Anatomy of a Corporate Disaster – Inside Weldon and Glucina’s Gossip Site Scout

MediaWorks launched gossip site Scout amid much fanfare just two months ago, yet today it appears to be hanging by a thread amid resignations and troubling news stories. Duncan Greive spoke with a number of former Scout staff members and MediaWorks employees, and was given access to a large cache of correspondence, recordings, data and other documentation to create … Read more

Television: Swapping News for Reality – Looking Back on a Bad Year for TV3

With yesterday’s terrible news about flagship current affairs show 3D, Duncan Greive assesses the MediaWorks’ strategy, a year on from its flashy relaunch. Yesterday, at the well-known bad news dump slot of 4.56pm, I received this via email: 3D is TV3’s flagship current affairs show – the place where its best journalists go to do their most … Read more

Television: A Week of It – Newsworthy’s Late-Night News Snacks

Calum Henderson watches Newsworthy every day for a week, to see how TV3’s late night current affairs show manages to balance both the credible, the incredible, and Gene Simmons. MONDAY Walking home from the bus stop, a long-haired orange cat followed me all the way to the front door. He wandered around the flat for a … Read more

Television: Capturing the Survey Castle – Chronicling Jono and Ben’s Lake Taupo Crusade

At the height of survey season, Jono and Ben made an attempt to cross Lake Taupo in an inflatable castle. Don Rowe watches from the sky.  Some time around the year 180 AD an explosion in the Pacific turned the sky over eastern China red. The violent upheaval threw over a thousand cubic kilometres of … Read more

A Bargain from The Block – The Curious Case of Julie Christie’s Mansion

A recent Scout video purported to be a peek inside the home of Julie Christie, one of the most powerful people in New Zealand media. But the house was built on land obtained at a bargain price, and Christie admits that she never lived there – raising questions about the nature of the transaction, writes Duncan … Read more

Television: The Sky is Failing – What Happened During The Block NZ Premiere Last Night?

Last night, Sky customers suffered a lengthy television blackout across free-to-air channels TV1, TV2 and TV3. This occurred during the premiere episode of The Block NZ, the biggest MediaWorks television event since the Story premiere. Not only that, but the blackout hit right when the teams were weirdly double bluffing their way to choosing their decrepit … Read more

Television: How Can TV3 Follow Dom Harvey’s Live Prostate Exam?

We enjoyed Dom Harvey’s live prostate exam on Story so much we’ve brainstormed ten more ideas for future TV3 live broadcast stunts. 1) Rachel Glucina’s Key Keyhole Surgery Inserting a keyhole camera through the Keys’ keyhole live on Scout TV, Glucina gains exclusive footage of Max Key letting people into Harvard on Skype and John … Read more

Television: Stevie TV – Potential Contenders for the Garner Throne

Steve Braunias lists some potential understudies for Duncan Garner, should he ever leave a chair open at Story.  Regan whatever his name is over at Throng has spoken and it behoves us all to listen and that. He believes that TV3 must get rid of Duncan Garner as co-host of Story. “It’s time,” he announced … Read more

MediaWorks Staff to Undergo Training With Women’s Refuge

Today Women’s Refuge announced that MediaWorks has accepted their invitation to undergo domestic violence awareness training. This comes after one in a series of damaging instances of sexism on their radio stations, the latest of which occurred last week, when George FM’s Thane Kirby and Kara Rickard were suspended for naming and slut-shaming New Zealand women … Read more

From Hosking’s Vacuum to Influential Avocados – Power Ranking Scout’s Launch Stories

Today marks the launch of Scout, the new entertainment news site forged in MediaWork’s basement furnace by Rachel Glucina, the twisted firestarter of New Zealand gossip. Today she emerged: charred and smokey, holding Mike Hosking’s petite vacuum cleaner in her hands. Whatever you think of the website: there’s no denying that this is a moment in New … Read more

Reissue – Joshua Drummond on Rachel Glucina at the Wintec Press Club

Three or so times a year, media luminaries from all over New Zealand gather in a kind of Hellfire Club – based, of course, in Hamilton. Food is eaten, drink is drunk and a speaker – usually a High Luminary or occasionally Winston Peters speaks. Steve Braunias (newly crowned Books Editor of The Spinoff!) curates the whole shindig; everyone … Read more

Television: Does My Platform Look Big in This? The First MediaWorks Presenter Power Rankings

This year has been the most turbulent in MediaWorks’ history. They’ve farewelled one nationally beloved broadcaster so clumsily that it threatened to sink the ship for a moment there. But they’ve also launched three new news products in less than six months in Story, Newsworthy and Paul Henry. There are mutterings about the role of … Read more

Scout’s Honour – First look at Glucina’s New Hub for Homegrown Goss

Rachel Glucina’s new “Entertainment + Celebrity News” website Scout goes live on Monday. To get us foaming at the mouth and subscribed up to MediaWorks’ salacious new gossip arm, they’ve posted a teaser video to the site … So what can we expect? A weirdly specific list of possibilities is flashed before our eyes – … Read more

Story: Time Travel Reveals Wind Tunnels and Harsh Hashtags in TV3’s New 7pm Show

José Barbosa goes to the future to visit the set of TV3’s current affairs show Story, and reports back on just how much fun is in store for Heather du Plessis-Allan and Duncan Garner. This week MediaWorks made public its plans for a new current affairs show in the 7pm slot recently vacated by Campbell Live. The new … Read more

Fragmentary Thoughts: The Unapologetic Oddballs of Come Dine With Me NZ

Fragmentary Thoughts is a comic strip by José Barbosa, in which he’ll tackle a different television show or phenomenon each month. In this instalment, he celebrates the best bonkers moments from week one of Come Dine With Me NZ.  Among all the angst and genuine uncertainty that has come to characterise New Zealand’s TV industry, the local … Read more

Review: Not All is Lost For TV3 – Teina Pora Speaks Out in 3D’s Debut

Alex Casey reviews the debut episode of TV3’s new current affairs show 3D, wherein Teina Pora gave his first on-camera interview since his release from prison.  After a rough week post-Campbell fallout, TV3 ended on somewhat of a high with their new Sunday current affairs show 3D. With award-winning journalists Samantha Hayes and Duncan Garner at the … Read more

“It’s Not Now, It’s the Future!” – The Sublime Mania of the MediaWorks New Season Launch

On the night before Halloween, Duncan Greive went to the launch of MediaWorks’ new season. To some it would have been a vision of pure terror. But not to him. // “A living nightmare,” said Damo. His interviewer, radio DJ Mike Puru, nervously pressed him to expand. “It’s like a bad dream, but when you wake up … Read more