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Tova and Duncan
(Image: Tina Tiller)

MediaMarch 30, 2023

‘This is betrayal’: Duncan Garner and Tova O’Brien taken off-air as Today FM faces chop

Tova and Duncan
(Image: Tina Tiller)

The broadcasters let rip live on air ahead of an all-staff meeting at which the shutdown of the year-old station was announced.

“It looks like the end of us,” said Duncan Garner shortly before 9.30am this morning on Today FM.

“We’re being pulled off-air right now. Without even being given a chance,” said Tova O’Brien.

That exchange seems set to be the last heard from either of the two high-profile broadcasters on the station. They told listeners that the fate of Today FM appeared sealed – and they weren’t inclined to go down quietly.

At the start of Garner’s show, O’Brien arrived in the studio accompanied by her news team. “What’s the deal?” said Garner.

“It sounds like it’s over,” she said. “We haven’t been given a chance. We’ve been on air for just a year. We were told we had the support of everyone, from the chief executive through to the board, and they have fucked us. And we’re all going to lose our jobs. And the station is coming off air.”

Garner said: “This is betrayal.”

Shortly before 9am, O’Brien had told her audience that the show, and the station, were at risk: “We came into this organisation with this promise of a long-term strategy. We were going to go for at least five years and that’s when we were going to start seeing results. They had our back, from the CEO, to the executive to the board. And when I met with the acting chief executive I could not get that same assurances.”

She said: “We don’t know anything. We’ve gone off-piste, we’re hoping we’re not going to be dragged out of here by security guards because we’re supposed to be doing debate club right now but we thought it was important to share with you what’s been going on for us behind the scenes.”

After O’Brien joined him on air, Garner said: “This is going to be over pretty quick… we’ve been instructed to play music. I don’t think anyone is going to let Tova and I keep just gobbing off here.”

Producer Tom Day said in a tweet: “Mediaworks said Today FM was a five year plan. They have completely lied”.

A Today FM source told the Spinoff that O’Brien had led a delegation into the office of Wendy Palmer, interim chief executive, at the end of the breakfast show. There were high emotions at the meeting, with Palmer saying she could not discuss the decision until an all-staff meeting was held. That meeting, originally scheduled for noon, was brought forward to 9.30am. “There are a lot of very upset people,” said the source. “It’s off I’d say.”

According to Day, tweeting following the meeting, the Mediaworks board had approved a proposal to “shut down Today FM”. Staff have been given until this afternoon to make submissions in response.

At the meeting, Palmer told staff that since the end of last year the company had confronted “a massive block in terms of revenue”. She indicated that Today FM was likely to be a net annual cost to the company of more than $1 million. “The decision around Today FM that the board have come to is that we will close Today FM,” she told staff, adding that the digital division would remain intact.

In a statement to the Spinoff, Palmer said: “This morning at the MediaWorks Board’s request, we have taken Today FM off air while we consult with the team about the future of the station. This is a difficult time for the team and our priority is supporting them as we work through this process.”

The development comes after the resignation of chief executive Cam Wallace, who championed the station as an important new part of the radio mix in Aotearoa, and is on his way to a role at Qantas. That was swiftly followed by the announcement that Dallas Gurney, director of talk, would be departing.

Garner said this morning: “Dallas is a brilliant radio man. I think you’re right, Tova, there is something going on. We’re exposed, we don’t have a line of defence any more.”

The launch of Today FM, just over a year ago, was delayed following an employment dispute between O’Brien and Newshub, where she was formerly political editor. The station has struggled to make an indent in audience ratings.

A MediaWorks source characterised Today FM as having been hamstrung due to internal opposition from at least one senior executive, saying that the project had required nerve and tenacity.

At the end of O’Brien’s show, during the “debate” segment, Garner said: “Do we have to do a show at 9?” O’Brien replied: “And tomorrow and the next day and the next day because we will keep fighting for what we believe in at Today FM. We’ll keep fighting for our whānau, for our newsroom, for our teams.”

“People who own companies are brutal,” Garner. “If they need to make cuts, they’ll make cuts.”

