Remember staying up extra late, one hand hovering nervously over the remote in case of footsteps, waiting to catch a tantalising glimpse of nudity on TV? You were not alone. An anonymous panel revisits the golden era of SKY 1 soft porn. In the years before broadband internet and personal devices, New Zealand teenagers had … 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
The first time the Press Council ruled on The Spinoff’s reporting, the complaint was upheld. In the second ruling from the Press Council on The Spinoff’s reporting, the complaint, by Family First’s Bob McCoskrie, has not been upheld. The Press Council has declined to uphold the complaints of Family First director Bob McCoskrie and Bruce Aldridge, another … Read more
Beloved breakfast radio host Simon Barnett has announced his departure from More FM, in only 545 days. But that number will almost certainly become smaller with the passing of every day. Please bookmark this page for the very latest. The news arrived by media release. There is no getting around it: Si is off. He is leaving More … Read more
Compiling the best reading from your friendly local website. Tara Ward: What the hell has happened to Lily from the Big Save Furniture ads? You’ll need to sit down on your corner lounge suite for this one, because Lily’s legendary Big Save Furniture ads are no more. Gone is the wide-eyed glee, the over-enthusiastic shouting, … Read more
On Thursday Mark Dawson, the editor of the Wanganui Chronicle, published an editorial suggesting that ‘the growing empowerment of women’ is partly to blame for New Zealand’s high rate of male suicide. The Mental Health Foundation’s Sophia Graham responds. Dear Mr Dawson, I read your editorial ‘Tough topic we need to talk about’ with dismay. … 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
We reproduce in full and with permission the email Fairfax’s central region editor Bernadette Courtney sent to the Wellington City Council’s Kevin Lavery yesterday, in response to the WCC’s disputing the Dominion Post’s coverage of a campervan story. Dear Kevin, I am disappointed that I have to write to you to voice my concerns about … Read more
This year, comedian Angella Dravid took out the Billy T award in the New Zealand International Comedy Festival for her extraordinary show Down the Rabbit Hole, exploring her spell in a UK prison. She talks to Alex Casey about finding humour in the dark, and being the ‘car crash’ of Jono and Ben. When Angella … Read more
Unladylike shouting from Madeleine Chapman at Alan Duff’s Herald piece on ‘unfeminine’ women, Samoan cleaners and what makes a real Kiwi. Alan Duff went to a bar and heard some women loudly laughing nearby and it made him angry. So he went home and wrote a column about why “unfeminine” women and television presenters aren’t real … Read more
On Megyn Kelly’s new show Keith Morrison delivers a high-gloss paean to New Zealand, where US citizens are apparently flocking following the demise of the American dream. Branko Marcetic tunes in. When former Fox News-host Megyn Kelly put out the third episode of her new NBC show, most probably expected they’d direct their outrage at … Read more
Compiling the best reading from your friendly local website. Sam Brooks: A one-act play about ‘The Louvre’ from Lorde’s new album Melodrama “There are Kettle crisps at Lou’s party. There are RTDs that Marty’s creepy older boyfriend he met on Tinder bought for everybody. But they’re disgusting so Aroha is mixing them with her dad’s … Read more
Like books and vinyl records, DVD box sets are holding firm against the streaming tide, writes Aaron Yap. It used to be bloody hard to watch TV, didn’t it? These days it’s as easy as turning on the tap. Just sacrifice a smashed avo toast a month, and you can afford to zone out to … Read more
It is a succinct, disquieting, apparently context-less tweet that has become a classic of the form. But why did Piers Morgan write it? Calum Henderson investigates. At 12:51pm EDT on Sunday the 2nd of September, 2012, Piers Morgan tweeted “I want to die.” Those four words typed by the divisive television personality and former newspaper … Read more
The former political spin doctor talks to Toby Manhire about the controversial tour, and what happens when the media guy becomes the story. Read our interview with Campbell about the UK election omnishambles here. The 2005 British and Irish Lions side arrived in New Zealand full of promise. Coach Clive Woodward, still enjoying the afterglow … Read more
Compiling the best reading from your friendly local website. Emily Writes: Surviving Wine Mum Night “6.10pm – You all agree that nobody can get drunk because we all have the kids the next day and nobody can cope with hangovers. 6.20pm – Shots of absinthe for everyone.” Flipping the bird at Secretary of State Rex … Read more
This morning Radio NZ reported Colin Craig was launching legal action against his former press secretary Rachel MacGregor – though Craig says he used to want to do that but doesn’t anymore. Hayden Donnell responds to the news with his honest opinion. Case law in New Zealand is clear: honest opinion is a defence against … Read more
Compiling the best reading from your friendly local website. Nadine Millar: It shouldn’t be a debate: Our schools need to stop prioritising Pākehā values by default “In a Māori context, opening a speech with a mihimihi, or a round of acknowledgements, is fairly typical. Depending on the occasion, these introductions can be long or brief. … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today: Don Rowe reviews a subscription toothbrush. I do my best to avoid checking the mailbox and thus my first Freshbrush was partially eaten by snails. In hindsight that’s actually quite an endorsement though because I eat bamboo too and find it … Read more
Just over three years ago, Susie Ferguson began as co-host of NZ’s most important news programme, Morning Report. She joins Toby Manhire to discuss the show, her rapport with Guyon Espiner, sexist abuse from listeners, how she ended up in NZ, and a dramatic head knock at the hands of her toddler Even before an … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today: José Barbosa reviews the ubiquitous one sheet publication, the Coffee News. Print is dead, they say. Publishing models are falling out of the sky while adverting spend exsanguinates like a gushing toilet cistern. That’s what they say, but I don’t believe … Read more
In which an accountant, his nurse wife, and their lawyer daughter lovingly squabble through letters to the editor, on the subject of the 5-minute quiz. Something like the lost epistolary novel of PG Wodehouse has surfaced in the pages of Wellington’s daily paper over the last couple of weeks. Below, the letters. We look forward to further contributions … Read more
Compiling the best reading from your friendly local website. Nichole Brown: I’m sorry I white-washed your world: A letter to my Māori daughter “I am so sorry that it took me until we decided to leave this beautiful country to realise just how important our culture is to our future. I never considered that the Māori … Read more
Compiling the best reading from your friendly local website. Henry Oliver: ‘What if birds aren’t singing, they’re screaming?’: Inside Aldous Harding‘s head “Harding’s music is deep and weird and mythic. It exists in its own world and follows its own symbolic logic. She might not want to talk about her music because she doesn’t want to … Read more
Compiling the best reading from your friendly local website. Jack Tame: ‘Janice’s email stood out for its dazzling ignorance’: Jack Tame on the racist email which made him snap “Of my two broadcasting gigs, some associate Newstalk ZB with pushing conservative agendas. So, some hosts don’t believe in climate change? Perhaps someone suggests on air … Read more
On YouTube, every conceivable interest is catered to, including the brutal power of top quality, highly engineered swords. David Farrier talks to Lynn Thompson, founder of sword, knife and viral video makers Cold Steel. “The pig is the closest thing to a human, in terms of flesh consistency, arrangement of organs.” Welcome to the violent, … 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
Compiling the best reading from your friendly local website. Michele A’Court: Here, let me help. Start by imagining your penis is bleeding “So… imagine that you are you, Tom. All good? And that for a few days every month, you bleed out of your penis. Sometimes a little bit, sometimes a lot. And your testicles (which … 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