Good morning, it’s Monday 11th November.

“We won’t mince words – the next Trump administration poses a serious threat to press freedom.”

Reporters Committee

“Everything we know about the next US president suggests the press in America will be under siege in the next four years as never before.”

Margaret Sullivan

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“”Legacy media “is officially dead,” The Daily Wire podcaster Matt Walsh wrote on X overnight. “Their ability to set the narrative has been destroyed. Trump declared war on the media in 2016. Tonight he vanquished them completely. They will never be relevant again.”

CNN’s Brian Stelter reports on how the election bruised the media’s credibility.

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The week ahead:

Monday: COP29 opens in Azerbaijan

Keir Starmer attends Armistice Day service in France

Jonathan Reynolds and Kemi Badenoch give evidence at the Post Office Horizon inquiry.

Tuesday: Booker Prize winner announced

World Leaders Climate Action Summit at COP29

Wednesday: Wes Streeting addresses NHS Providers conference

Thursday: Climate Action Tracker annual update

OECD International Migration Outlook

Friday: Jake Paul v Mike Tyson

Supermoon

Sunday: Uranus closest to Earth

Part 5 of Year Of The Expert – So What’s Stopping You? deals with any final doubts and niggles before we bring the curtain down. This week we address an email from Jill who writes:

“What if they ask a question I simply don’t know the answer to? This has happened to a colleague and it still haunts the department.”

LISTEN HERE 

“No other country has anything like this. Public service broadcasters lie at the heart of our social and cultural life, and they are worth fighting for. And, to be frank, the fight is on.” 

Samir Shah

The “fight is on” for the future of British programming at the Beeb, says the corporation’s new Chair in his first big speech.

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“In case you haven’t come across BBC Verify, it is that pompous team of BBC fact checkers who the news bulletins switch to when they want to reassure viewers that something they are about to tell you really is true, seemingly oblivious to the corollary that the rest of the channel’s output must by extension be BBC Unverified.”

The FT’s Robert Shrimsley takes a waspish swipe at BBC Verify

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BBC Radio 4 Today’s Mishal Husain received the prestigious Charles Wheeler Award for Outstanding Contribution to Broadcast Journalism.

And the next morning they surprised her by talking about it on air. The image below shows her reaction…

Footnotes:

On this day: Yasser Arafat died in hospital in Paris, aged 75, on this day in 2004.

Weather: 11 degrees in Hartlepool, 12 degrees in Halifax, West Yorkshire, and 10 degrees in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Mutts:

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

Good morning, it’s Monday 4th November. Big week ahead…

Monday: National Audit Office report on dangerous cladding

Budget debate begins in the Commons

Tuesday: US presidential election

Wednesday: First PMQs for new Conservative leader

Thursday: Interest rate decision

Friday: GRAMMY nominees announced 

Saturday: Two-day Tour de France Criterium in Singapore, expected to be Mark Cavendish’s final race 

Sunday: King Charles leads Cenotaph Remembrance Sunday service 

Part 4 of Year Of The Expert – The Studio is now packaged up as a 20 minute audio montage.

LISTEN HERE 

Next week we start the last lap of our 12 month journey with Part 5- ‘So What’s Stopping You?’

A number of you have been in touch and we’ll address your thoughts in the weeks to come. But for now, let’s take this one from Kristin:

“Chris, what’s stopping me is the fact I am constantly ditched at the last minute by the media. I clear my schedule, prepare loads, and all for nothing.”

One of the episodes in last year’s Scenarios series addressed this very point. I thought it was worth digging out…

“You’re not in the news business. You’re in the ad business. And you’re failing at the ad business.” 

Marina Hyde 

Reach is a vast media operation. They own nationals like The Mirror and The Express as well as a stable of regional titles. You may remember this quiz question from the Briefing a few weeks ago….

The answer – improbably – was 8, and Marina Hyde gives that both barrels in a blistering segment on The Rest Is Entertainment podcast. 

Churnalism. Local news that isn’t local. News that isn’t news. Journalists that aren’t journalists. AI-generated copy. And ultimately a failed business model. 

“There are important investigations in the Mirror or the Express. But it’s difficult to find them when there are also 40 stories about Martin Lewis.”

We’ve also written a number of times about the future of local journalism being on Substack, and this is something Hyde and Richard Osman also cover.

LISTEN HERE (or wherever you get your podcasts). It’s 18 minutes in.

“I couldn’t cry over my children like everyone else”

Nesrine Malik’s long read about Palestinian journalist Wael al-Dahdouh is extraordinary.

After his wife and two of his children were killed in Gaza the Al Jazeera journalist became famous around the world for his decision to keep reporting. 

“He was no longer seen as just a high-profile reporter, but a bearer of Gaza’s grief and a symbol of its people’s character.”

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The Media Club podcast picks up on two stories we’ve covered in recent Briefings: the Washington Post sitting on the presidential fence, and the BBC World Service’s potential funding deal.

