The Fold

Tim Worrall and Miriama McDowell are two of the key creatives behind Head High, a critically acclaimed and pioneering drama which just wrapped its second season on Three. The weird news is, instead of discussing where the series might go next, we’re talking about why it just got cancelled. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Toby Morris’s comics (The Side Eye, The Pencilsword) have been making an impact in New Zealand for some time, but his collaborations with Dr Siouxsie Wiles communicating public health messages around the Covid-19 pandemic went truly global. Released under Creative Commons, these illustrations have been used by governments worldwide and ultimately the World Health Organisation. At the same time as...

Samson Samasoni started his career as a journalist in the 1980s, went to work for the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs, then had a long and fascinating career in communications around the world, working in locations as diverse as Saudi Arabia and Tokelau before returning home to specialise in communicating to Pasifika. In this episode, we discuss NZ on Air's Where are the Audiences research, the...

Janet Wilson is an experienced journalist and public relations consultant who last year took on the role of chief press secretary for the National Party during their ill-fated election campaign, working first under the leadership of Todd Muller, then Judith Collins. In this episode she joins Duncan Greive for an explosive interview in which she discusses Collins' leadership as a threat to the part...

MONOPOD! An in-depth look into some shocking new audience data – and what it means for all of us. Duncan Greive goes solo this week, taking a deep breath before diving into the latest edition of 'Where are the Audiences?', a fascinating annual piece of research commissioned by NZ On Air. It's 46 gushing minutes which seek to try and understand what has happened to our media consumption over the la...

Dylan Cleaver is one of New Zealand’s most acclaimed sports writers, with over 25 years experience at the NZ Herald. A couple of months ago he left the Herald to start The Bounce, a new thrice-weekly sports newsletter, via Substack. He joined Duncan Greive over Zoom this week to talk through the move, how sports journalism has changed in recent years and his investigations into the hidden toll of...

Danyl Mclauchlan is a Wellington based writer. He wrote politics blog The Dim Post back in the blogging era and now writes regularly for The Spinoff, where his recent review of Andrey Mir’s book Postjournalism and the Death of Newspapers. The media after Trump: manufacturing anger and polarization was published. In this episode he joins Duncan Greive over Zoom to discuss the concept of postjournal...

Jon Wild was the series producer and director of The Apprentice Aotearoa – an old-fashioned one-night-a-week series in the era of multi night reality behemoths, and one of the most fun-to-watch New Zealand reality TV series in a long time. In this episode he tells Duncan Greive about making that show, as well as New Zealand's Next Top Model and The Bachelor, the importance of casting and the way t...

Emma Espiner is a writer, commentator, podcaster and doctor. She won Opinion Writer of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards in 2020, the same year she completed her medical degree – her podcast about that final year as a Māori med student navigating New Zealand's inequitable health system, Getting Better, was then named Best Narrative Podcast at the 2021 Voyagers. In this episode she talks with Du...

Dan Ahwa is the creative director at Viva magazine, the NZ Herald’s fashion, beauty, food and wellbeing publication. The title has been running since 1998 and stands out among other newspaper-inserted magazines for how well-crafted and curated it is, with its own distinct aesthetic and values. In this episode, Dan talks to Duncan about surviving the pandemic cutbacks last year to launch a new glos...

Musician and actor Troy Kingi is half way through an ambitious mission to release 10 albums in 10 different genres over 10 years. He joins Duncan Greive on The Fold this week to talk about the project and making his latest album Black Sea Golden Ladder, his mixed feelings about appearing on The Masked Singer NZ earlier this year, the changing music economy and what it’s like being an artist during...

Lucy Blakiston is one of three young New Zealand women behind Shit You Should Care About, a media company built around an Instagram account which was started in 2018 to break down the barriers of entry to news and issues. The account now has over three million followers, and the company is branching out into podcasts and the new web series Extremely Online. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit...

