The Fold

Emergency Pod: Hooton to The Post! 16.06.2026 38min

Toby Manhire joins Duncan Greive for an emergency episode to discuss the genuine shock appointment of columnist and political operator Matthew Hooton to editor-in-chief of The Post. We discuss his history, what his columns tell us about him, the potential fallout with staff and audiences, and whether his lack of newsroom experience is surmountable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

HBO Max is (finally) here. What does that mean for HBO, and for Sky? 15.06.2026 44min

Jason Monteiro is head of streaming for WBD across APAC, and joins Glen Kyne and Duncan Greive on The Fold to discuss the late arrival of one of the biggest streaming platforms in the world to a small and seemingly saturated market. Monteiro makes the case that this is not just some of Sky’s Neon in new clothes, but in fact a powerful and singular platform in its own right. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The NBR’s co-editors make the case for the Rich List, 40 years after it was born 14.06.2026 48min

Hamish McNicol and Calida Stuart-Menteath co-edit the National Business Review, New Zealand's business publication of record. For a publication which could appear very conservative, it has been anything but across both its editorial output and its business strategy. McNicol and Stuart-Menteath join Duncan Greive on The Fold to discuss their flagship editorial project, the Rich List, and the impact of various brilliant (and occasionally bizarre) decisions the NBR’s owners, Todd and Jackie Scott, have made over the years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The creator economy goes mainstream 08.06.2026 44min

Duncan Greive is joined by James Davidson, Chief Strategy & Planning Officer, PHD Aotearoa; Lisa Leicester – Head of Social & Innovation, Omnicom Media; and Mike Delaney – Group Product Director, Omnicom Media, all in partnership with PHD Aotearoa.In the age of influencer marketing, the strict planning and measurement tools long honed by the media industry and expected by brands were effectively thrown to the wind in favour of likes, shares, and attractive people spruiking brands. Omnicom's development and recent launch of CREO to the NZ market aims to correct that by offering a single solution for planning, deploying and measuring creators as a media channel – not an add-on tactic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The end of the Paul Thompson era at RNZ, Re: News, and what’s in the (media) budget 29.05.2026 39min

Glen Kyne returns to The Fold to analyse the resignation of Paul Thompson after 13 years running RNZ, look back on the Re: News era and touch on last week’s (not Voyager) Media Awards. We also provide quick reactions to Budget 2026 and what it presents for the media sector. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emergency pod: Toby Manhire interviews Duncan Greive about his shiny new project Lume 21.05.2026 30min

Sharp-eyed and longtime Spinoff readers might have noticed that The Fold host Duncan Greive has been staggeringly unproductive as a writer lately. For once, there is a good explanation for that: a new and quite ambitious new music app and platform named Lume. To manage the colossal conflict of interest that entails, The Spinoff’s editor-at-large Toby Manhire guest hosts The Fold to ask Duncan all about Lume. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Unhappy endings for Maiki Sherman and the BSA, and Seymour’s war with RNZ 18.05.2026 38min

Media is a fraught place at the moment, less due to persistent economic challenges than external forces acting upon it. Glen Kyne returns to The Fold to discuss the end of Maiki Sherman’s time as political editor at TVNZ, the shutdown of the BSA and David Seymour’s pointed provocations of RNZ. Finally, they talk about the travails of rugby in Auckland, after a weekend that showed the strength of the Auckland FC and Warriors brands, and the comparative flakiness of the Blues (producer Te Aihe joins as Hurricanes correspondent to ensure we acknowledge their part in rugby’s issues in the big smoke). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What we got wrong about the Tom Phillips and Polkinghorne documentaries 11.05.2026 50min

Philippa Rennie has had a near unique view of real life TV storytelling in New Zealand. She worked as the in-house lawyer for Warner Brother Productions for a decade, before moving across to make television as head of scripted there. She joins the Fold to speak with admirable candour about what went wrong on shows like Married at First Sight, why Julie Christie probably isn’t the right person to make a show about the Marokopa-Phillips case, and how you satisfy ethical considerations while still making compelling television. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emergency monopod: The end of the BSA 06.05.2026 32min

