Fourth Estate and Scott challenged the High Court decision in the Court of Appeal in Wellington in September.
In a judgment released today Justices Forrie Miller, David Goddard and Brendan Brown allowed the appeal and set aside the High Court judgment. They said the meaning of the passages of the article at the centre of the case were not in fact defamatory.
The column was highly critical of Joyce's time as a Government minister.
"The first passage, read in context, conveyed neither the pleaded meanings nor the meanings adopted by the judge," the Court of Appeal judges said.
That passage referred to Joyce trying to "introduce the so-called copper tax to subsidise his friends at Chorus".
"A reasonable reader would not understand this passage as alleging that Mr Joyce had personal connections with Chorus and that in pursuing a "copper tax" he was engaging in unethical behaviour of some kind," the Court of Appeal judges said.
"The words 'his friends', if they meant anything at all, were simply an embellishment of the article's aggressive attack on Mr Joyce's political legacy."
They noted that Hooton had a reputation for being provocative.
The court ordered Joyce to pay Fourth Estate Holdings Ltd and Scott's legal costs.
