If you’re across the ditch, you can no longer access our content via Facebook. Here’s how to ensure you don’t miss anything. In light of the news that Facebook has blocked news content for its users in Australia, here’s a reminder to our readers there – in fact anyone with an interest in news from … Read more
A selection of highlights from the upcoming Garden Party Festival, presented by Verb Wellington and The Spinoff. What are you doing next weekend? Want to come to a party? If you’re in Wellington February 20-21, consider yourself invited to The Garden Party, a brand new summer festival presented by Verb Wellington and The Spinoff. Held … Read more
The Spinoff was in mortal peril in late March, before its members came to the rescue. Managing editor Duncan Greive takes a look at what those members made possible in this most memorable year. Illustration and design by Ezra Whittaker and Lauren Maree Stewart. I’m writing – exhausted and, if I’m entirely honest, with a … Read more
If you love The Spinoff and are an experienced developer, we want to hear from you. The Spinoff is looking for an intermediate developer to join us in our Morningside, Auckland office to take ownership and responsibility for the development of the full Spinoff site. This includes writing extensible and robust full stack code in … Read more
If you love The Spinoff and have a vision for how it should appear on Instagram and TikTok, we want to hear from you. The Spinoff is looking for a social media specialist with a focus on Instagram and TikTok. This is a full-time position with a fixed term three-month contract attached, working from our … Read more
Here’s what we have planned for the weeks to come. A month from today, on Saturday September 5, voting begins in the general election of 2020. Election day itself isn’t for another fortnight, on September 19, but if the trends of recent times is a guide, more than half of all votes will be cast … Read more
A new platform for Members means 100% of contributions go towards making Spinoff journalism happen. Plus: A merch store! Kia ora, This is the biggest announcement we’ve had since the launch of The Spinoff Members a year ago. For many months now we’ve been ferreting away at a big overhaul of the way members engage … Read more
Three new permanent staff positions and casual shift work available. We entered the level four lockdown in the unfortunate position of having lost a few key senior staff in recent months, without yet having found their replacements. Now, with the white-hot first phase of the story starting to ebb, we’re recruiting some much-needed reinforcements. Our tight, … Read more
The 48-hour film festival is back, self-isolation style. While the judging panel is deciding the winners, The Spinoff is showcasing seven films from the competition. We’re sharing one a day in the lead-up to the one-hour awards special, airing on TVNZ2. Today we’ve got It Was Sol from team Piwaiwaka. A family heirloom is broken, but … Read more
Itching to pick up the camera even though you’re in lockdown? We’re excited to announce that 48Hours is back this weekend, self-isolation style. So what’s the festival? For the past 18 years, 48Hours has been an annual festival celebrating the best in fast, furious film-making, and even though the country is in lockdown, this year … Read more
The Fold podcast returns for March into a media world transformed by the impact of Covid-19. Host Duncan Greive records a monopod to assess its impact. In last month’s edition of this podcast, The Spinoff editor Toby Manhire and I discussed RNZ’s Concert debacle. At the time, it was the biggest story in media; now … Read more
How The Spinoff is dealing with the evolving crisis – and what’s driving our work. On Monday morning I had coffee with Toby Manhire, The Spinoff’s tireless (but also very tired) editor, at a cafe underneath our Morningside office. He had worked all weekend, filing stories at midnight on both Saturday and Sunday, as Covid-19 … Read more
Attention: aspiring writers and reporters. Today The Spinoff announces a brand new internship, running for six months and paid the living wage, for writers without newsroom experience who would like to join our Auckland-based team. The successful candidate will spend six months based at our office, gaining experience across reporting, feature writing, editing, video production, … Read more
The Spinoff is seeking applications for the role of business journalist, starting February 2020. The Spinoff is seeking a journalist to run our business section. Primarily a writing and reporting role, they will also commission and edit from within our (we think) excellent group of staff writers, and occasionally outside the room too. Our business … Read more