O’Brien: “We’re talking every morning when we come in, what’s it going to be, what’s going to happen. We’ve not been able to get those assurances. What’s the board looking at? Are we coming back, are we the one?”

O’Brien said she remained optimistic. “We have to be because they will see sense,” she said. “People have to see sense. We are, as far as I know, the books are pretty good for us, the numbers they tell the story. And hopefully that is the story. Money! And there’s you. You, our listeners. I have every intention of staying here, and staying on air, but we really felt it was important for us to disclose what’s been going on here behind the scenes. We’ve tried to be professional and come in here every day, and enjoy it and we’re still enjoying it now.”

Garner announced he’d just received a text message from CEO, reading, “Could we have a catch up when you get off the air this morning please? Just pop into my office.”

O’Brien said: “That’s a few of us now who have been summoned into the chief executive’s office, the acting chief executive, and when I asked her last week for an assurance about …”

“Your job?”

“Our jobs. Our station, I couldn’t get anything,” said O’Brien.

“That’s a pretty unsettling text message to get three minutes before you’re going on air, isn’t it?”

“I’m hoping she’s calling us in to tell us we’re getting that assurance.”

“‘We think you’re doing really well, we’re gonna extend your contracts.’,” imagined Garner, sardonically.  

“In no reality that I live in do we go from getting 100% support of everybody for a long-term plan to lights out, so I can’t believe that anyone would be so short-sighted and so brutal and so ruthless, but …”

“Badly. Trust me, we’ve seen this before. It’ll play out badly.”

“We’ve all experienced it before.”

“In any universe, we’re buying quite a fight with certain sections of society.”

‘If you regularly enjoy The Spinoff, and want it to continue, become a member today.’
Toby Manhire
— Editor-at-large

O’Brien said: “We’ve broken from regular programming, we’re hoping we’re not going to be dragged out of here by security guards, because we’re supposed to be doing Debate Club right now but we thought it was important to share with you what’s been going on for us behind the scenes. So whatever the decision is, hopefully a good one, nobody is going to be blindsided by it in our Today FM community.”

Addressing Garner and newsreader Carly Flynn, she said: “We love you guys, we love our newsroom, I love you two …”

Flynn said: “We love what we get to do here. It’s always such a privilege to get to talk to New Zealanders and share stories of cool Kiwis and what they’re doing, and I’m so proud of what we achieved in this last year.”


Follow Duncan Greive’s NZ media podcast The Fold on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favourite podcast app.


This post was updated to include breaking news.

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The image is a repeating pattern of the logo for The Bulletin, the Spinoff's daily morning news email
Image: Archi Banal

MediaMarch 30, 2023

What is The Bulletin?

The image is a repeating pattern of the logo for The Bulletin, the Spinoff's daily morning news email
Image: Archi Banal

Someone at The Spinoff has been getting up very early each weekday to showcase everyone else’s news since 2018. The result is The Bulletin, the Spinoff’s morning news email. Now that it’s five years old, it’s time to reintroduce it, explain what it is and why you should subscribe.

In March 2018, The Spinoff, an entirely digital media company in Aotearoa, New Zealand decided it should attempt to recreate the front page of a newspaper. It also decided it should do that using email. Not social media or holographic projection, not algorithms or AI,  and not video or podcast, but email.

What resulted was The Bulletin, a uniquely singular proposition in the news media landscape that sought to curate news and great journalism in one place and email that to people for free each weekday morning. What was doubly strange about it, especially for an online media venture, was that it would not only point people to its own great work but the great work of journalists and writers from different media outlets in New Zealand and recommend to people that they read it on those different media sites.

At launch, Toby Manhire described The Bulletin as a “small but important contribution” to “championing the best parts of the very good journalism produced in New Zealand” set away from the race for clicks and social media algorithms, curated by a human editor. 

