Editor Madeleine Chapman reflects on some lovely recognition.
Mōrena and welcome to The Weekend, a short one. Given the short week I thought I’d take the opportunity to toot a few horns as The Spinoff was recognised at the Voyager Media Awards a couple of weeks ago. The Voyagers are the premier journalism awards in the country where entries are reduced to three nominees and then one winner on the night. This year, our work in 2023 was specifically recognised with five nominees. Then on the night, we had two winners and one runner-up.
Often with these awards it can be hard to remember what specific work is actually being recognised, and at the same time it’s hard to ignore how much work goes unrecognised every year. Below are our finalists and winners and the specific articles they were nominated (or won) for. All are worth revisiting and if you haven’t read them before, consider this a Best Of compilation.
Gabi Lardies – winner, junior feature writer of the year
– A morning at the death cafe
– Where did the age of consent come from, and how does it work today?
– The march of the armyworm (published by NZ Geographic)
Toby Morris – winner, cartoonist/animator of the year
– The Side Eye: The trans tipping point
– The Side Eye: Case of the missing dads
– The Side Eye: A climate change reality check
Madeleine Chapman – runner up, best columnist, opinion or critique
– On protest and the limits of empathy
– The language double standard
– For Pacific voters, there was no good option
Toby Manhire – finalist, feature writer of the year
– Goodbye Kim Hill: a day with the doyenne of NZ radio
– The fall and rise of David Seymour and the Act Party
– Inside a Restore Passenger Rail civil resistance recruitment session
Charlotte Muru-Lanning – finalist, junior feature writer of the year
– Cushla Tangaere-Manuel can sing – but are the voters listening?
– The many hats of Debbie Ngarewa-Packer
– Why are cafes still charging extra for coffees made with non-dairy milk?
This week’s episode of Behind the Story
Spinoff staff writer Gabi Lardies recently had a big win at the voyager media awards, for best junior feature writer. Gabi first worked at the Spinoff in 2022 so is categorically a junior writer, but as she confesses, she’s secretly 33 years old and has a colourful work history prior to becoming a journalist.
Her recognised work focuses on observational feature writing, stepping into a very specific scene and painting a picture of it for the reader. And this week, Gabi painted a picture of a hunger strike, particularly Will Alexander’s, who announced a strike for Palestine on May 18 and called it off after 19 days at the request of Palestinians. Gabi joined me on Behind the Story to talk switching careers, the importance of mentoring and what happens when your story is overtaken by events.
So what have readers spent the most time reading this week?
- The sitcom life of a Wellington twenty-something with a bizarre cast of characters and no laugh track.
- Duncan Greive talked to David Seymour about the state of media and journalism, and two Seymours emerged: one who leads a party that cheers for the downfall of the news media and one who is among the most thoughtful defenders of the press in politics.
- Joel MacManus assesses the political risk for Wellington mayor, Tory Whanau, in successfully getting the votes to sell the council’s shares in Wellington airport
- Liam Rātana astutely explains why he is tired of King’s Birthday, honouring colonisation, colonisers, and an establishment that represents all that is wrong with the world.
- This week’s edition of our popular Cost of Being series drew a few comments and raised eyebrows, but that is the beauty of a series that just plainly presents a range of different relationships with money.
Comments of the week
On the celebration the birth of the country’s royal figurehead
On little libraries and book dumping
Pick up where this leaves off
Sign up for my weekly Saturday newsletter, where I add more handpicked recommended reading and essentially bundle everything up to land in your inbox at 9am.