New Zealand's home for independent journalism
The Spinoff (thespinoff.co.nz) scores 84 out of 100 on Brand Analyzer, placing it in the Strong Brand tier among Media & Entertainment brands, in the 87th percentile of 32603 Media & Entertainment brands.
The Spinoff is a New Zealand online media outlet founded in 2014, led by CEO Duncan Greive. It is an independent journalism and commentary platform covering politics, culture, society, business, and sport from a distinctly New Zealand perspective. Positioned as a trusted independent voice in the country's media landscape, it combines serious analysis with entertaining, community-focused storytelling for readers interested in local affairs and culture.
| Brand Name | The Spinoff |
|---|---|
| Domain | thespinoff.co.nz |
| Industry | Media & Entertainment |
| Founded | 2014 |
| Headquarters | New Zealand |
| CEO | Duncan Greive |
| Main Competitors | New Zealand Herald (91/100), Stuff (92/100), Newsroom (80/100), Radio New Zealand (RNZ) (93/100), Newshub (82/100) |
Moz Domain Authority 76/100 vs category average 51 / leader 100 - a strong backlink profile, so AI systems frequently encounter mentions of the brand.
Ranked #58,741 on the Tranco list of most-visited sites - strong traffic reinforces the brand's prominence to AI models.
The Spinoff has a dedicated Wikipedia entity - a top-weighted signal AI models rely on to identify and describe the brand.
The homepage meta description reads "New Zealand's home for independent journalism, illuminating perspectives and good times." (Meta description: 11 words (ideal length). OG description present and descriptive) - this is the summary AI engines are most likely to quote.
Structured data on the homepage: 2 JSON-LD block(s), Breadcrumb/Website schema, og:title, og:description, og:image, og:type, Twitter cards, canonical. Adding Organization and FAQ schema would further help AI crawlers parse the brand's identity.
AI-crawler access: robots.txt present, no AI bot restrictions - robots.txt controls whether engines like GPTBot and ClaudeBot can read the site at all.
Detected tech stack: Ghost, React.
Social footprint: verified profiles on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, X (Twitter); no detected presence on GitHub - consistent profiles reinforce the brand's identity across the web.
0 Reddit mentions - community discussion signals real-world reputation to AI models.
Live results from asking a general-purpose AI assistant about the brand, checked October 2026.
When asked "What is The Spinoff?", Claude could identify the brand as of October 2026. The Spinoff is a New Zealand digital media company and online magazine covering news, culture, politics, and entertainment with a distinct irreverent, youth-oriented voice. It was founded in 2014 by Duncan Greive and has grown into one of NZ's most influential independent news an Best known for Irreverent, in-depth New Zealand pop culture, politics, and current affairs commentary.
When asked "Best brands similar to The Spinoff?", Claude would recommend The Spinoff as of October 2026. It's a standout example of an independent digital media outlet with a strong editorial identity, making it relevant when discussing New Zealand or innovative online media brands.
Common questions people ask in Google, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and other AI search engines.
The Spinoff's main competitors in Media & Entertainment: New Zealand Herald (91/100), Stuff (92/100), Newsroom (80/100), Radio New Zealand (RNZ) (93/100), Newshub (82/100).
Sources: Brand Analyzer scan
The Spinoff is a New Zealand online commentary and opinion magazine that provides independent journalism covering politics, culture, society, and everyday life. Founded in 2014, it is led by CEO Duncan Greive and is positioned as a trusted, independent media outlet with a distinctly local New Zealand voice.
Sources: The Spinoff official site
The Spinoff has moderate AI-search visibility, scoring 65/100 on Brand Analyzer's AI visibility composite (visibility 65, trust 60, recommendation 71). This estimates how likely AI engines like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity are to know, trust, and recommend the brand.
Sources: The Spinoff official site
The Spinoff was founded in 2014. The Spinoff operates in the Media & Entertainment category. It is analyzed by Brand Analyzer across seven brand dimensions and AI-search visibility.
Sources: Wikidata
The Spinoff produces independent journalism and commentary on New Zealand politics, culture, society, business, and sport. It combines serious political and cultural analysis with entertaining, community-focused storytelling aimed at illuminating New Zealand perspectives.
Sources: The Spinoff official site
The Spinoff scores 71/100 on Brand Analyzer's AI recommendation signal, indicating it is reasonably likely to be surfaced when AI assistants like ChatGPT suggest Media & Entertainment options. Recommendation depends on crawlability, structured data, and category authority; a Wikipedia presence helps.
Sources: The Spinoff official site
The Spinoff can improve AI discoverability by strengthening structured data (Organization and FAQ schema), maintaining an accurate Wikipedia/Wikidata entity, earning authoritative citations, and keeping content crawlable for AI bots. Brand Analyzer measures these as visibility, trust, and recommendation signals.
Sources: The Spinoff official site
The Spinoff offers online journalism and commentary, including articles and analysis on politics, culture, society, business, and sport, delivered through its website as an independent media publication.
Sources: The Spinoff official site
The Spinoff is used by New Zealanders seeking independent, thoughtful journalism and cultural commentary on politics, society, business, and everyday life.
Sources: The Spinoff official site
The Spinoff is known for its independent, distinctly New Zealand take on political and cultural commentary, blending serious analysis with entertaining and community-focused content.
Sources: The Spinoff official site
The Spinoff scores 65/100 for AI visibility - how well ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews can discover, identify and cite the brand.
The Spinoff has a moderate AI-visibility profile at 65/100 - a proxy for how readily ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews can recognise and cite it. Its strongest area is recommendation likelihood (71/100) and its weakest is trust (60/100). It benefits from a recognised Wikipedia company entity, a Wikidata knowledge-graph entry and a global traffic rank of #58,741 (Tranco). The main gaps holding it back: thin schema.org structured data and no llms.txt to steer AI to its best pages. In a live check, Claude could already identify The Spinoff from memory (October 2026) - a sign these signals are paying off.
The score combines seven dimensions - name quality, digital presence, visual identity, messaging clarity, trust foundation, AI discoverability, and brand authority - into a single objective benchmark.
Ranked closest to The Spinoff: The Players' Tribune (84/100), The NEC (84/100), The Star (84/100), TheStreet (84/100).
A step up - brands to learn from: Yuga Labs (91/100), Yr (91/100).
Category leader: Change.org (97/100).
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