Spinoff editor Madeleine Chapman, former Bulletin editor Alex Braae and current editor Anna Rawhiti-Connell at The Bulletin’s fifth birthday event in March 2023 (Photo: Jin Fellet)

In the least newsworthy statement you might find on this site today, almost nothing has changed except for the editors, some formatting and the “small” part. The Bulletin is now subscribed to by more than 38,500 people, is one of the largest newsletters in New Zealand and is read and opened half a million times each month. It now exists in a media landscape where newsletters and email are resurgent. We publish The Bulletin on Substack.

I am the current editor. Alex Braae was editor for three years before becoming the executive producer of TVNZ’s Q&A and then Justin Giovannetti took over. Catherine McGregor has joined me as a contributing writer and writes The Bulletin on Mondays and Fridays. I write it Tuesday – Thursday.

What is The Bulletin?

It’s an email newsletter that is delivered to you each weekday morning once you have signed up to receive it. It wraps up the key news stories of the day by drawing on sources from across New Zealand media, summarises them, links you to good writing about them and then leaves you be. Just as the paper becomes tomorrow’s fish and chip wrapping, we are very happy for The Bulletin to put in the digital bin once you have what you need from it.

Where can I see what this thing is?

Here is a recent edition.

How do I get it?

Simple. Add your email address below and it will start arriving from tomorrow and then every weekday. 

What do I get every weekday if I sign up?

Each day there will be a lead topic that explores a big issue in more depth broken into four clear and short sections. Sometimes it’s a Spinoff exclusive or something that’s been a bit underreported but is nonetheless important. Other days it might be about the economy, politics, climate change, tech or cultural issues. What we can promise is we spend a lot of time thinking about what is consequential and that most of the time, our lead is focussed on what’s happening in this country.

This is followed by short summaries of three other news stories, a section of quick links called “Click and Collect” to make sure we’ve covered all bases for you, including weather and international news, a selection of sports news and most days, a great recommended long read or feature.

It comes neatly packaged as one email. The lead will always be published as an article on The Spinoff each morning, but a solid two-thirds of The Bulletin is for those who subscribe. That two thirds is where you’ll also find the long read, a bad pun, something to lighten the load on heavy news days during heavy times and once a year, a photo of my dogs.

Who is it for?

  • People who love news and current affairs
  • People who care about the world around them
  • People who need to be informed of the day’s agenda and issues of significance for work
  • People who feel like they should be across news but don’t have spare time and want one place to find it
  • People who like good journalism
  • People looking for a little bit more context on current affairs or some further reading to get stuck into

Some people tell us they enjoy it over coffee or in bed, some people skim it on the bus, while others read it at night.

What does it cost?

Zero dollars. Zip, nada, nothing. Just your email address.

Who writes it?

Me, a former columnist and feature writer now newsletter junkie, editor and head of audience at The Spinoff, and Catherine McGregor, former deputy editor and culture writer at The Spinoff. 

Where can I hear more about this thing?

Hold the line caller – a live podcast recording of The Bulletin’s fifth birthday “In Conversation” event for Spinoff members in March was published as an episode of Duncan Greive’s podcast, The Fold.

When and how is it written?

Partially the night before, and then it’s refreshed and sometimes wholly written depending on breaking news overnight from between 4 and 7am-ish each morning. We track breaking news and big news, we watch Parliament TV and read press releases, Hansard and many, many reputable media sites here and abroad. We listen to breakfast radio and watch the 6pm news (both channels) and digest it for you. We link you to the stories and make recommendations on good explainers, rich features and worthy opinion and commentary. We do all this with a voice that has been unique to each editor but is consistent, trusted and familiar.

Why would anyone do this…

I was reading all the news anyway so this seemed like a way to profit off that. That statement is partially true but I signed up to do it because like all news tragics, I was a big fan and reader of The Bulletin and when asked if I was interested in becoming editor, I panicked and said omg, yes.  Catherine has joined me and we do it because it’s a genuinely rewarding service to offer people and a way to be able to tip our hats to the many journalists and writers we admire.  

Do you wear a dressing gown while writing it?

No comment.

Want to sign up to The Bulletin. Click here to subscribe and join over 38,500 New Zealanders who start each weekday with the biggest stories in politics, business, media and culture.  

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