The Fold

Chris Schulz has spent years reporting on a healthy New Zealand music industry. Now, the rise of tech platforms like Tik Tok and the decay of music media have made it a really challenging landscape for artists and journalists alike. He talks to Duncan Greive to discuss what’s bedevilling the industry, and what we can do to solve its issues. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adch...

The tech and startup community can, at times, be hostile to the idea of journalism. Caffeine Daily plans to change this. They've hired one of this country’s best business journalists to oversee a site with a different and innovative approach to a fascinating sector. Founders James Hurman and Julie Gill sit down with Duncan Greive to explain what they’re up to. Learn more about your ad choices. Vis...

With historical context and Three's no show in mind, Duncan Greive gives his thoughts on TVNZ’s annual Showcase event held this week and what it signals for the current strength of the media industry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the founder of a number of New Zealand’s most enduring and thoughtful publications, Vincent Heeringa has spent years operating in spaces like sustainability, technology and marketing. He is also Duncan Greive’s former boss. He joins the podcast to discuss how the world has come to be dominated by the exact conversations he's been having for years, and what lessons he's learned along the way. Le...

It’s normal for comedians to have parallel careers in writing or acting – but few people in this business have range like Tom Sainsbury. His latest project is his most ambitious yet – a chilling, thrilling horror film called Loop Track. He joins Duncan Greive to discuss how his extraordinary career has lead to this role. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

He had a long career at the Sunday Star-Times, running the sports pages when they dominated the national conversation. Then the internet happened, and Michael Donaldson felt the light go out. He turned a taste for craft beer into the Pursuit of Hoppiness, a print publication and Substack which exemplifies the power of niche media. He joins Duncan Greive on The Spinoff to talk about his long, circu...

Duncan Greive hits the studio to analyse what’s driving the shock decision to end Three’s popular and successful 7pm news-entertainment hybrid The Project. He digs into recent ratings and explains the history and function of 7pm shows in New Zealand, then imagines what might come next from the digital-first direction hinted at in an email from Newshub’s Sarah Bristow. Learn more about your ad choi...

She became a spokesperson for gaming almost by accident, but as chairperson of the New Zealand Game Developers Association, Chelsea Rapp went on to score the industry’s biggest ever win in this year’s budget. She joins Duncan Greive to discuss how she secured a tax rebate scheme for the gaming sector that is similar to Australia's and the growth she believes the extra investment will bring in the...

Paula Browning is the chair of WeCreate, an umbrella organisation which represents the interests of design, screen, fashion, music and more – a combined $15bn sector. Yet it still struggles to get attention and funding from government. Browning speaks to Duncan Greive to make the case for that to change in the next government, no matter which party is leading it. Learn more about your ad choices....

In the aftermath on an underwhelming Better Public Media NZ debate, in which half the parties didn’t show, Duncan Greive goes solo to vent his frustrations on the current state of political engagement with media in New Zealand, and why the underlying issues matter in what (he self-interestedly thinks) are quite profound ways. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The pandemic saw a huge surge in share prices, as investors processed the step-changed reality of an extremely online, locked down population. Stake distinguishes itself from other trading platforms not just in focusing on a more strategic investor, but also in using content as a core part of its way of gathering and connecting to audiences. Its CMO Bryan Wilmot joins Duncan Greive to talk about t...

Yesterday NZME announced the formation of ZB+, a new subscription platform associated with its much-loved, much-loathed Newstalk ZB brand. It will be edited by Philip Crump, a lawyer-turned-Substacker who found big audiences wading into uncomfortable areas. Reaction to the idea was mostly negative, but Duncan Greive thinks it’s the right play, and explains why in this monopod. Learn more about you...

She has spent her career in television, but when the position of CEO for the NZFC came up, Annie Murray found the opportunity irresistible. She joins Duncan Greive to talk about what makes a New Zealand film, how the sector is handling the prolonged actors and writers strikes, and what recent changes to government incentives are likely to do for the embattled sector. Learn more about your ad choic...

The challenge of climate change is discussed every day, but another issue that's almost as knotty: how do we talk about it in a way which induces the desired response? Nikki Wright runs Wright Communications and has worked with clients like Toyota and Urgent Couriers for almost 20 years in the sustainability space. David Robertson runs Hardwired, a consultancy which deploys behavioural psychology...

She arrived off the boat from Ireland, and within a couple of years was interviewing the prime minister weekly. That led to one of the biggest political scoops of the decade, a long career at RNZ and the extraordinary life she lays bare in her acclaimed memoir Grand. Now McCarthy runs the exceptional podcast company Bird of Paradise, and has collaborated with The Spinoff on Dear Jane, a brand new...

It’s WATA day, Duncan Greive’s favourite day of the media year, when the latest in the vast longitudinal New Zealand on Air media research drops. Duncan gives some top line thoughts and then is joined by New Zealand on Air chief executive Cameron Harland to dig into the weeds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Imagine a social media app where the algorithm didn't prioritise the most divisive content on the platform. Letterboxd co-founder Karl Von Randow and editor-in-chief Gemma Gracewood join Duncan Greive to talk about how they purposefully built a slow, community-centric and non-capital intensive platform. Plus, the current state of film and how it is tracking at the end of the pandemic and the begin...

Over the past two years TikTok has risen to become the cultural heart of the internet, for better and worse. And throughout that time, Kate Lindsay has been there to document it. The former staffer with The Atlantic joins Duncan Greive live from New York to spend a very entertaining hour unpacking the current state of the social media nation, and why reporting on social media often feels so weird....

Chamanthie Sinhalage-Fonseka and Victoria Young met at a party earlier this year, and ended up talking deep into the night about their experiences as Asian wāhine working in the fields of communications and journalism respectively. They wondered why they had met so few colleagues with backgrounds like their own, given the burgeoning pan-Asian population of New Zealand. Instead of shrugging and mov...

She left New Zealand for London 20 years ago, and fought her way into the edges of the music industry the hard way. But a chance encounter with country music a decade ago saw Milly Olykan rapidly become a key figure in unlocking this famously regional music for international audiences. Now she’s VP of international relations for the famed Country Music Association trade group, and she tells Duncan...

Earlier this year, NZME’s long time managing editor resigned – but instead of going to governance or a competitor, he walked straight across to his newsroom. Shayne Currie became “the media insider”, creating an informed, dishy column which has quickly become one of the most-discussed products in NZ’s media. He joins Duncan Greive on The Fold to talk about the road to the c-suite, what drew him ba...

We are now more than a decade into what was once known as influencer marketing, and has now grown into the much more complex and sophisticated creator economy. Wendy Thompson founded Socialites, and recently hired Melanie Spencer as CEO. The pair have been on an acquisition spree, and now have six businesses and almost 50 staff. They explain how they’re taking on major agencies with a singular app...

A television veteran and co-founder of comedy production powerhouse Kevin & Co, Bronwynn Bakker joins Duncan Greive to talk about the strange media era we're in, the foundational role Jono and Ben played in nurturing a generation of comics and her plans to take that talent to global markets. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a spiritual sequel to an earlier interview with Paul Spoonley, Duncan Greive is joined by the head of Growing Up in New Zealand, an extraordinary longitudinal study which gives an unparalleled insight into the world of thousands of kids. Now 13-14, they represent the future of this country, and by extension our media. Sarah-Jane Paine tells Duncan what knowledge the media can gain from this gro...

Red Nicholson is the founder of the D*List, a bold new media brand which just launched aiming to provide a salty, raw and exuberant platform for, by and about disabled people. He and editor Olivia Shivas join Duncan Greive to explain the genesis and kaupapa behind this exciting new venture. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices