In the wake of the shocking revelations about Three, Duncan Greive assesses the health of New Zealand’s six big media companies. This story was first published on 20 October, 2019. Winston Peters has studied the cold, pitiless heart of a certain strand of New Zealander for four decades now, and has become our foremost expert … Read more
After a year spent reporting on and analysing the chaos enveloping New Zealand’s media industry, The Spinoff managing editor Duncan Greive has finally cracked and started a podcast to cover it. Here is a short and necessarily incomplete list of things that have happened in New Zealand’s media in 2019: Three was announced as being … Read more
Looking back on 10 years which saw New Zealand’s media transform from a position of near-limitless power and influence to the deeply humbled reality of today. At the end of 2009 I had resigned from my first good job, convinced that print media was finished. The good job was as editor of Real Groove, a … Read more
Its first full-time reporter will lead the project, which includes a dedicated section of its homepage for New Zealand. The Guardian Australia is leading a significant move into New Zealand, confirming that it has hired its first full-time reporter in New Zealand and is introducing a new variation on the homepage specifically served to New … Read more
In the wake of the shocking revelations about Three, Duncan Greive assesses the health of New Zealand’s six big media companies. Winston Peters has studied the cold, pitiless heart of a certain strand of New Zealander for four decades now, and has become our foremost expert on both expressing its feelings and trolling it into … Read more
Kris Faafoi sits down with The Spinoff’s managing editor to discuss all that bedevils a rowdy sector with big problems and high expectations. After months of trying, the new broadcasting minister Kris Faafoi finally arrived at The Spinoff’s offices for an interview in early March. It was 4pm on Friday, and we drank a beer … Read more
While researching NZ on Air for a recent history, Duncan Greive noticed a shocking 30 year trend. News broke over the weekend that Love Island NZ, Three’s biggest announcement of the year, will now not screen in 2019, and realistically is unlikely to be made at all now. The fall of a much-discussed, much-critiqued reality TV … Read more
With questions for media swirling about what their platforms get used for, New Zealand’s biggest news site has closed a huge swathe of their notorious comments section. Stuff editor in chief Patrick Crewdson spoke to The Spinoff about why they made the choice. They say don’t read the comments, but what they really mean is don’t … Read more
A scrap with Facebook over a copycat Stuff page reveals how fine the line is between combating fake news and straight up censorship. This piece was originally published on June 16, 2018 Fans of the meme page NZ Stuffed would have probably noticed over this week that the content had vanished from their Facebook feeds. … Read more
It’s the most wonderful time of the year, unless you’re a journalist, in which case Christmas is just another day. So what’s the vibe like in newsrooms on Christmas day? And why can’t journalists just take the day off? A state highway is blocked after a car crash. There’s been a drowning at a West … Read more
Over the month of December, we’ve been taking suggestions from readers of The Bulletin on what you reckon the best NZ journalism has been. We also took the suggestion to put them all in one place. It’s not really the done thing to say this at the start of a best of list, but this … 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
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
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Shift in media mindset shown by Stuff’s climate change coverage, GCSB blocks Chinese telco tech company, and Greens push for prisoner voting rights. We’re going to lead off today with something a bit different to the usual – we wouldn’t normally start with a story about … 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
Stuff-Me is dead, with the merger between media companies Stuff and NZME once again denied by the courts. A different combination now looms large as a possibility, but would it work? At a certain point, you probably have to accept that they’ll never let you be together. That’s the harsh lesson for Stuff and NZME, … 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
Al Nisbet’s loudest detractor bids farewell to the controversial cartoon slinger. Today dawned like any other. My cat jumped on the bed and started coughing up a hairball. I forgot to get a new towel before jumping in the shower and had to do the hallway streak of shame. I wore odd socks for the … 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
National leader Simon Bridges went on Radio Live this afternoon and came out in favour of the two big NZ media print companies’ bid to merge. Does that mean it will become a partisan issue? Doing a long radio spot as a politician is difficult. An issue can come up basically out of nowhere, the … Read more
For no particular reason we’re celebrating Kiwi companies that are being a bit extra, for the good of working parents. We know the drill. It’s the hardest job you’ll ever have. Working, parenting – parenting, working. It’s tough. We’ve got a bunch of in-built safety nets via our labour laws which (hopefully) ensure parents with … Read more
A scrap with Facebook over a copycat Stuff page reveals how fine the line is between combating fake news and straight up censorship. Fans of the meme page NZ Stuffed would have probably noticed over this week that the content had vanished from their Facebook feeds. Why? It had been shut down by Facebook, at … Read more
Public media in New Zealand would be better served by pumping money into institutions that already exist, rather than inventing a new TV station, argues Alex Braae. The ANZ branch in Taumarunui is closing down. I know that from reading it on the front page of the Ruapehu Press, picked up at a petrol station. … Read more
Yesterday’s Al Nisbet cartoon attacking the #metoo movement unwittingly drew Toby Morris’ attention to a different problem: the very specific demographic drawing cartoons in our daily newspapers. Cartoonists don’t retire, they die. Eventually. And in a way it makes sense. There are a limited number of positions, and it’s a highly specialised skill that’s not … Read more
Two witches at The Spinoff respond to Al Nisbet’s terrible cartoon this morning, one which is not only confused about the meaning of ‘witch hunt’ but could also work to silence women emboldened by #MeToo. What in the name of Anjelica Houston’s wig is this?! Look, we honestly don’t know. We’ve tried burning it at … 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
Originally conceived to notify you of important breaking news, news alerts in New Zealand have morphed into something altogether stranger. David Farrier reports. I’ve been in America a lot this year and it’s felt like I’ve slowly been descending into madness. I’ve found myself in a dark place where each day I’m reminded that the … Read more
Stuff today released Black Hands, their first podcast series, in which leading David Bain authority and occasionally-terrible column writer Martin van Beynen draws on ten years of experience following the case to outline exactly why he believes Bain is guilty of murdering his family. Don Rowe spoke to van Beynen about the killings, the difficulty of … Read more