Duncan Greive 
When Jeremy Clarkson left Top Gear in 2015, the show seemed doomed. Yet it soldiers on, boring but unbowed, while Clarkson’s profile is much diminished. Duncan Greive asks whether the fading of Clarkson, Paul Henry and Bill O’Reilly means the end of an era looms for a particular species of male broadcaster. Jeremy Clarkson, most recently … Read more
Z Energy is the largest retailer of petrol in New Zealand, yet is paying to promote Al Gore’s climate change movie An Inconvenient Sequel. Duncan Greive meets Z CEO Mike Bennetts and asks what’s up with that. The CEO stood atop the small flight of stairs leading into the multiplex of Event Cinemas’ tiring Newmarket … Read more
The All Blacks will be featured in an in-depth eight part documentary series for Amazon Prime. New Zealand Rugby CEO Steve Tew talks to Duncan Greive about what the partnership means for the brand – and for their relationship with Sky. US tech giant Amazon’s Prime video on demand service is well into production on an … Read more
Two hours after Labour launched its flagship transport policy in the central city, National launched its own 30 kilometres south. Duncan Greive was there to watch. National unveiled its rail transport policy under a slate grey sky at a train station in Papakura, doing their best impression of obliviousness to the nation’s incipient Jacinda-mania. Bill English … Read more
2016 saw the end of a 23 year career at TV3 for Hilary Barry, with her resignation also triggering the end of ex-Mediaworks CEO Mark Weldon’s reign of terror. A year on she’s happily ensconsed at TVNZ’s Breakfast, and sat down for a few beers with Duncan Greive to look back on her glittering career, that chaotic era and … Read more
Attitude is nearing 500 episodes over 13 years, and its current mental health series shows that it deserves a far better timeslot than 8.30am Sunday, writes Duncan Greive. New Zealand has been getting more comfortable confronting difficult issues in primetime. Last year, Nigel Latta: The Hard Stuff’s exploration of suicide and teenagers’ online lives was … Read more
She became an international pariah after uttering the worst racial slur on The Real Housewives of Auckland. Now Julia Sloane is apparently plotting a comeback with a feature-length documentary, reports Duncan Greive. Julia Sloane, the star of Real Housewives of Auckland caught up in a racism scandal, is plotting a return to the screen, The Spinoff … Read more
Want us to do more investigative journalism? Now you can help make that happen, writes Duncan Greive. The Spinoff was founded as an experiment in magazine journalism. An attempt to figure out if there was a way to fund it online without the torrent of empty calorie content which has been the hallmark of many news … Read more
TVNZ 1’s Sunday Theatre is one of the oldest surviving timeslots in New Zealand television. Duncan Greive reviews the excellent Resolve, and looks at the lessons it contains for our struggling serial dramas. Through winter, for a while time now, some of the most expensive television we make has aired. On TVNZ 2 and Three that tends to … Read more
A TVNZ exec made headlines last week for calling Netflix a fad. But after another big budget failure, Duncan Greive asks if it’s time the state broadcaster tried to learn from the streaming giant, rather than embarrassing itself by dismissing it. Last week Andrew Shaw, TVNZ’s veteran deputy director of content, made headlines for describing … Read more
A year on from a critically-mauled first season, big-budget local drama Filthy Rich returns. Duncan Greive watches to see if they’ve fixed what was broken. A persistent criticism of the dialogue in Rachel Lang and Gavin Strawhan’s shows is that it sounds stiff and dated. It seems to come from an imagined New Zealand past which might never have … Read more
Your favourite New Zealand media company is hiring a business journalist to join our cool team. This September, we launch The Spinoff Business, a section dedicated to New Zealand’s private sector. We are seeking a journalist – or journalists (more on that further on) – to write, edit and commission within the section. It’s an … Read more
On Thursday the Dominion Post published a story critical of the fees the Wellington City Council charged Lions fans to park camper vans in the city. A few hours later the Council gave back double. Duncan Greive reports on a brawl in the capital. Variations on the phrase “never argue with anyone who buys ink by … Read more
Team New Zealand’s innovation and Peter Burling’s ineffable calm have returned the America’s Cup to New Zealand. New Zealand has won back the America’s Cup, in the process avenging one of the most humiliating capitulations in sport and perhaps justifying the vast government investment which facilitated this epic plot to regain it. Everything we imagine to … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today: Duncan Greive discovers Whoa! Studios, a magical place where parents and their children can co-exist in equal happiness via playgrounds, beer and food. Taking your kids to restaurants basically sucks. They cry, throw food around, run off when you’re trying … Read more
