The Fold

Sarah Murray was a longtime staffer at FQ under different owners, before making a bold move to buy the publication outright in 2023. She joins Duncan Greive on The Fold to talk about the publication’s history and its transformation under her stewardship, including its insider club, its awards night and the rise of its ‘sleepover’ activations, which builds a bridge to the creator economy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Fold's first ever listener questions episode is coming – fill out this form to pose a question of hosts Duncan Greive and Glen Kyne. Anna Rawhiti-Connell joins Duncan Greive on The Fold to discuss three huge stories impacting the social media and platform world. First is a landmark trial which contends social platforms are faulty products which visit huge harms upon their users – both Snap and TikTok have settled out of court, while Meta and Google will go to trial in a case with potentially enormous implications for the platforms.Next, they discuss the under-16 ban movement, which is spreading rapidly around the world, including New Zealand. Finally they analyse the EU’s multi-faceted resistance to big tech, one which epitomises the downstream consequences of Trump’s hostility toward his traditional allies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eddie Johnston is first and foremost a huge music fan – he grew up loving New Zealand artists like The Mint Chicks and the Phoenix Foundation, and understood music in the paradigm of CDs and scenes. For many artists, even young musicians, those were the archetypal good old days, before social and streaming broke the model. But Johnston, who performs under the name Lontalius, has a clear-eyed and unsentimental response to the changing times, and tries to find ways to love making music even in the big tech era. He joins Duncan Greive ahead of his Laneway slot to explain how he learned to stop worrying and love the platforms, deep flaws and all. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices