Duncan Greive 
The current New Zealand innovator of the year, Ian Taylor, is on a mission to sear the real story of New Zealand’s discovery into the minds of a generation of New Zealanders. In 1990 a team from the University of Otago’s small computer science department entered the world’s foremost test of computational skill: the ACM … Read more
Love Island has smashed streaming records all over the world and Three’s purchase of the global rights, along with a pricey local franchise, will complete a radical transformation of the channel. This week The Spinoff learned that Mediaworks, parent company of Three, plans on launching a New Zealand version of ITV’s megahit Love Island. The … Read more
Does yesterday’s surprise announcement around the tax status of digital giants indicate a willingness to tackle the vast problems they create? Yesterday was just another Monday for the global tech giants: a select committee in the UK referred to Facebook as “digital gangsters” (not in an admiring way) for their response to privacy concerns, speculation … Read more
Sources suggest the New Zealand editorial arm of the global youth media giant is shutting down, reports Duncan Greive. A huge round of redundancies being rolled out worldwide by youth media giant Vice has reached the New Zealand office. Staff were told today that the team faces being slashed to one to two positions – with … Read more
The announcement that Peter Jackson’s latest project is a Beatles documentary is proof the decorated director has finally gone too far, writes Duncan Greive. It seems scarcely credible to suggest at this point, but Peter Jackson used to be cool. He made silly, weird movies about New Zealand – its monsters and its murderers – … Read more
Duncan Greive concludes his survey of the state of New Zealand’s media in 2018 with a look at some of the smaller and emerging players – including Spark, Bauer Media and Māori Television. Spark’s emergence as a genuine media contender is the highlight of a fascinating year amongst the mini majors – a loose group … Read more
It has been the best-performing media brand of the past five years. Yet Labour’s bold plans to grow it have caused RNZ nothing but trouble so far, and major clouds loom on the horizon, writes Duncan Greive. While reporting this series I spoke to over a dozen executives, senior editors and reporters across the New … Read more
The owner of both Newstalk ZB and the Herald retains a singular influence in the New Zealand media. But anonymous rival executives have doubts about its ability to pull off a paywall in 2019 – a move which shapes as the boldest in our media, writes Duncan Greive. If there is a single common theme … Read more
The home of Three and radio stations like The Edge has been owned by private equity for 10 years now. As part of his series on NZ media in 2018, Duncan Greive talks to anonymous executives within and without of the company to find out whether it might be close to getting an owner that … Read more
It’s the biggest and by far the most profitable media company in New Zealand. In today’s instalment of his series on NZ media in 2018, Duncan Greive asks media executives why no one believes in Sky any more. When the history of New Zealand media is written in the next few years, one CEO will … Read more
Every day in the leadup to Christmas, open the door to reveal a Spinoff writer’s short, sizzling commentary on a weighty subject. Our arbitrary and strictly enforced word limit: 365. Today: Duncan Greive on why churches (and other religious institutions) should start paying tax. It’s the season of giving, so when asked to nominate a … Read more
Stuff is both the biggest news site in the country and its most precarious big media company. Duncan Greive continues his series on the major media companies with a hard look at it from some senior media executives speaking under condition of anonymity. In late November, the staff of Stuff gathered to meet their new … Read more
Today we launch a week-long series taking the temperature of the NZ media at the end of another year of upheaval. Duncan Greive speaks to senior figures across NZ’s biggest media companies to find out what they think about their plight, their rivals and the industry as a whole When you run a media business, … Read more
In the first of a series on the major New Zealand media companies, sourced through anonymous conversations with senior executives, Duncan Greive assesses the state of NZ’s biggest TV network. ‘We’re buying to play on the channel, not to put it in the cupboard.” In a single caustic line, MediaWorks’ head of content Andrew Szusterman … Read more
A last minute cancellation of the final day of school at Mount Albert Grammar has deprived its students of one of the most emotional moments of their lives, writes Duncan Greive, parent to a MAGS school leaver. Do you remember your last day of school? I do, piercingly clearly. A cool, bright day much like … Read more
A lawsuit has revealed Facebook inflated its video statistics for years, inspiring the ‘pivot to video’ which made thousands of journalists redundant. Duncan Greive looks at its impact on New Zealand. So Facebook’s been lying again, at least according to a suit filed last week. Days after admitting that its new portal device would eavesdrop … Read more
Staff and customers of accounting software platform Xero speak of it in awe. Duncan Greive heads to their conference to find out why. “Xero gives me life,” he said, skin glistening, eyes blazing. Bhaskar Krishna Bitra stood before me in a corner of the Brisbane Convention Centre, clutching a Xero branded basketball and a Xero … Read more
The Block NZ season seven champs Amy and Stu meet The Spinoff nursing hangovers, but carrying a big cheque. They’ve had just two hours sleep since they took home a huge cheque, but Amy and Stu are glowing. The pair seemed preordained to win the season, reeling off a string of ridiculous scores, culminating in … Read more
Duncan Greive watches The Block’s final nail and asks what this strange show tells us about New Zealand in 2018. 1) Auckland property is definitively chilling the hell out It was never intended to be a quasi-documentary about the other side of the housing crisis (the side where people made heaps of money flipping homes), … Read more
The aborted appointment of Derek Handley to the government’s CTO role continues to drag on – the latest installment is a folder of communications between himself, Clare Curran and Jacinda Ardern. Derek Handley has released a cache of communications relating to his botched appointment as the government’s CTO which detail the nature of the process, … Read more
An unexpectedly high growth number might herald the end of a harsh winter for the government, writes Duncan Greive. A toxic combination of the oozing Curran-Handley wound, fear-mongering business confidence surveys and Winston Peters stumbling around like the last guest at a wedding have made this a bad week, worse month and generally infuriating winter … Read more
Entrepreneur Derek Handley is reportedly on the verge of being appointed the CTO of the whole country of New Zealand. And the tech community is not happy about that at all, reports Duncan Greive. Much of New Zealand’s tech community has reacted with derision to a report entrepreneur Derek Handley is all-but-certain to soon be … Read more
Z Energy sells more petrol than anyone else in New Zealand while also trumpeting its environmental record. Today it put its money where its PR is in purchasing a large majority stake in Wellington startup Flick Electric Co. An unlikely marriage – more an adoption, really – has just been announced between Z Energy and … Read more
The pay TV giant has lost customers, it’s making less out of each one, and has cut prices. Yet Duncan Greive reckons their annual result shows they might yet find a way out of the woods. Sky has completed a highly unusual feat in legacy media – reporting an increase in underlying profit, up 2.6% … Read more
A just-released cache of Nielsen data shows the impact a series of Facebook algorithm changes has had on New Zealand’s online media (spoiler: it’s not great). “How’s your traffic been?” a friend who works at one of the big media companies asked me recently, and even in asking we both knew the answer. It was … Read more
As if parents of pre-schoolers didn’t have enough to deal with, a searing column on Monday informed them that the daycares they sent their kids to were kiddie prisons. Duncan Greive examines this appalling situation. Monday’s Herald brought worse news than usual for parents of young children. Most were likely awoken earlier than they’d have … Read more
After years of watching powerlessly as his iPhone took over his brain, Duncan Greive found a way of getting it back. Last Saturday I was sitting with a friend, patting a puppy while she idly thumbed her phone. I was a few feet away, but it sure looked like the screen was black and white. … Read more
We’ve been waiting for the tipping point, where online really surges against broadcast media. It just arrived, says Duncan Greive, who has read NZ on Air’s epic new audience behaviour survey so you don’t have to. The release of NZ on Air’s audience survey is on its way to becoming the most important event in … Read more
Six60 are as much a business as a band, and have achieved historically unprecedented success with a very unconventional approach, writes lapsed Six60 hater and music critic Duncan Greive. New Zealand has never known a band like Six60. Their success is complete and unblemished – so vast that it can render the milestones of other … Read more