Duncan Greive flies solo to break down and respond to the shock decision to shut down the BSA. He gives reaction from the key players, talks about where it might head next and pays tribute to the courage of the BSA in opening a door when this was always a likely outcome. Then he gives a view of the Maiki Sherman affair, before closing on a quick take on the first month of John Campbell's Morning Report. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dentsu’s Rob Harvey on why bigger can be better in the AI age 04.05.2026 51min

Rob Harvey is CEO of Dentsu across Australia and New Zealand – it’s one of the biggest ad agencies in the world, and Rob is notable for the length of time he’s spent leading it locally. In an industry notable for executives burning bright then shifting up, down and sideways, Harvey has been a deeply committed constant. He’s led the Aotearoa business since 2013 – before Netflix landed here – and last year took over the Australian operation too, meaning he now oversees more than 1000 staff across its various brands. Dentsu is notable for a number of reasons. It’s one of what used to be known as the “big six” ad agencies, now the “big five” after the merger of Omnicom and IPG. They’re known as the “holdcos” within advertising, and the term can be used derisively by some, as a synonym for mercilessly squeezing and flattening in a way which doesn’t necessarily deliver the best for its people or clients. However Rob offers a persuasive defence of the model, saying the name no longer well-describes his business at least. Dentsu is also the only one of the “big five” from Japan, which has a legendarily specific and singular business culture, so we talk about how that flows through its offices. Dentsu has endured a tough few years in this part of the world, with Australia recording a massive $500m paper loss in 2023, in part due to a bet on competing with the consultancies on broader business strategy work. None of that happened on Harvey’s watch however, and the business is considered to be well into a turnaround. Finally, because this episode is recorded in partnership with the Communications Council – of which Harvey is president – we discuss their excellent event Media Spotlight, happening in late May. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why are indie agencies thriving in a semi-broken advertising economy? 27.04.2026 50min

Sam Stuchbury is the executive creative director and founder of Motion Sickness, and Lee Lowndes is the chief executive and founder of Daylight. Each of them run independent creative agencies, each is under 40, each took home golds at the recent Axis Awards, and - most importantly - each has a very differentiated conception of what an agency is in 2026. They have each found a way to thrive in an era where many of the big ad agencies feel defined more by their challenges than opportunities.Motion Sickness is on some kind of hot streak, and has just made the decision to rebrand as a creative company over an ad agency. That hasn’t stopped them taking home a raft of advertising awards. Cannes Lions have called them one of the top five global independent agencies this year, they took the Grand Prix for their herpes work, and were just named agency of the year at Axis for their Māori roll call, and their brilliantly original work helping bring people back to Karangahape Road.Daylight, meanwhile, defines itself as a “creative and technology studio”, meaning it builds digital products then wraps campaigns around them to get those apps to the right audiences. Its most recent output is Billy, a highly sophisticated tool to get consumers onto the best energy plan, with a major media campaign to help build awareness of it. They’ve also built platforms for media organisations like the Pacific Media Network and Fiji Sun, along with continuing their work for the World Health Organization.Duncan Greive is a shareholder and co-founder of Daylight. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The five biggest stories in NZ media right now 20.04.2026 49min

Glen Kyne returns to The Fold to catch up on all the biggest stories in recent times. We look at the existential challenge the BSA opened up, and try and figure out what’s really going on with Troy Bowker and Stuff. Then we look at the recent NZME workplace review, and contrast it with a much more substantial effort from Mediaworks a few years ago. We assess the early returns from Tova O’Brien’s arrival at TVNZ and John Campbell at RNZ, before finally weighing in on the Tom Phillips documentary controversy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Exclusive: How Mike Minogue partnered with TVNZ+ on podcasting 13.04.2026 45min

He’s very familiar as the star of Wellington Paranormal, and a radio host with Hauraki – but Mike Minogue’s greatest achievement might be Frank, his burgeoning agency. Frustrated with the quality of talent representation in Aotearoa, Minogue started Frank to bring a different approach to the established players. But he added speaker representation and, crucially, podcast representation to Frank’s mix – and in so doing set it up for a landmark deal.Today, The Fold can reveal that Frank is the exclusive supplier of podcasts to TVNZ+ – a milestone for the form, and one which brings TVNZ into line with Netflix and YouTube, each of which is making a big play to make podcasts a big part of their strategy. Minogue joins Duncan Greive on The Fold to explain his motives for starting Frank, and why he is betting big on podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The story of the 21st century is all about the end of trust 06.04.2026 38min

Richard Edelman was deeply prescient, when he responded to the “battle for Seattle” by commissioning an annual global survey of institutional trust. For a quarter century the trust barometer has revealed the extent to which countries and societies have grown insular and mistrustful, and catalogued the downstream consequences. basically, it’s not just media, it’s everyone.New Zealand is no different, and Acumen, which runs the research locally, has the numbers. Chief executive Adelle Keely joins Duncan Greive to discuss what it shows, and what (if anything) can be done about it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The BSA chooses to face its existential dilemma head on 01.04.2026 29min

After six months of careful deliberation, and six years after it first floated the idea, the broadcasting standards authority decided that it definitively does have jurisdiction over platforms like The Platform. This set off a firestorm stretching across politics, law and media, with the regulator having the temerity to suggest that one, relatively tiny corner of the internet was within its bounds. In a reversal of typical roles, Toby Manhire hosts Duncan Greive to break down this story, at once arcane and enormous. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

First t-shirts, then podcasts, now the world: the story of YOUKNOW 30.03.2026 38min

Joe Webb was working as a coder when he printed a t-shirt at a mate’s house. Within a few years YOUKNOW had become a ubiquitous brand, thanks to their knack for creating social content which created a real sense of community. Then in 2023 he repeated the trick in a whole new paradigm, launching The Morning Shift as a daily podcast to overnight success. He joins Duncan Greive on The Fold to talk about the challenges of running these two businesses, what made each click – and why the future of the media side is aiming global. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Spotify paradox: why hundreds of fans can beat millions of streams 23.03.2026 44min

Joel Gouveia is a music supervisor, artist manager and booking agent, with a Substack. Earlier this year he wrote a series of posts, each more successful than the last, which drilled into the streaming music economy in a vivid and challenging way. He talked about bands with millions of streams that sold a dozen tickets, while others with comparatively tiny audiences could sell out tours. He looked some of the economic and cultural failings of music streaming and shone a bright light on them, basically – and those posts were the most popular pieces on the whole Substack network, showing just what a chord he struck. He joins Duncan Greive on The Fold from his office in Toronto to explain his thinking, and why he started speaking out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This journalist says we’re thinking about AI all wrong 16.03.2026 56min

Alan Soon is a journalist and media consultant who runs Splice Beta, one of Asia’s most popular news media festivals. He recently wrote an extremely provocative piece arguing that journalism as an institution has been ignoring and underplaying advances in AI. He joins Duncan Greive on The Fold from Singapore to unpack this thesis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listener mailbag! We answer your media questions 09.03.2026 1h 4min

The Fold’s regular hosts go through the audience’s best questions, running from media buying to the government as an advertiser to the future of Sky to whether Three should have been born at all. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A deep dive into Sky’s huge week, plus NZME’s editorial changes 02.03.2026 50min

Last call for our first ever listener questions episode – fill out this form to pose a question of hosts Duncan Greive and Glen Kyne. Glen Kyne joins Duncan Greive to discuss a major week for Sky, which staged the first upfronts from any New Zealand broadcaster since 2023, and delivered its first set of results since its acquisition of Three. After attending the upfronts, Glen and Duncan share their notes – and also analyse Paramount’s shock win in the race to acquire Warner Brothers, and NZME’s impressive annual results (and some late-breaking editorial news). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices