Stuff

"I was in disbelief. How can this be real?" When beloved Kiwi actor, writer and broadcaster Jaquie Brown found out she had breast cancer in April, she kept her diagnosis secret for months and barely left the house. She talks exclusively to Stuff's award-winning Sunday magazine in the Sunday Star-Times this week, about the terror she faced, the comfort of community and learning to live in the moment. Buy the paper, or you can read it on The Post The Press Waikato Times Story Felicity Monk. Photo Bruce M. Frances Morton Matthew Hooton Kamala Hayman Jonathan MacKenzie

It's just a week until the first leaders' debate of this election campaign - and Stuff can now reveal that the Rt Hon Winston Peters has decided he will joust with the leaders of the Greens, Opportunity, Act and Te Pāti Māori next Thursday October 1 at 7.30pm. Filmed in front of a live audience at Stuff's Auckland broadcast studio, The Press Kingmakers' Debate will also feature a 2026 version of The Worm - with Stuff's online audience ranking the leaders' performance live. Moderated by Jenna Lynch and Andrea Vance with a post debate analysis panel of Samantha Hayes Matthew Hooton Kamala Hayman and Mani Dunlop, you can watch it all livestreamed on stuff.co.nz; thepress.co.nz and thepost.co.nz. Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand New Zealand First The Opportunity Party ACT New Zealand Te Pāti Māori

Last week Stuff Digital's Editor-in-chief Keith L. launched a search for New Zealand's next great voice - an opinion leader, social commentator, columnist, creator, visionary or cartoonist who would add real value to the country's largest digital news platform. "We are looking for the next Andrea Vance, Verity Johnson or Matthew Hooton and we don't mind where they come from," he said. Three days later and he has an inbox full of submissions, but there's still time to send in your application for a paid-gig that will help to shape the national conversation. Think you have the chops? Email directly to keith.lynch@stuffdigital.co.nz - judges including the Stuff.co.nz audience will choose the winners who will then be given a regular spot on the site to continue their craft. https://lnkd.in/eAqmUhRb

Big news for Neighbourly's big, big membership today - we've been quietly creating a brilliant new Neighbourly site and we're in the final stages of the super-powered renovation. As the country's only social network for good, Neighbourly has more than a million Kiwis who signed up on the promise of a positive, interactive place to meet the neighbours, trade, chat and share in everything that's good about their community. But under the hood it's what Sinead Boucher technically describes as "a bowl of spaghetti", with old infrastructure that has prevented us from easily delivering on that promise. So our brilliant product team, led by Ben Haywood, has been recreating Neighbourly from the ground up - and we're almost ready to reveal it. Built for the chat era, with a seamless, modern interface, it is the next step in our broader Neighbourly project which in June saw the launch of 18 hyper-local Neighbourly News sites. We're briefly pulling down the blinds on the old Neighbourly site from September 23 while we finish the renovation but www.neighbourlynews.co.nz is powering away in the meantime. And Neighbourly's big reveal is not far away, sans spaghetti.

Stuff Group’s three monthly magazines - NZ House & Garden, New Zealand Gardener and TV Guide - have all seen significant audience growth in the latest Nielsen results, with almost 800,000 Kiwis reading them each month, up 6% on the previous year. NZ House & Garden - the country’s most read monthly subscription magazine - increased its readership by 5% to 400,000 while New Zealand Gardener grew 11% to 284,000 and the weekly TV Guide grew 5% to just under 300,000 readers. The data coincides with a new Quality of Attention Index which shows Kiwis pay more meaningful attention to advertising in magazines than in other media channels. Stuff Owner and Publisher Sinead Boucher says premium print and digital magazines are enjoying a revival as readers seek a calm, finite experience without endless scrolling. “Whether it’s a beautiful, indulgent few hours with NZ House & Garden; the practicalities of expert advice in New Zealand Gardener or the utility of TV Guide cutting through the noise for viewers, our magazines are hitting the right notes for their readers - and for advertisers.” Huge congratulations to editors Naomi Larkin Jo McCarroll and Frances Morton.

"There are now multiple accounts doing the rounds of Parliament buildings which claim that ACT leader David Seymour and the prime minister ended up in a shouting match over what had been going on." " ... really gnarly issues had to be dealt with by the leaders. And that rested on the relationships between them. Key was good at that. He is a naturally sociable human being. Luxon is not. Privately neither Seymour nor Peters respect him and appear to not much like him. So perhaps what happened last week was inevitable." One of the country's best-informed political insiders, Richard Harman joins The Post today, with his new Monday column dishing on what really went down inside the coalition last week with that social media under 16s ban. Spoiler: it wasn't good. Harman asks what that will mean for post-election negotiations and if you want to know the verdict, you can subscribe to the unmissable national political daily here: https://lnkd.in/gAzfyiTH Matthew Hooton Luke Malpass Henry Cooke Andrea Vance https://lnkd.in/em6rJxPa

When you have your say on a Stuff poll, you're not just telling all the other voters what you think, you're telling the country's politicians too! Today, as Hon Erica Stanford MP found out that Labour now backed a first reading of her social media ban for under 16s, she pointed to the Stuff Needle poll where 34,000 people had voted overwhelmingly in support of the ban. "Well (Labour are) in step with the rest of New Zealand then, aren't they," she said. "Because they would have just seen today, that 80% of people on a Stuff poll (support this). And we knew that." Our interactive tools including the Needle and hugely active comments sections, are part of what drove a growing gap between stuff.co.nz and its nearest competitor last month, with 354,000 more Kiwis choosing to get their news from Stuff than any other site. "Our audience loves to share how they're feeling about the news," says Editor-in-Chief Keith L.. And politicians love to see it too. https://lnkd.in/eurw7aG6

Two key Leaders debates; an interactive, multichannel Election night special and a powerhouse team of political editors, journalists and commentators from stuff.co.nz; The Post The Press and ThreeNews: Stuff Group's election lineup 'Aotearoa Decides' will be unmissable. On October 20, PM Christopher Luxon and Chris Hipkins will go head to head in a Leaders Debate from our Auckland studio in front of a live audience, and simulcast on stuff.co.nz; thepost.co.nz and thepress.co.nz. On October 1, the Kingmakers Debate will feature leaders of ACT New Zealand, Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand The Opportunity Party New Zealand First and Te Pāti Māori, again in front of a live studio audience. And on Election night itself, November 7, we will be live on Three, ThreeNews and stuff.co.nz with Samantha Hayes, Paddy Gower, Jenna Lynch and a huge cast of journalistic talent in towns and cities around the country plus in-studio commentators and on-site participation. Says Sinead Boucher: "We’ve designed our Aotearoa Decides election coverage to bring the voice of the people right into every debate and interview, as little matters more for everyday Kiwis than choosing who will lead New Zealand over the next three years." Matthew Hooton Luke Malpass Kamala Hayman Henry Cooke Lloyd Burr Rebecca Wright Lisette Reymer Amelia Wade Zane Small.

So, what just happened? Join The Post's Matthew Hooton and Andrea Vance on stuff.co.nz and thepost.co.nz today for the latest analysis of the Luxon coup that wasn't, and what really went on inside that caucus room this morning.

Will he survive? New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon faces a tough performance assessment this morning as the National caucus meets to decide whether he will lead them to the polls on November 7. The Post had the inside running all day yesterday, and will bring you the latest from the Beehive today. Matthew Hooton Andrea Vance Henry Cooke Luke Malpass Link in comments: