Duncan Greive 
Broadcasting minister Clare Curran yesterday announced how $15m of new funding for the media will be distributed. How will it affect what you hear, see and read? The minister called it the “beginning of a new era”. Sounds radical. What was announced? Yesterday we learned the detail of a $15m boost to media funding announced … Read more
In an election campaign replete with fascinating and colourful moments, the Opportunities Party and its leader, Gareth Morgan, were at the very least the outstanding subplot last September. Yesterday, out of the blue, it was announced that the TOP board had decided not to contest the 2020 election and would be deregistering with the Electoral … Read more
The winter warmer package came in on Sunday, an extra $20-$30 a week to help pay power bills. Only, a big part of it is going to those who need it least. On Sunday, a whole bunch of New Zealanders who really need the help started receiving a little extra to help pay their power … Read more
Even before it aired, Heartbreak Island had attracted an excess of controversy. Duncan Greive says the show is much better and stranger than its detractors would have you believe. Has there ever been a show as doomed as Heartbreak Island? The name is manifestly a jack of ITV’s smash hit Love Island, only inverted so … Read more
Phil Twyford called meth use a “health issue” this morning, and said his Housing NZ would not make people homeless. Good words and true. So why is his government still locking addicts up? A few hours ago, Morning Report’s Guyon Espiner conducted an interview with housing minister Phil Twyford which was both mundane and extraordinary, … Read more
After decades spent botching every one of its online products, Sky has just unveiled a bold new strategy which appears to answer its critics. Duncan Greive surveys its tumultuous history and asks CEO John Fellet whether this time really will be different. By the mid-1990s, Sky TV had become a bonafide media phenomenon in New … Read more
Amy Goldstein wanted to know what happened to the ordinary people impacted by the GFC. Ahead of her Auckland Writers Festival appearance, chaired by Toby Manhire, she tells Duncan Greive about the extraordinary book she wrote about the fallout after GM shut its oldest manufacturing plant. By June of 2008 the global financial crisis had been … Read more
The state-owned broadcaster has long resisted public service. Yet with $38m on the table, and the government’s relationship with RNZ rocky, moving Q+A to primetime could be be seen as a deftly timed olive branch The press release, under the headline “TVNZ powers up primetime political coverage”, came out at 3:25pm yesterday afternoon – until … Read more
Commute week: Statistics released under official information legislation reveal a tiny group of 100 Supergold card holders hoover up over $200,000 worth of free trips to Waiheke Island every year. If you were looking out at a map of New Zealand and wondering where its most privileged citizens lived, it’s likely that Waiheke would be … Read more
The telco and TVNZ have outbid the satellite giant for the right to broadcast the 2019 men’s Rugby World Cup – and it marks a watershed moment for our media and audiences What’s all this then? “Spark New Zealand announced today it has secured the rights to bring to New Zealanders the Rugby World Cup … Read more
The former deputy prime minister and chair of Labour’s tax working group talks to Duncan Greive about housing, tax, Bill English and Labour’s big 2017 campaign mistake. Whatever room he’s in, Sir Michael Cullen gravitates toward the centre. This is less about his gravitas, which remains strong nearly a decade after he left parliament, but … Read more
Sky’s bold new strategic plan reveals ambitions to offer unbundled content, online only access and an Apple TV-style box – all while keeping its pricey satellite service. After the commerce commission denied it permission to merge with Vodafone New Zealand, Sky outwardly appeared defeated and deflated. The merger was its technology play, its strategy and … Read more
Today we launch Tax Heroes, a project created in partnership with the IRD which aims to ‘invert the rich list’, and instead focus on the entities that contribute the most to New Zealand. Duncan Greive explains what it’s all about. Every July for 32 years the National Business Review has published its ‘Rich List’, a … Read more
A diorama of Auckland dating to the 1930s was lost for decades, and shows in stunning detail the central city with light rail right through it, and before huge chunks of it were demolished. By Duncan Greive, images by Joel Thomas. Who ruined central Auckland? As we contemplate a decades-long healing process – building the … Read more
A furious Mike Hosking has written a column decrying the construction of 33 new apartments with not a single carpark between them. Duncan Greive responds. There are few tasks more Sisyphean than responding to Hosking’s takes. One of the requirements of his job is to write a daily editorial, delivered from his radio pulpit: a … Read more
Welcome to the Cheat Sheet, a clickable, shareable, bite-sized FAQ on the news of the moment. Today we explain what Sky has done to its prices – and why they’ve done it. What are they up to? Sky has announced “new pricing and packaging” today, vastly simplifying the way people buy its product, and likely … Read more
Redactions which disappeared due to a technical glitch point to a standoff which pits NZ on Air and the big private media companies against RNZ. The stakes? A huge funding boost which could shape the future of our media. A standoff is brewing between RNZ and NZ on Air over who will control the annual … Read more
NZME and Stuff are working together wherever they can, regardless of what the watchdog and high court have to say about it. Update 21 February: Stuff announced further closures and redundancies below – this story has been updated to incorporate this news. A week before Christmas the High Court stepped in to save journalism from itself. … Read more
In just 15 months New Zealand has witnessed a generational sea change in its politics and media, writes Duncan Greive. John Key. Mike Hosking. Bill English. In late 2016, little more than a year ago, this was New Zealand’s power structure: the two most powerful politicians, and the broadcaster who backed them to the hilt. … Read more
There are over 350 minutes of Married at First Sight Australia a week on Three. Should you spend almost all your spare time watching them? Married at First Sight Australia returned this week, a few months after our first season ended in the abyss. Of our six couples, only one survived the show, which became … Read more
The Spinoff introduces a rightly fearful nation to the Mike Hosking impersonator replacing Mike Hosking as the host of Seven Sharp. Jeremy Wells was yesterday afternoon confirmed as co-host of the revamped Seven Sharp, as (incredibly humblebrag) first reported by The Spinoff last Friday. It’s an extremely bold hire, perhaps the boldest in TVNZ history. … Read more
An interview with Dave Gibson, the outgoing head of the Film Commission, looking back on four years of rapid change. Public sector arts jobs look horrible from the outside. You have an inevitably too-small pot of money, distributed to a group of people who are either deliriously happy or incandescent with rage according to whether … Read more
The editor of The Spinoff explains why he is no longer editor of The Spinoff, plus talks through other key staff changes. Then indulges himself about what The Spinoff means, and how it was made. Hello. This is a post announcing that I’m handing over the editor’s job at The Spinoff from today. I want to … Read more
The shock resignation of Mike Hosking has led to Three playing some very aggressive media chess. “You’re looking very bronzed,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told Duncan Garner on Monday morning. “A bronzed whaler,” he replied, assumedly not a confession of his summer recreational activities. Thereafter, they got into the serious business of Trump and shitholes … Read more
The contrivances of the first generation of reality shows are being overtaken by higher stakes games, writes Duncan Greive. This story was originally published on November 15, 2017. The first season of Married at First Sight NZ is over, and I for one am an absolute wreck. For the past three years I’ve been part of ‘The … Read more
New Zealand has been living a lie. The Washington Post today revealed that Jacinda Ardern’s Labour-led government is in fact a facade for the “far right agenda” of Winston Peters. Duncan Greive details the shocking revelations – and the legislative programme of this terrifying coalition. First published on 9 September 2017. “A shadow is poisoning … Read more
It started with a gross message sent from a councillor to a journalist. And it hasn’t stopped since. It’s now more than two weeks since Hamilton City Councillor Mark Bunting sent a deeply inappropriate message to journalist, Spinoff commentator and campaigner for Hamilton playgrounds Angela Cuming, and the unpleasantness continues unabated. To briefly recap: Bunting, a … Read more
After more than 30 years, Newstalk ZB’s pause-loving, conspiracy peddling morning talk host is hanging up the headphones. Duncan Greive tunes in. Leighton Smith has delivered the bad news. Not as bad as it seemed for a second this morning when he told his loyal Newstalk ZB listeners, “We’ve come to a decision that I … Read more
Duncan Greive watches Australian Ninja Warrior and makes a serious pitch for the return of New Zealand’s own ’90s multi-sport extravaganza. Australian Ninja Warrior already contains a number of ingredients which suggest a deeply problematic show: the co-option in name only of an ancient Japanese culture for reality TV; a blonde breakout star running in … Read more