After years of trying, The Spinoff today launches Money – its newest section, one aimed at demystifying and making accessible the world of money. For decades, the relationship between most New Zealanders and money was broadly stable, baked into a set of milestones it was assumed all aspired to and would achieve if they strived. … Read more
Today The Spinoff Book launches itself keenly into the world, replete with many of the best reads from five years of The Spinoff, plus a host of freshly written material and lashings of new illustrations by Toby Morris. Here’s a taste of the new stuff: an essay by the inimitable Madeleine Chapman on her time … Read more
For three hours, we’re going quiet. Here’s why. Despite it being known, catalogued and largely undisputed for decades, a decent response to climate change felt like something we could reach by next year. We just had to get our head around the housing crisis, or the GFC, or the Iraq war, or big tech, or … Read more
Two months of sustained coverage of the local elections, all around New Zealand – brought to you by The Spinoff Members. Plus, a week concentrating on climate change. A month ago, we launched The Spinoff Members – a new initiative to enable our readers to contribute to our work both financially, and with editorial guidance. … Read more
We’re launching a brand new membership programme, inviting readers to support new journalistic endeavours and help shape our editorial direction. Today The Spinoff enters a new era with the launch of The Spinoff Members. It will support our growth in a way which ensures our work remains free to all, while also allowing us to … Read more
Last night at the Voyager Media Awards in Auckland, The Spinoff was named website of the year. Managing editor Duncan Greive is still in shock. It’s 8.43am and I’ve had I’m guessing ~4 hours sleep, but who in the world needs that because The Spinoff has won website of the year at the Voyager Awards. … Read more
Tonight the nation’s journalists, photographers, videographers, reviewers and columnists gather at Auckland’s glamorous Cordis Hotel for the most glittering night in media, the Voyager Media Awards. Read a selection of The Spinoff’s rip-roaring 17 nominations here. Website of the Year Please discover more of our great content at the following link: thespinoff.co.nz Best First-Person Essay … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Wally Haumaha to keep job despite criticism in IPCA report, state of the immigration system in focus, and quarterly stats show economic slowdown. The appointment of Deputy Police Commissioner Wally Haumaha has been a festering sore of a story over much of the year. From the criticisms raised by … Read more
The Spinoff partnered with UMR to survey the attitudes of our readers, and the nation as a whole. Today, how social are The Spinoff readers? And how much do we suck at chores? Turns out The Spinoff readers love having friends more than anything else in this tumultuous journey we call life – including having … Read more
The Spinoff partnered with UMR to survey the attitudes of our readers, and the nation as a whole. Today, how are we consuming media, and what do we reckon about it? Previously: Data! Opinions! The results of The Spinoff’s major national survey with UMR With apologies to Maddie Holden, clicks are abundant and low value. … Read more
The Spinoff and UMR this year undertook a major research project, surveying 1000 readers and 1000 general population on a range of contemporary issues. Each day this week we’ll release a different set of data, beginning with Alex Braae analysing five graphs which collectively give an overview of scope of the project. Earlier this year, … Read more
We lured an official judge from The Great Kiwi Bake Off into the offices to critique our cakes, and it was an emotional rollercoaster. Here at The Spinoff, reality TV is kind of a big deal. So when a new show comes out, we really put our heart and soul into it. Alex Casey and Sam Brooks … Read more
It’s our hour-long finale with live music, numerous guests and hot, hot curry. What could possibly go wrong? We’ve arrived at the grand finale of The Spinoff TV! If the last 15 weeks have been a roller coaster, tonight’s episode is the big twisty corkscrew part where all the money falls out of your pocket … Read more
A year on from the last election, and barely a breath before the next, we’re rebooting our politics coverage. Toby Manhire explains. A wave of recent-past nostalgia has washed over New Zealand in recent weeks. The anniversary of the elevation of Jacinda Ardern to the leadership of the Labour Party amid a helter-skelter campaign. The … 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