John Campbell makes his TVNZ debut and a strong case for a regular return to mainstream TV in What Next, TVNZ’s most public-spirited show since the charter was scrapped. Duncan Greive reviews the ambitious week-long TV event. What Next, currently two fifths of its way through its run on TVNZ 1, is something of a … Read more
When Julie Christie was announced as recipient of one of our most prestigious honours on Queen’s Birthday, many were shocked and appalled. Duncan Greive, one-time recipient of a defamation letter from Christie, makes the case for her as a worthy Dame. “I pretty much decided that I was going to become a major commercial success … Read more
Indian restaurant Paradise is a phenomenon – three huge branches on the same small city block. Yet its biggest competitor is run by a co-founder, finds Duncan Greive, and their breakup has fuelled one of Auckland’s most intense food rivalries. “They paved a parking lot and put up a Paradise,” a Sandringham friend told me a while ago. He had introduced … Read more
A prominent partnership schools manager has claimed that government partnership school champion David Seymour attempted to dissuade him from airing his concerns about the sector in writing to avoid their reaching the public domain. In an opinion piece published today on The Spinoff, Alwyn Poole, academic manager of Mt Hobson Middle School, says that David … Read more
The New Zealand showrunners behind Filthy Rich jump the ditch to make Hyde & Seek, a show which seeks to blend a sprawling Homeland-style mystery with the breakneck pace of CSI/SVU. “You’re on your own,” says Nick, a boyishly handsome homicide cop to his partner, heading off toward a murder victim’s van. Which promptly explodes. … Read more
Every time the radio survey results come out we get the same amazing news: everyone killed it! Duncan Greive reads the press releases and tries to figure out what’s really going on. EVERY NZME STATION INCREASES LISTENERS MEDIAWORKS RADIO REMAINS THE NUMBER ONE RADIO NETWORK IN NEW ZEALAND WITH ITS LARGEST EVER REACH Record Audiences … Read more
Pay TV giant Sky has just pulled the handbrake on its online sports service Fan Pass, as it nearly doubles fees and removes daily and weekly options. A little over two years after the launch of Fan Pass, its unbundled sports package, Sky TV looks like it’s actively trying to destroy the service with a … Read more
The Commerce Commission decision appears based on a naive assumption that because news is important it will always be made, writes Duncan Greive. The Commerce Commission decision this morning to decline to authorise a merger between NZME and Fairfax’s New Zealand interests is being widely applauded in predictable places, for predictable reasons. Hearing it and reading … Read more
The best New Zealand production of the year isn’t TV or radio – it’s a podcast and online video which uses hindsight and our former prime ministers to produce a series of lasting power, says Duncan Greive. While it mightn’t seem so on Twitter during Question Time or in the comments sections of any semi-popular … Read more
You can’t move for a symposium or petition bemoaning the state of current affairs on television today. Yet John Campbell’s Checkpoint is a throwback to exactly the kind of programming people say they want, writes Duncan Greive. Yesterday on Face TV, a channel I have never knowingly before watched, we got a glimpse into TV’s … Read more
We’re seeking a partnerships editor to join our cool team and manage the work we do with brands, NGOs and agencies. The Spinoff is seeking an experienced writer and editor to join our Auckland team. The role is partnerships editor and is critical for the business, overseeing all content created for clients, on or beyond the … Read more
The latest skirmish in an epic battle between two Waihekes took place at Matiatia ferry terminal this morning, writes Duncan Greive. “If they try and do a swifty we’re waiting,” says Susi Newborn, the leader of a protest on a cool, bright morning at the Matiatia ferry terminal on Waiheke. ‘They’ are Fullers, operators of … Read more
The Project showed its teeth this week, via Jesse Mulligan’s plea for someone, anyone to fix the Department of Conservation. It launched with a bang and a Bax and a song and a dance in February, but in recent weeks it’s been a little too easy to forget The Project NZ was on. Not because … Read more
This week’s social media viral video was bleaker than usual – a wasted woman in a garage, looking half dead. It took The Hui to bring her to life – and in so doing lay bare some of the functionless duplication in our contemporary media, says Duncan Greive. All week we’ve seen the footage. A woman, … Read more