We’re back. While we were away…

“A BBC news reporter just stood outside the BBC on BBC Breakfast saying that the BBC had not responded to a request for comment from BBC News about a BBC presenter being axed from a BBC show.“

Scott Bryan

Four new audio diaries take you inside radio and TV studios…

Part 4 of Year of The Expert kicks off with the lessons learnt sitting in on many a Focus Group…

LISTEN HERE

Good morning. It’s Monday 9th September. We hope you’re happy and well.

Monday: Module 3 hearings begin in Covid Inquiry

New Apple iPhone launched

Tuesday: the first public hearings in the inquiry into nurse Lucy Letby

First inmates are freed under the controversial Early Release Scheme

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump meet in Philadelphia for their first and possibly only debate

Wednesday: Monthly GDP figures

Thursday: NHS key services and waiting time data

Harvey Weinstein in court in New York

Friday: Sir Keir Starmer will travel to Washington for a bilateral meeting with President Biden

Funeral for Sven-Goran Eriksson

Saturday: Liberal Democrats Autumn Conference

New Strictly Come Dancing series starts

57 days until the US Elections. Our eyes and ears will be on the media…

From Reuters:

32% of Americans say they trust most news most of the time. (However, 47% say they trust the news they use, a sign of polarisation.)

36% of left-leaning Americans say they find it difficult to identify trustworthy news on X

29% of Americans say they use YouTube for news

68% of our US respondents who watch news videos regularly say they tend to watch them on social and video platforms.

BBC financial woes…

Part 1: The World Service is at stake over the BBC’s funding ‘pinch point’ according to its boss Jonathan Munro, who says the broadcaster is in ‘critical’ negotiations with the Foreign Office to secure more money before the Labour budget in October.

READ MORE (P/W)

Part 2: With 500,000 households a year cancelling their TV licence, the corporation may have to do less with less to survive. Jim Waterson’s piece in the Observer is an interesting read, though the eye-catching headline about a possible merger with Channel 4 is unlikely. 

READ MORE

Footnotes:

On this day: Chairman Mao Zedong died at the age of 82 on this day in 1976.

Weather: 17 degrees in Oxford. 15 degrees in Hexham. 31 degrees in Athens.

Coffee? Inside Edge is in Durham, Exeter and London this week.

Um, is one of them Kevin McCloud?

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Mutts: The obligatory dog photo returns for a new season. (Stan needs his beard combed…)

Be part of the MMB. Thoughts on this week’s content, or interviews you’ve seen, heard, or (best of all) done. We’re @insideedgemedia or just reply to this email. 

Have a brilliant week.

All at Inside Edge

Morning all. It’s Monday 29th July 2024. Welcome to the final Briefing before the summer break.

Monday: The Chancellor sets out her public spending analysis

Nominations close for the Conservative leadership contest 

Tuesday: BP and Microsoft results

Wednesday: UNESCO World Heritage decisions adopted

Meta and Boeing results

Thursday: Interest rate decision

EU Artificial Intelligence Act enters into force

Apple, Amazon and Shell results

Friday: Edinburgh festival begins

Adele begins summer residency in Munich

Saturday: Pro-Palestine national demonstration in London 

I’ve referenced The Rest Is Entertainment podcast a couple of times in recent briefings, because it’s excellent. The latest episode has hosts Marina Hyde and Richard Osman “doing a tight 5 minutes” (as they like to say) on media training.

Their view on the reason for, and impact of media training is the antithesis of what we set out to achieve with our coaching. However it’s still an interesting take. The section on trap words is relevant to everyone, and stories about Sir Andy Murray and cricketer Chris Woakes worth a listen.

One other line Richard Osman says about media training: “Either you make them more charismatic or you make them more boring.

You’ll be pleased to hear we aim for the former every time…

LISTEN HERE (16 minutes in)

Part 3 of Year Of The Expert is complete. Our 7 part audio diary on how to prepare for interviews is now a 20 minute podcast, joining earlier sections (Part 1 – Why Engage? and Part 2 – Where to Appear).

LISTEN HERE

Behind the scenes as a moment of history is recorded…

And while “a moment of history” may be stretching things, Rachel Reeves’ first interview from inside Number 11 required some serious kit…

The new Labour government’s approach to dealing with the media has been fairly well-received so far. One thing the PM does need to do however is widen the very small (and predictable) list of journalists he calls on at press conferences.

As Politico’s Emilio Casalicchio observes: “Mine was the sole hand up at the Starmer press conference in Farnborough this morning. He ignored it & stuck to his list of hacks that aides gave him beforehand. The ‘list regime’ equals less diversity of thought, more press control from No.10 & no hope for smaller media outlets.”

Hard to disagree.

Brilliant to see new models for the provision of quality local journalism thrive…

READ MORE

Footnotes:

The Briefing takes a break for a few weeks but we’ll be back, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at the beginning of September.

We’re still around during August and it’s always a pretty quiet month for us, so a good time for an online catch up or a coffee.

I’ll leave you with this…

On this day: The wedding of Charles and Diana, in 1981.

Weather: Highs of 24 degrees in Exeter today and 22 in Durham.

Mutts: The obligatory dog photo. Stan and Leo’s mate Roxie…

Bye for now.

All at Inside Edge

 “I would protect the licence fee and my government would not hold the BBC to ransom over appointments and funding.”

