growth at RNZ – is the future a news merger?

23 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Glen Kyne returns to join host Duncan Greive to discuss a pair of different stories which seem to head to the same conclusion. The first is Shayne Cur...

The man in charge of an era-defining rugby rights negotiation

18 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Craig Fenton has been boss of NZ Rugby Commercial for a little over six months, but is already in the midst of a crucial deal, one which will shape no...

Assessing two tough years in screen production and news, and Australian media follows NZ media into a hole

16 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tamar Münch joins Duncan Greive to discuss the challenges facing screen and news media – and how they intertwine. They also discuss the resignation...

Did Spark win its big gaming event? Plus Nielsen drama between Stuff and the NZ Herald

09 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Duncan Greive has a solo podcast this week, talking about the debut of Spark Game Arena Live, a huge new event at Spark Arena. He looks at the upside ...

NZME and TVNZ’s contrasting fortunes and the global challenges of public radio

02 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

One eked out a flat result, the other had a giant loss. Toby Manhire and Duncan Greive discuss what that says about their revenue models. They also di...

Spotify's data alchemist explains the mysteries of music streaming

28 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Glenn McDonald spent over a decade with a very mysterious and specific job title: data alchemist at Spotify. It's possible – even likely – that no...

NZ on Air's Where are the Audiences 2024 special: legacy media strikes back

26 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The 2024 edition of NZ on Air's Where are the Audiences is a bombshell - largely because so little has changed. The past decade has been characterised...

A new documentary on the national rugby team due its own breakout era

21 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The All Blacks were early on the sports doc series train – but the result was widely panned, due to a sense the subjects weren't willing to really o...

Stuff's CEO is gone, TVNZ eyes a paywall and sports, and the moral complexity of the surging TAB

19 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Duncan Greive and Glen Kyne discuss the bombshell announcement that Laura Maxwell is leaving Stuff, with owner Sinead Boucher to take over in the inte...

Is the Film Commission / NZ on Air merger now inevitable? Plus a meltdown in pay TV – and an intriguing NZME-Sky tie-up

12 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Glen Kyne joins Duncan Greive to discuss the appointment of Graeme Mason to chair the NZ Film Commission board. The former Screen Australia boss seems...

How NZ film's b-grade outlaw king ended up making one for the whole family

07 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ant Timpson has spent much of his life at war with the establishment. With ventures like the Incredibly Strange Film Festival and 48 Hours, he courted...

Netflix is in a category of one, ThreeNews wobbles and the NZ Herald holds the centre

05 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Glen Kyne joins Duncan Greive to discuss earnings season in big tech media, with particularly noteworthy results for Meta and Netflix. Locally 1News h...

NEW FORMAT: NZ media news and analysis – with Glen Kyne

29 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Duncan Greive is joined by recently-departed WBD leader Glen Kyne to pilot a brand new format for The Fold. It features Duncan and Glen analysing new ...

Who starts a print magazine during a pandemic?

21 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jenn Cheuk is the founder and editor-in-chief of Rat World, "a magazine for the underground" she publishes in Tāmaki Makaurau. Now up to issue seven,...

Behind The Story: Reporting on the news within the news

07 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Spinoff founder Duncan Greive has been writing regularly this year on business, politics and pop culture. But his slightly more niche area of interest...

One final Newshub bulletin for Sam Hayes and Mike McRoberts

04 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Today marks the end of Newshub, an organisation which has been around for 35 years, and has a strong case as the most original and idiosyncratic newsr...

A strange trip through the end of Newshub and the beginning of crypto gaming

30 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Hal Crawford ran Newshub through a crucial era – but has traveled a strange path since. He joins Duncan Greive to discuss the unique personality of ...

A powerhouse of NZ film and TV on why the hits are drying up

23 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As founder of South Pacific Pictures, John Barnett has played a crucial role in the development of screen productions as varied as Shortland St, Whale...

Toby Manhire on the making of Juggernaut and what we know about Stuff's Three News

16 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Duncan Greive hosts his friend and colleague Toby Manhire on The Fold, to discuss the back-breaking process of making Juggernaut, his new podcast cove...

Listen Now: episode one of Juggernaut – I Love You, Mr Lange

16 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We thought you might like a wee taster of our brand new #1 series, Juggernaut: The Story of the Fourth Labour Government, hosted by Toby Manhire. Clic...

A South Auckland news junkie on the end of Newshub and a new era at the Pacific Media Network

09 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

William Terite has been fascinated by the news since Barbara Dreaver showed up at his primary school. He started working at Newstalk ZB at 17, and got...

10 years of seismic shifts in public relations

02 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Chris Henry founded 818 publicity a couple of months before The Spinoff, in June of 2014. He joins Duncan Greive on The Fold to reflect on a radically...

A tumultuous year in the life of Shit You Should Care About

26 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

SYSCA founder Lucy Blakiston returns to the Fold for the first time in a while to talk through a truly singular year. Her business pivoted to being wh...

What does a near-complete survey of podcasting in New Zealand tell us?

19 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Lewis Tennant is an energetic guy – an ex-radio presenter who got curious about podcasting about the same time we all did. But instead of stopping a...

The drums are beating for a big tech levy for NZ – how would it work?

12 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

There's a brand new media minister confronting a longstanding problem: how to handle the relationship between big tech and local media. Former NZ Hera...

Meta might turn off news in Australia. Here's how one publisher is responding

05 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Sam Koslowski has news in his blood – his father was a senior journalist and he's been in the business for 12 years despite not yet hitting 30. He c...

Introducing Behind the Story: If you love a dog, you must also love disposing of its sh*t

03 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Spinoff has just launched a brand new series called Behind the Story, where site editor Madeleine Chapman sits down with a staff writer or contrib...

The brief, inglorious reign of Melissa Lee - and how a more powerful minister might change NZ’s media

28 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

After a series of scattered media appearances, and a concerning lack of any real plan to respond to the collapses in news media, Melissa Lee has been ...

How the Stuff deal shuffles the NZ media deck

21 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Just six days after WBD confirmed the end of Newshub, news broke that Stuff would take over delivery of the 6pm bulletin from July 6th. It's a huge de...

How Madison Reidy built a YouTube smash for the NZ Herald

14 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It's been a bleak start to the year for journalism – but it's worth dwelling on where growth and innovation is still happening. Madison Reidy is jus...

Another dark day for NZ media, and the plan? Nothing.

10 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Over the last 30 hours TVNZ and Warner Bros. Discovery have confirmed the closure of some of our most significant news and current affairs programming...

Is what's happening to news all advertisers' fault?

07 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

There's an idea so pervasive that it almost doesn't get questioned in media: that media agencies – the people who place ads on behalf of most big ad...

After a lifetime on stages and screens, a new Mountain

31 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Rachel House might be just shy of a household name, but is definitely one of our most acclaimed and accomplished actresses, with key roles on what amo...

The startup helping small media get a bigger share of advertising spend

24 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jane Ormsby's Scroll Media is a technology and sales solution for smaller publishers which often miss out on the huge advertising spends which go main...

The NZ film legends behind Once Were Warriors and The Convert

17 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The creative relationship between director Lee Tamahori and producer Robin Scholes spans 30 years, including heavyweight features such as Once Were Wa...

How big data and AI are transforming out-of-home – and advertising

10 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

David Owen, Research and Insights director at nationwide out-of-home media group oOh!media and Tori Colebourne, CMO at Black Pearl Group, an NZX liste...

On the redundancies at TVNZ, and the awful end of Sunday and Fair Go

07 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Duncan addresses the shock news out of TVNZ, that current affairs powerhouse Sunday, Fair Go and two news bulletins are ending, with grave fears for R...

There's more Bad News from Leon Wadham

03 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Duncan Greive sits down with the director of Alice Snedden's Bad News, Leon Wadham, to talk about his career on stage and screen, on both sides of the...

Deep inside the past, present and possible futures of Newshub and Three

29 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Duncan Greive is joined by Newsroom co-editor and former Three head of news Mark Jennings for a deep and urgent dive into what just happened at Three,...

On the sudden, shocking end to Newshub and Three as we know it

28 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Duncan Greive jumps on the mic to offer an immediate analysis of this morning's devastating news regarding the future of Three, which signalled that N...

The quiet genius who connects Havoc and Jeremy Wells to Neighbours at War

25 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Bill Kerton's career began 40 years ago, at the very dawn of New Zealand commercial radio. Since then he has played crucial roles at peak bFM, introdu...

How an anonymous Substacker rose to oversee the online future of Newstalk ZB

18 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Philip Crump is a lawyer by trade, who returned to Aotearoa during the pandemic. He found the media environment much more homogenous than the one he l...

How to sell red meat in the age of climate change

14 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Duncan Greive is joined by Kit Arkwright, CEO of The Spinoff partners Beef + Lamb NZ, for a knotty conversation about the communication challenge whic...

Inside the enormous, invisible Roblox economy

11 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Alec Kieft makes games for "youtube for gaming" platform Roblox, including Break-In, a smash hit which has been played over 2bn times by 80m people. T...

How Laneway gets it so right, so often

04 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Founded almost 20 years ago, Laneway began in the era of CDs and radio, and now finds itself in one defined by TikTok and Spotify. That it has retaine...

The present and future of social and the creator economy

28 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Clare Winterbourn is a New Zealander who moved to Sydney in the 00s, and now runs Born Bred Talent, the most impactful talent agency in social media a...

Summer reissue: Noelle McCarthy on the glory days of bFM and making podcasts

21 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Fold is taking a break over summer. We'll be back soon with new episodes but, until then, here's one of our favourites from 2023: She arrived off ...

Summer reissue: No one gets the internet quite like Embedded’s Kate Lindsay

14 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Fold is taking a break over summer. We'll be back soon with new episodes but, until then, here's one of our favourites from 2023: Over the past tw...

Summer reissue: The D*List is media for – not about – people with disabilities

07 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Fold is taking a break over summer. We'll be back soon with new episodes but, until then, here's one of our favourites from 2023: Red Nicholas is ...

Summer reissue: The ABC’s Gaven Morris on fixing public media in New Zealand

31 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Fold is taking a break over summer. We'll be back soon with new episodes but, until then, here's one of our favourites from 2023: Gaven Morris ove...

The Spinoff presents SUPERPOD 2023

18 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

SUPERPOD is back! Hosted by Gone By Lunchtime's Toby Manhire and featuring Jane Yee and Alex Casey from The Real Pod, Duncan Greive from The Fold, Gon...

Claire Mabey on why books are thriving in the internet age

17 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Founder of LitCrawl and editor of The Spinoff Books Claire Mabey has a front-row seat to what has been a vibrant decade for books locally and overseas...

On the uncertain future for TV

10 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Duncan Greive runs through highlights from the recent NZ TV awards, discusses the dangers baked into TVNZ’s dominance, and theorises what might happ...

Todd Niall on covering Wayne Brown and the Auckland beat

03 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This Monday marks the first week of retirement for one of New Zealand’s greatest beat reporters. Todd Niall started his career in print in 1977, but...

Simon Denny on making huge, ambivalent artworks about the big tech era

30 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

New Zealand’s most internationally acclaimed living artist, Simon Denny has built his career on extremely close reading of and responding to the imp...

Where has all the music journalism gone?

26 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Chris Schulz has spent years reporting on a healthy New Zealand music industry. Now, the rise of tech platforms like Tik Tok and the decay of music me...

How Caffeine Daily challenges hostility toward the media

19 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The tech and startup community can, at times, be hostile to the idea of journalism. Caffeine Daily plans to change this. They've hired one of this cou...