Qiane Matata-Sipu is a journalist, photographer, podcaster, entrepreneur and activist. In 2019 she launched Nuku Women, a multimedia project with the ambitious goal of interviewing and photographing 100 indigenous wāhine. As one of the founders and spokespeople of SOUL (Save Our Unique Landscape) she has also played an important role in occupying and protecting Ihumātao. In this episode she reflec...

Duncan Greive speaks to comedian James Roque about filming his hugely ambitious crowdfunded stand-up hour Boy Mestizo. He is unashamedly trying to sell it to Netflix, and believes its examination of his identity as a Filipino New Zealander will have appeal far beyond these shores. He also talks about being part of the guessing panel on The Masked Singer NZ, the absence left by Jono and Ben – and w...

Duncan Greive sits down with Metro editor Henry Oliver, art director Kelvin Soh and food editor Jean Teng to discuss the resurrection of the legendary title. The team just released the third and best issue since its independent revival after the dramatic collapse of Bauer. They talk about the extraordinary new design scheme, reimagining the tense school rankings, how Auckland's cafe scene is chang...

On this week’s episode of The Fold, Duncan Greive talks to the New Zealand Herald’s deputy political editor Derek Cheng. While most press gallery journalists go to sleep dreaming of politics, Derek Cheng has another true love – climbing. Duncan first met him at a press gallery party, where he was barefoot, cooking up sausages on a barbecue, and since learning of the journalist’s intense passion fo...

So far this year on The Fold, Duncan Greive has spoken to a number of the media's top dogs, gaining insight into how the media runs from a business standpoint. Today we're changing the scope with the launch of our Creator series, featuring conversations with the people on the ground, the ones actually making the media we all consume. First up, Duncan talks to Kirsty Johnston, senior writer at Stuf...

It's been two years since the NZ Herald website launched its premium offering, the first New Zealand media brand to do so. In that time head of premium Miriyana Alexander has learnt a lot about what New Zealanders want from their news, and she joins Duncan Greive to talk about it on this episode of The Fold. They also discuss why The Herald chose their particular hard paywall model and whether tha...

In this week's episode of The Spinoff's media podcast The Fold, Duncan Greive talks to TVNZ CEO Kevin Kenrick about the much talked-about RNZ/TVNZ merger, and Kenrick hints at a paid subscription offering for the TVNZ OnDemand service that could be hitting the market soon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rachel Zhou and Angelina Del Favero were just 14 when they started publishing imPower magazine. The first two editions – focusing on family harm and modern slavery – were sent to every secondary school in the country. Now 17, they're working on a third all about body image. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this week's episode of The Spinoff's media podcast The Fold, Duncan Greive talks to Special Group founder and CEO Tony Bradbourne about the changing world of advertising, going global and making a Superbowl ad. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on The Fold, Duncan Greive talks to broadcasting and media minister Kris Faafoi about funding journalism, putting the audience first and a public media merger. We get to talk with a lot of people in the centre of New Zealand's media industry on this podcast, now we speak to the man representing the media in the Beehive. Kris Faafoi took over the broadcasting and media portfolio after the...

This week on The Fold, Duncan Greive talks to Jason Paris, Vodafone's CEO. After pulling their advertising from Magic Talk in the wake of John Banks' racist comments airing, Vodafone developed an entire policy for ethical advertising. Their CEO Jason Paris tells Duncan Greive about that decision and how it happened so quickly, as well as their new-ish policy on honouring the Treaty. He and Duncan...

In this edition of The Spinoff’s media podcast The Fold, Duncan Greive talks to Cam Wallace, MediaWorks' CEO about Magic Talk, The Rock and the future of commercial radio.   Cam Wallace worked at Air New Zealand for almost two decades before he left last year amid the turmoil of Covid and all it brought upon the travel industry. Just months later as ex-MediaWorks CEO Michael Anderson announced his...

In this episode of The Spinoff’s media podcast The Fold, Duncan Greive talks to ex-head of news at Mediaworks, Hal Crawford, who's just completed a review into the NZ Media Fund. The NZ Media Fund was introduced by New Zealand On Air in 2017 to cover television, radio, music and online media, in hopes that it would more successfully represent the growing diversity of media than past funds. Now, th...