Voyager Media Awards Finalist: The Spinoff, News Website of the Year

The Voyager Media Awards were packed full of amazing, high-quality entries for 2021. From almost 1,500 submissions, 280 finalists were chosen across 66 awards. In this series, we highlight the finalists for this year’s Voyager News Website of the Year and Voyager Reporter of the Year.

We talked to Toby Manhire, editor at The Spinoff, about their nomination as a finalist for the News Website of the Year award.

What do the Voyager Media Awards mean to The Spinoff, and why are they important for NZ media overall? 

We love the Voyagers. In an industry where it’s so rare to stop for breath, the awards are a chance to pause and take in the breadth and quality produced across New Zealand media. We also like to watch Seeby stride out of a giant orb.

Are there any standout pieces of work from 2020 that you’re particularly proud of featuring on the site?

Covid-19 devoured 2020. I’m incredibly proud of the work across the board, but especially the efforts of a largely feature-leaning team to suddenly and willingly switch our prime point of focus to news. The collaborations of Siouxsie Wiles and Toby Morris were beyond anything we might have imagined, and their efforts elevated us all.

Standout pieces of work from 2020:

• The contribution that Toby Morris and Siouxsie Wiles made as New Zealand and the world reeled in the face of a pandemic. 
• The launch of live update news coverage.
• Long-form essay writing, including Nadine Anne Hura’s nominated essay “Listening to the silence: Those who don’t, can’t or won’t vote this election”. 
• A rich slate of video and interactive work, including Scratched, The 100 Year Forecast, and Youth Wings.
• A rapidly growing podcasting network, including the award-nominated Coming Home.

What significance does being a finalist for News Website of the Year hold for you? 

It means a lot to us to be in such esteemed company. 

In such a competitive digital landscape, what would it mean for you to win News Website of the Year?

We’d probably collapse with delight.

Any other thoughts/comments you’d like to share?

2020 revealed a media in Aotearoa, against the odds and strained for resource, teeming with talent. Enormously proud of our small team of absurdly talented people; enormously proud of our peers more broadly.

Big congratulations to The Spinoff and all the other finalists for this year’s awards. The winners’ ceremony is being held 28th May at the Auckland Town Hall.