A refreshing tone from new Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy:

To maintain the BBC as an institution, it must be accountable to those who fund it – the British people.”

We’ll watch with interest.

Morning all. It’s Monday 22nd July 2024.

And an extra hello to those journalists hoping for a quiet Sunday shift in the newsroom last night.

All of the below (with perhaps the exception of the Olympics) will be lost in the fallout of President Biden’s historic decision not to seek re-election.

(However as I’d already gone to the trouble to compile the list…)

Monday: Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle appears before the House Homeland Security Committee

Tuesday: The Hundred (cricket) begins

Keanu Reeves novel The Book of Elsewhere released

Wednesday: Role reversal at PMQs

Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to deliver a controversial address to a joint session of Congress

International Olympic Committee announces 2030 and 2034 hosts

Thursday: Met Office releases State of the UK Climate report

Friday: Opening Ceremony, Paris Olympics

Saturday: V&A’s Taylor Swift exhibition opens

Sunday: Presidential Elections, Venezuela

“Talk to yourself. Talk and record into your phone and listen back. You’ll feel like a banana. But trust me, there is a pressure to interviews, and the muscle memory of having heard yourself say key lines, certain specifics, linking phrases is worth its weight in gold. “

As Part 3 of Year Of The Expert draws to a close, here’s the advice we give in media training sessions that I suspect is ignored above anything else…

LISTEN HERE

“I love the absurd. And election campaigns are festivals of absurdity.”

 Chris Mason, BBC Political Editor

A couple of documentaries take us behind the scenes of election night for two of the big beasts – the BBC and Sky.

The BBC’s programme is disappointingly dull, so I’d start with Sky if I were you.

Watch SKY

Watch BBC

Rupert Murdoch predicts printed newspapers likely have 15 years left, “with a lot of luck.”

“You get on a train, public transport? You see anyone with a paper? You see no one. Now they’re reading all the facts, on their phones.”

READ MORE

After 5 minutes on Twitter yesterday evening, I can confirm Tom speaks for us all…

Footnotes:

After last week’s confession about my addiction to microphone-strewn Iranian pressers, I’m grateful to an eagle-eyed reader for emailing this excellent offering…

In election ratings news…

Female audiences are bearing the brunt of the cuts made by the BBC to the World Service, its outgoing director has warned. READ MORE (fw)

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Coffee? Inside Edge is in London and Brighton this week.

On this day: British Prime Minister John Major launched his Citizen’s Charter to improve public services on this day in 1991.

Weather: Highs of 23 degrees in Derby today and 21 in Bangor.

Mutts: The obligatory dog photo. Leo as a pup…

Be part of the MMB. Thoughts on this week’s content, or interviews you’ve seen, heard, or (best of all) done. We’re @insideedgemedia or just reply to this email. 

Have a brilliant week.

All at Inside Edge

“That road you want to remain on for as much of the interview as possible has to be an interesting place to live. It needs characters at numbers 32 and 67, it needs life, it needs relevance…”

Visualisation is a really useful technique when it comes to good interview prep. In this latest episode of Year Of The Expert we explore what form it might take.

LISTEN HERE

Good morning. It’s Monday 15th July 2024.

Monday: The Republican National Convention kicks off in Milwaukee – dominated by fallout from the assassination attempt on Donald Trump

Tuesday: Real Madrid unveil Kylian Mbappe at Santiago Bernabeu

Wednesday: State Opening of Parliament

Thursday: Trump speech at the Republican Convention

European Political leaders meet in Oxfordshire

UK Covid-19 inquiry set to publish the first of its reports.

Friday: Jo Swinson and Maya Greene at Post Office Horizon Inquiry

Start of the BBC Proms

Saturday: Pride Glasgow

Sunday: DNC Committee meet to discuss Biden nomination process

Final stage of the Tour De France

“Cocaine smuggled in bananas was intriguing, but the shotgun licence appeal was more sellable…”

A wonderful long read from Sophie Elmhirst on the dying breed of the court reporter. 

READ MORE

“The Queen Of Newsnight”

In all my time at the BBC I never heard a single bad word said against Kirsty Wark. For a presenter who has been in the job for 30 years that is some achievement.

Newsnight’s farewell montage to mark her last programme is superb.

“Turning a great news organization (sic) towards the future is not a one-day affair. It happens in stages and over time.”

We promised to keep you up to date with former BBC DG/New York Times boss Mark Thompson’s efforts to transform CNN.

Well he’s up and running with a set of sweeping changes.

READ MORE

Excellent work (as ever) from Private Eye…

Footnotes:

I’m obsessed with the number of microphones placed in front of Iranian big-hitters at news conferences. This week’s offering…

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Farewell to Martha Kearney who presents her final Today Programme on Thursday. Enjoy not setting that 3:30 alarm, Martha.

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On this day: Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace was shot dead on the steps of his Miami mansion on this day in 1997.

Weather: Highs of 19 degrees in Brighton today and 21 in Liverpool.

Mutts: The obligatory dog photo. The boys’ lovely mate Holly…

Be part of the MMB. Thoughts on this week’s content, or interviews you’ve seen, heard, or (best of all) done. We’re @insideedgemedia or just reply to this email. 

Have a brilliant week.

All at Inside Edge