Welcome to The Spinoff’s brand spanking new website
Ta-dah!
Come in, come in. Welcome to our new whare. It’s fancy eh?
We’re very glad you’re here and we just have to start the tour on our new homepage. You’ll see that all of the usual Spinoff content is there, but in an easy-to-navigate, slick design. Scroll on down the page and check out how easy it is to listen to our podcasts, like At Large with Toby Manhire and Gone By Lunchtime, with a click on the headphones icon. Keep on scrolling and you can binge our short video explainer series, Now You Know, starring the one and only Robbie Nicol.
If you have a favourite Spinoff staff writer, you’re in luck. Head to the bottom of our homepage and you’ll be able to find our journalists and peruse their latest stories.
Head up to the navigation bar at the top of the site and you’ll be able to find our sections, where you can deep dive into the areas that interest you. Don’t miss the culture section, where you can now find our books content, along with the latest from TV & film, our music coverage and more.
We’ll be done with this tour in just a moment, but first, do check out how easy it is to sign up to Spinoff newsletters, so you get all the stories you’re interested in straight to your inbox.
You may be asking, why have we decided to relaunch our website in the middle of election season? Surely we have some other mahi to be getting on with? Yes, fam, we very much do, but our old place was falling down around us so we had to build a new one, and fast.
The correct and polite term to describe what we were dealing with is “technical debt”, but this is New Zealand, so let us continue to labour the housing analogy. For the last 12 years, we’ve essentially been renting a drafty flat. Now, we’ve finally moved into our first home – a beautiful newbuild. It’s faster, safer and designed to showcase our independent journalism.
As with moving into any new house, there are still a few boxes to be unpacked. It's going to take a few days, for example, for any historic comments to show up on the website.
If you’re a regular visitor to The Spinoff, it might take you a minute to get your bearings. Here are some tips to help you get started:
How to log in and comment on the website
We love hearing from our members. Your voice in the comments is a huge part of what makes The Spinoff community special.
The first time you visit our new site, you will need to log back in to your account:
- Click the profile icon at the top right of the new homepage.
- Enter the email address associated with your member account.
- Once logged in, you can set your user name in your profile so you can start commenting on articles straight away. If you already comment regularly and have a user name, all of your existing details will be carried over to the new system.
How to download the app
For a seamless mobile experience, you can download our free app from the Apple app store. The app is headed for the Google Play store and will be available soon. If you already have our app, be sure to update it via your preferred app store.
OK, make yourself at home and let us know what you think.
PS: This project was funded by Google through its News Initiative – not by members’ donations. Google is the only global tech platform operating in New Zealand that directly supports local publishers in any way. We would love for other tech companies to do the same.
Amber Easby
Amber Easby is the CEO at The Spinoff. She was previously head of video, executive producing more than 30 documentary series for the website. Before that, she worked for a band, wrote a book, owned a bar and produced the music video for Lorde’s Royals.
Veronica Schmidt
Veronica Schmidt is the editor of The Spinoff. She has worked in newsrooms in New Zealand and the UK for more than 20 years, yet still gets excited to hit publish.
