A screenshot of a news article about internet outages in New Zealand, with zoomed-in sections highlighting a Google search for "PORN HUB" and explicit website results on the search page.
Image: NZ Herald; design The Spinoff

MediaJune 12, 2025

How a man googling PORN HUB ended up on the Herald’s website 

Contributing writer
A screenshot of a news article about internet outages in New Zealand, with zoomed-in sections highlighting a Google search for "PORN HUB" and explicit website results on the search page.
Image: NZ Herald; design The Spinoff

The Herald killed the picture of PORN HUB man. But it can’t kill the idea of PORN HUB man.

A Herald report last Friday began with a profound truth. “Internet users are suffering,” it read, before adding six unnecessary words, “outages across New Zealand this morning.” The story was a boilerplate account of the blackout, which later reports would reveal was the result of the Australian navy flicking the wrong switch* and accidentally wiping out half our infrastructure.

So far, so New Zealand. But internet users who hadn’t been severed from the mainframe by a clumsy seaman or petty officer were able to take a closer look at the article. They saw something awry. It was illustrated with a picture of a man sitting at a computer with Google open on his web browser. His search was easily visible if you zoomed in a bit. “PORN HUB,” it read.

A man Googling PORN HUB alongside the headline 'Widespread internet outages across NZ'
PORN HUB man at work.

How did this image make it to the country’s website of record? Why was it used in a story about internet outages? The obvious answer is that a bleary-eyed online editor added a stock image to the story without looking closely. But as sleuths on Reddit pointed out, PORN HUB man’s bookmarks bar contains websites that don’t feature on Getty, including Stuff and the Herald. 

PORN HUB man's bookmarks bar
Stuff and the Herald are clearly visible alongside mysterious websites such as ‘SCCK’ and ‘SCC’

The only possible conclusion is someone met with a local photographer and sat down to be snapped typing “PORN HUB” into Google. More websites and search requests may also have been involved, as it appears “porno-hub videos – XVIDEOS.COM” has already been clicked.

a pink-tinted link to 'porno-hub videos - XVIDEOS.COM' is visible above the headline
A pink-tinted link to ‘porno-hub videos – XVIDEOS.COM’ is visible above the headline.

The original story gave its image credit to George Heard, a photographer who works with the Herald in Christchurch. Emails to Heard were met with a request to refer questions to NZME’s in-house comms person. The Spinoff did that, even though it suspected NZME’s in-house comms person would be unlikely to divulge useful information. Its email was not answered.

A reverse image search was more successful. It showed PORN HUB man may originally have been used in 2021 on stories by Anna Leask and David Fisher about revenge porn and child sexual abuse images. It’s possible that in the Herald’s image library, the photo wasn’t titled in a way that indicated its true nature.

Whatever happened, PORN HUB man lay dormant until the morning of June 6, 2025, when a web editor typed something like “internet” or “computer” into the Herald CMS, and attached a photo that at first glance looked appropriate, but on closer inspection was of a man furiously googling PORN HUB to find genres such as “teen”, “hottest porn videos”, “porn videos”, “gay porn”, and “recommended”.

More Reading
The secretive Tory donor with the golden visa – and the ear of the Beehive Who is the British billionaire who, during his visit to Wellington in December, met with four ministers in the space of 25 hours?
Men secretly filmed us. This is our advice to Christopher Luxon on law change In light of the Michael Forbes case, the PM said he was open to looking at the law. So here's a legislative wishlist.

The mistake was spotted quickly. Herald staffers contacted by The Spinoff said the image was removed within 15 minutes, after it was queried in the corrections channel of the office Slack. It wasn’t fast enough. Diligent Redditors captured the image. One post about it has been upvoted more than 2,100 times. 

Though some might be embarrassed, staff at the Herald appear to be taking the mistake in their stride.  In a statement to The Spinoff, one summed up the reaction: “I want you to know my available-for-publishing statement as an NZ Herald staffer is that the incident was ‘funny as fuck’.”

* It has been pointed out that the blackout caused by the Australian navy was not the one that was the subject of the PORN HUB man story, which was actually caused by issues with Chorus’s fibre network a day later. The Spinoff apologises for the error, but has left the story unchanged because editing it would require taking out too many jokes.

‘He mea tautoko nā ngā mema atawhai. Supported by our generous members.’
Liam Rātana
— Ātea editor
Keep going!
Ensemble’s Rebecca Wadey and Zoe Walker Ahwa, Here’s Simon Farrell-Green and The Fold’s Duncan Greive (Image: The Spinoff)
Ensemble’s Rebecca Wadey and Zoe Walker Ahwa, Here’s Simon Farrell-Green and The Fold’s Duncan Greive (Image: The Spinoff)

MediaJune 10, 2025

The Fold: Bauer, five years on – Ensemble, Here, The Listener and Are Media

Staff writers
Ensemble’s Rebecca Wadey and Zoe Walker Ahwa, Here’s Simon Farrell-Green and The Fold’s Duncan Greive (Image: The Spinoff)
Ensemble’s Rebecca Wadey and Zoe Walker Ahwa, Here’s Simon Farrell-Green and The Fold’s Duncan Greive (Image: The Spinoff)

In a two-part series about the independent publications that rose from the embers of Bauer, The Fold talks to Ensemble co-founders Rebecca Wadey and Zoe Walker Ahwa, Here founder Simon Farrell-Green, Are’s NZ GM Stuart Dick and The Listener editor Kirsty Cameron.

Part one:

New Zealand’s magazine industry suffered a catastrophic event five years ago, when many of the country’s biggest and most famous titles were shut down on a fateful Zoom call. In this episode, Duncan Greive is joined by Rebecca Wadey and Zoe Walker Ahwa, co-founders of Ensemble, to discuss lifestyle media and first joining then leaving Stuff. Then Simon Farrell-Green on why after years editing Home, he decided to leave the title alone and start a new magazine named Here, which turns five years old this month.

Part two:

Are Media was a new company born out of the end of Bauer, taking some of its biggest magazines and running them on a much leaner model. Are’s NZ GM Stuart Dick and The Listener’s editor Kirsty Cameron join Duncan Greive on The Fold to talk about bringing those magazines back to life, and how Cameron revived a title which had lost its way at times in the Bauer years.

Follow The Fold on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.