On TVNZ’s Showcase and the state of NZ media

15 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

With historical context and Three's no show in mind, Duncan Greive gives his thoughts on TVNZ’s annual Showcase event held this week and what it sig...

Vincent Heeringa on his pioneering role in sustainability media

12 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As the founder of a number of New Zealand’s most enduring and thoughtful publications, Vincent Heeringa has spent years operating in spaces like sus...

How Tom Sainsbury built his career

05 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It’s normal for comedians to have parallel careers in writing or acting – but few people in this business have range like Tom Sainsbury. His lates...

Michael Donaldson on the golden age of newspapers and building a new print career in craft beer

29 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

He had a long career at the Sunday Star-Times, running the sports pages when they dominated the national conversation. Then the internet happened, and...

Emergency episode: The Project NZ facing cancellation

26 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Duncan Greive hits the studio to analyse what’s driving the shock decision to end Three’s popular and successful 7pm news-entertainment hybrid The...

Chelsea Rapp on the potential for NZ’s gaming industry

22 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

She became a spokesperson for gaming almost by accident, but as chairperson of the New Zealand Game Developers Association, Chelsea Rapp went on to sc...

The case for a minister of culture and creativity

15 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Paula Browning is the chair of WeCreate, an umbrella organisation which represents the interests of design, screen, fashion, music and more – a comb...

On the election debate I wish we could have had

08 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the aftermath on an underwhelming Better Public Media NZ debate, in which half the parties didn’t show, Duncan Greive goes solo to vent his frust...

Bryan Wilmot on how to drive investment with content

01 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The pandemic saw a huge surge in share prices, as investors processed the step-changed reality of an extremely online, locked down population. Stake d...

ZB+ is great idea – here’s why

26 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Yesterday NZME announced the formation of ZB+, a new subscription platform associated with its much-loved, much-loathed Newstalk ZB brand. It will be ...

Annie Murray on the NZ Film Commission in the age of streaming

24 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

She has spent her career in television, but when the position of CEO for the NZFC came up, Annie Murray found the opportunity irresistible. She joins ...

Nikki Wright and David Robertson on how to communicate climate change

17 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The challenge of climate change is discussed every day, but another issue that's almost as knotty: how do we talk about it in a way which induces the ...

Noelle McCarthy on her new podcast Dear Jane

10 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

She arrived off the boat from Ireland, and within a couple of years was interviewing the prime minister weekly. That led to one of the biggest politic...

Emergency podcast: NZ on Air’s Cam Harland on the latest Where are the Audiences? research

05 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It’s WATA day, Duncan Greive’s favourite day of the media year, when the latest in the vast longitudinal New Zealand on Air media research drops. ...

Letterboxd proves that social media doesn’t have to be a hellscape

03 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Imagine a social media app where the algorithm didn't prioritise the most divisive content on the platform. Letterboxd co-founder Karl Von Randow and ...

No one gets the internet quite like Embedded’s Kate Lindsay

27 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Over the past two years TikTok has risen to become the cultural heart of the internet, for better and worse. And throughout that time, Kate Lindsay ha...

The mystery of the missing pan-Asians in media

20 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Chamanthie Sinhalage-Fonseka and Victoria Young met at a party earlier this year, and ended up talking deep into the night about their experiences as ...

Milly Olykan on exporting country music to the world

13 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

She left New Zealand for London 20 years ago, and fought her way into the edges of the music industry the hard way. But a chance encounter with countr...

Shayne Currie has the whole of New Zealand’s news media talking

06 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Earlier this year, NZME’s long time managing editor resigned – but instead of going to governance or a competitor, he walked straight across to hi...

Thompson Spencer are growing into a major new agency

23 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We are now more than a decade into what was once known as influencer marketing, and has now grown into the much more complex and sophisticated creator...

Bronwynn Bakker on taking kiwi comedy to the world

16 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A television veteran and co-founder of comedy production powerhouse Kevin & Co, Bronwynn Bakker joins Duncan Greive to talk about the strange media er...

Sarah-Jane Paine on Growing Up in New Zealand

09 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In a spiritual sequel to an earlier interview with Paul Spoonley, Duncan Greive is joined by the head of Growing Up in New Zealand, an extraordinary l...

The D*List is media for – not about – people with disabilities

02 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Red Nicholson is the founder of the D*List, a bold new media brand which just launched aiming to provide a salty, raw and exuberant platform for, by a...

Guy Montgomery has figured out comedy

25 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Last month Guy Montgomery played four sold out nights at Q Theatre, pulling almost 2000 people in the process, while his original format show Guy Mont...

On the RNZ Russia scandal

15 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Duncan Greive addresses the fallout from revelations RNZ has for years been running wire copy altered to have pro-Russia and China slants. He also loo...

Matt Bale on the future of AI in the media business

11 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

He started on lowest rung at Saatchis in Wellington, in charge of absorbing TV ratings using a dot matrix printer. By the time Matt Bale left the agen...

How New Zealand's internet could be about to change forever

01 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For a very special episode, Duncan Greive analyses the Safer Online Services and Media Platforms, an obscure “discussion document” which contains ...

Madeleine Sami on how to create more creatives

28 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

She seems to have mastered acting, writing and directing after two decades creating film and TV, but what's next for Madeleine Sami? She joins host Du...

Budget special: Bernard Hickey and Toby Manhire binge on bread and butter

18 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

With the political and economic gravities pulling in various directions, the finance minister was tasked with providing support for the hardest hit by...

Joel Little and Savina Fountain on the creation of Big Fan

14 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

10 years ago, Joel Little was an ex-pop punk singer who’d set up a small studio to record music for commercials. By the end of the year he'd produce...

Peter Griffin on how generative AI has revolutionised the tech industry

07 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Has any technology ever caused as much disquiet as generative AI? Duncan Greive talks to veteran tech journalist Peter Griffin about how this new gene...

Jo Norris on Stuff’s bold new approach to paywalls for news

28 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Yesterday Stuff finally announced paywalls for three of its powerhouse regional mastheads, while keeping the big Stuff platform free to all. It’s a ...

Dr. Paul Spoonley sees the future – and wants us to see it too

23 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

New Zealand’s most famous demographer, professor Paul Spoonley, joins Duncan Greive to talk about the incredible changes to New Zealand’s makeup o...

Mihingarangi Forbes and Annabelle Lee-Mather are the most iconic duo in journalism

16 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Since uniting on Native Affairs during the rise of Māori Television, Mihi Forbes and Annabelle Lee-Mather have formed one of the longest-lasting crea...

Damien Venuto on what it takes to host The Front Page

09 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Its difficult to do your first podcast, but doing it daily is a whole other beast. Damien Venuto is the host of the New Zealand Herald's podcast 'The ...

Alex Braae and Anna Rawhiti-Connell on how The Bulletin is made

02 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Live episode: For the 5th birthday of The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s trailblazing daily email newsletter, its founding editor Alex Braae sat down with ...

Emergency episode: Today FM gets taken off air

30 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

After just a year of broadcasting, Today FM hosts Tova O'Brien and Duncan Garner took over the airwaves this morning to dramatically declare that Medi...

Guyon Espiner on NZ's troublesome lobbying laws

26 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

He's got one of the most prestigious journalism careers in the country, but RNZ’s Guyon Espiner is not slowing down anytime soon. His new series "Ma...

Dr. Jim Mather on the founding days of Whakaata Māori

19 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The early days of Māori Television were chaotic. After the founding CE was fired and imprisoned for fraud, Dr. Jim Mather was tapped to lead the fled...

Mukpuddy on keeping local animation alive for over 20 years

12 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Animation studio Mukpuddy are creating cartoons that are loved around the world, and stand on the precipice of a monster global adaptation of Spike Mi...