About 120 people – including politicians, public servants and prominent broadcasters such as Mike Hosking and Heather du Plessis-Allan – have been interviewed for a new, unauthorised Dame Jacinda Ardern biography, marketed as the “real story” behind the former Prime Minister’s political tenure.
Author David Cohen has confirmed he recently entered a “commercial arrangement” with the Centrist website, which is also supporting a marketing campaign and website for the book.
Billboards promoting the book have emerged in the past week, just as Ardern’s official autobiography, A Different Kind of Power, went on sale, and as the former PM went on a blitzkrieg of local and international publicity, including with the likes of Oprah Winfrey.
Cohen told du Plessis-Allan on her Newstalk ZB drive show that his book would be released later this year.
Du Plessis-Allan and her ZB colleague, breakfast host Mike Hosking, are among those who have been interviewed, Cohen confirmed during the interview.
“The new Jacinda book goes where no author has yet gone – into a blow-by-blow, both sides now, critical analysis of her leadership and what that might mean for a world on a powder keg," says the book’s website.
Other publicity states: “The real story is coming.”
Du Plessis-Allan asked Cohen about the Centrist link and whether he was worried that “would possibly lend your book to becoming a bit fringe?”.
The Centrist is a news aggregator website which some commentators have described as “right-leaning” and “alternative”.
“If I had Creative New Zealand funding, I would be concerned about it being fringe because that seems to ... account for a lot of that agency’s sponsorship at the moment,” said Cohen, an experienced Wellington-based journalist whose work has appeared in New Zealand outlets including RNZ, the NZ Herald and the Listener and international outlets including the Spectator, the Daily Telegraph, the Australian and the Guardian.
“There’s no editorial intercession,” he added. ”I’ve done nine books. My hands are clean journalistically, and they’re certainly going to remain so.
“If somebody were to say, from Centrist or from anywhere, ‘you must do this or that’, then I would be out.”
Cohen said that an international publisher was “extremely keen on the project”.
“I’ll know within the coming weeks where that one’s going. I feel fairly confident. I am absolutely confident that this will be out later this year – that I’ve got no doubt.”
Cohen, who has been in Britain this week for interviews for the book as well as other unrelated work, told du Plessis-Allan that he had spoken to more than one Cabinet minister.
“One of the reasons, as a journalist, that I’m really proud of this work is because it does what every other work on Jacinda Ardern has not done palpably. Which is to bring in a multitude of voices, from the left, from the right, from the centre, and from everywhere else.
“As an example of that, politically, virtually every party is well represented, among the voices, among the interviewees, among the 100 or so folk, including you, that generously gave their time and their comments and perspectives on the former Prime Minister.”
Cohen said Hosking had spoken to the book’s co-author, Rebecca Keillor.
Keillor told Media Insider that she and Cohen had done about 120 interviews, “with sources both on and off record”.
She reiterated they were “covering all political bases”.
“One of the interesting things that emerged is the number of people in senior positions, and even those who’d moved on, who were so fearful of the consequences of speaking about what they knew,” she said.
“The aim of this project was to tell the definitive story of the Ardern administration, but we were obviously surprised, like everyone else, to see Jacinda had avoided deep analysis of many of those issues, which makes our book all the more needed.”
Keillor said Cohen had pitched a publishing idea, the Centrist team considered it “and a standard freelance writing contract was entered into”.
“I came on board on secondment from Centrist to assist with the research and interviews,” said Keillor, a senior journalist who also writes a regular home architecture column for the Vancouver Sun.
Centrist owner and managing editor Tameem Barakat told Media Insider: “Book publishing is the ultimate commercialisation of long-form journalism.
“Our decision to back this project reflects the expected ROI [return on investment], particularly given the market gap for a more balanced, independent look at the former Prime Minister. People don’t just want a puff piece. They want the whole picture.”
Auckland businessman Jim Grenon was involved in establishing the Centrist in 2023, but Companies Office records show he ceased being a shareholder in June 2023 and ceased being a director in August 2023.
Barakat is now the sole shareholder and director.
Grenon, who is now a 13% shareholder of NZME and was appointed last week as a director of the company, declined to comment.
Cohen told du Plessis-Allan that he did not know what the Centrist’s arrangement was with Grenon. “You should ask them,” said Cohen.
In a scathing Newstalk ZB editorial last week, Hosking said he was struggling with both Ardern’s official biography and another book by CNN’s Jack Tapper on Joe Biden.
“What I struggle with is one of them is making money out of the fact they made an astonishing hash of their job, quit, bailed out of the country and is now collecting money for retelling what happened in a way that would suggest no carnage was left behind.”
He said the Ardern book had been well-marketed internationally and referred to the Winfrey interview.
“She’s fascinated with Ardern, and it appears to be around kindness. I bet you anything you want, Oprah doesn’t have the slightest idea about how the country was wrecked under Ardern. She sees what Ardern wants you to see: fragile, huggy people who run things with good vibes.”
In a further publicity email on Tuesday, David Cohen said the publishers of his own book “already had thousands of sign-ups” to the book’s website, jacindabook.com.
“People want more than a polished memoir – they want the full story, he said. “We’re delighted with the sign-up rate.
“The response confirms what many suspected – Jacinda’s official memoir leaves big questions unanswered about what her Government did and why. Our book is taking those questions seriously.”
Cohen said in the email that the unauthorised biography wasn’t out to score political points.
According to the email, “While many from Ardern’s inner circle were approached and said they had ‘a lot to say’, they declined to go on record – citing concerns it would be professionally damaging to share their views or knowledge."
Editor-at-large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand’s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including managing editor, NZ Herald editor and Herald on Sunday editor and has a small shareholding in NZME.
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