Hayden Donnell

Te Papa

Producer at Radio New Zealand (RNZ)

Rosemary Dempsey, the inventor of Kiwi Onion Dip, is our greatest living New Zealander

Articles

Illegal cigarette smuggling man: an appreciation

1 week ago | thespinoff.co.nz | Hayden Donnell

New Zealand has lost its mojo. Maybe it could learn something from a man who strapped 1,620 cigarettes inside his pants and said ‘today is the day I walk through an airport’. Sometimes a single image can change you. Carl Sagan grasped our cosmic insignificance more profoundly after seeing Pale Blue Dot. Millions of children were permanently traumatised at the sight of Simba trying to wake Mufasa up in The Lion King.
The DJ-free zombie station that grew out of the corpse of Today FM is… actually good?

1 week ago | thespinoff.co.nz | Hayden Donnell

Channel X proves people don’t want to hear news, sport, weather, or generally anything that reminds them of human existence in the last 20 years. The last human sound to play on Today FM was a sob. Presenter Tova O’Brien had just accused her bosses of killing the station without ever giving it a chance. A sad heave was audible as the intro to Young Blood by The Naked and Famous came on, its synths drowning out the tears. The musical takeover was a harbinger of things to come.
Mediawatch: A war of letters at NZME

1 week ago | radionz.co.nz | Hayden Donnell

Activist shareholders of one of our most important media companies are trying to persuade others that NZME's future would be better off in their hands. The current directors and the journalists' union warn that would put it at risk, along with the editorial independence of its news. Frustratingly, the battle is playing out behind the scenes and in exchanges of letters.
Mediawatch: A war of letters at NZME

1 week ago | rnz.co.nz | Hayden Donnell

Activist shareholders of one of our most important media companies are trying to persuade others that NZME's future would be better off in their hands. The current directors and the journalists' union warn that would put it at risk, along with the editorial independence of its news. Frustratingly, the battle is playing out behind the scenes and in exchanges of letters.
We did the police college fitness tests to see whether they’re actually easy

2 weeks ago | thespinoff.co.nz | Hayden Donnell

A recent Herald report has some people saying the police college fitness exam is too easy. Hayden Donnell put their theories to the test. Plenty of searing questions have been asked over Michael Morrah’s recent Herald report revealing recruits who failed their fitness tests were admitted to police college. Labour wants to know whether the government may have been putting political pressure on the police to take shortcuts.
Stuff

3 weeks ago | stuff.co.nz | Hayden Donnell
Christian broadcaster Rhema expanding, bucking the media trend

3 weeks ago | rnz.co.nz | Hayden Donnell

When Luke Weston arrived at Rhema Media two decades ago, New Zealand was home to the largest religious music festival in the southern hemisphere. The radio station where he worked as a DJ, Life FM, broadcast live from Mystery Creek each year when about 25,000 people flocked to Parachute to see acts like Jars of Clay or The Newsboys. It was the heyday of contemporary Christian music and Rhema Media was at the heart of the local scene. But Parachute shut down in 2014 due to dwindling crowds.
Can Auckland Council finally do the impossible and get rid of one (1) golf course?

1 month ago | thespinoff.co.nz | Hayden Donnell

The last time an Auckland Council body tried to get rid of a golf course, it ended in disaster. Maybe this time it’ll be different. Auckland Council isn’t known for its ambition. Recently it turned down an 11-storey timber building next to a train station to protect the heritage value of a gravel lot and a Mobil station. It took one of its agencies to court for going rogue and trying to build houses.
Is there life in lifestyle journalism?

1 month ago | rnz.co.nz | Hayden Donnell

The latest Nielson media readership results were mostly another dribble into the ocean of bad news our local media companies float on top of right now. The New Zealand Herald's readership dropped from from 531,000 to just under half a million. The Press lost 11,000 readers year-on-year, and The Sunday Star-Times lost 1000. The Herald on Sunday shed 6000 readers. But New Zealand Listener was a distant light piercing through the gloom.
The madness and mayhem of making Kim Dotcom’s Good Times

1 month ago | thespinoff.co.nz | Hayden Donnell

Court documents suggest Kim Dotcom spent $1,000,000 on Grammy winners, ad campaigns and the best studio in the country. So why was his much-derided album such a disaster? This story was first published in 2015 in Barkers’ 1972 magazine, and is republished here with permission. Read Chris Schulz’s interview with Hayden Donnell about how he got the story here. The young recording engineer looked in some pain. Tennis balls were being smashed into his body at full speed, in front of a crowd of people.