LISTEN HERE (or wherever you get your podcasts)

Footnotes:

On this day: Ronald Reagan won the US presidential elections by a landslide on this day in 1980.

Quiz: Not sitting this week (this is getting embarrassing…)

Weather: 11 degrees in Galashiels, 12 degrees in Grimsby, and 21 degrees in Grenoble.

Mutts:

(PS please give fireworks a miss this year.)

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

Good morning, it’s Monday 28th October. Eight days until the US Election and The Washington Post says it won’t endorse either candidate.

Will Lewis, former editor of the Telegraph and now Post CEO called it…

“…a statement in support of our readers’ ability to make up their own minds on this. … Most of all, our job as the newspaper of the capital city of the most important country in the world is to be independent.”

While legendary former Exec Editor Marty Baron called it…

“…cowardice, with democracy as its casualty. Donald Trump will see this as an invitation to further intimidate owner Jeff Bezos (and others). Disturbing spinelessness at an institution famed for courage.”

Former New York Times media columnist Ben Smith called it…

“…a second billionaire vetoing a presumptive Harris endorsement.”

“I am as comfortable in front of the camera as I am breathing” 

The great Oprah Winfrey brings down the curtain on Part 4 of Year Of The Expert, as we consider the importance of headspace. 

LISTEN HERE 

As we start on the last lap of our 12 month journey the final section is entitled ‘So What’s Stopping You?’, where any lingering doubts about media interviews can be voiced and addressed. Over to you… 

GET IN TOUCH 

The week ahead:

Monday: Tommy Robinson in court on contempt charges

Ballon d’Or ceremony

Tuesday: Alex Salmond funeral

One week until US presidential election

Results from Alphabet and BP

Wednesday: The Budget

Rishi Sunak’s final PMQs as Leader of the Opposition

Thursday: Conservative Party leadership election members’ ballot closes

Friday: RMT members begin series of strikes on the London Underground

Saturday: New Conservative Party leader announced

“Very often the big abstract idea is the most important message. But to convey that message a good, concrete visual example is often the best.”

Sapiens and Nexus writer Yuval Noah Harari talks to Elizabeth Day for her How To Fail podcast. (Thanks to James for recommending we have a listen.) 

There are some excellent insights into writing and speaking with impact. 

LISTEN HERE

The British Journalism Awards finalists are announced:

“Without journalism, Boris Johnson would still be prime minister, wronged postmasters would not have a voice, and victims of the infected blood scandal would not have a chance of compensation…”

This list of nominated journalists contains links to their articles: 

READ HERE

“…In a media world increasingly controlled by a few parasitic technology platforms it is more important than ever to celebrate the publishers willing to invest in and support quality journalism.” 

Dominic Ponsford

Chair of Judges

“I could trim the Lord’s Prayer if I had to,” she used to assure staffers, and no one doubted her for as long as she could tap a keyboard.”

Thanks so much to Laura who writes, “a much-loved editor from my Detroit Free Press days died last week and another former colleague wrote a hell of an obit”.

She’s not wrong. It’s a wonderful read. RIP Nancy Laughlin…

READ MORE

Footnotes:

On this day: The Cuban Missile Crisis ended on this day in 1962.

Quiz: Not sitting this week (again…)

Weather: 15 degrees in Folkestone, 12 degrees in Fife, 21 degrees in Fresno, California.

Coffee? Inside Edge is in London and Brighton this week

Mutts:

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

Good morning. It’s Monday 21st October.

“Getting in the media is the best way to get something through to a politician, absolutely.”

Professor Tim Leunig 

Year Of The Expert takes a detour this week on account of an interview given by Professor Tim Leunig on BBC 5Live. It takes us right back to Part 1 – why bother engaging with the media. We think it’s worth 3 minutes of your time, particularly if you’re an expert yet to be convinced of the benefits of media engagement. 

LISTEN HERE

“When it comes to media freedom, all the warning lights are flashing.”

Tim Davie

BBC DG Tim Davie’s speech to the Future Resilience Forum included this line:

“The BBC World Service is a priceless global asset. The former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, once described it as possibly “Britain’s greatest gift to the world”. But the truth is, the World Service is now operating under intolerable pressures.”

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“Yes, but…” Part 1…

“HARDtalk was never just another news show. A brilliant team of producers and researchers is being disbanded just as BBC DG Tim Davie is trying to persuade the British Govt that the journalism of the BBC World Service is such a vital expression of democratic soft power that the taxpayer must fund it.”

Presenter Stephen Sackur reacts to the news that HARDtalk is being axed, amid cuts across BBC News

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“Yes, but…” Part 2…

Davie went on the Today Programme ahead of his speech and was inevitably asked about the fallout from Huw Edwards’ conviction. Nick Robinson asked him about the power of on air ‘talent’:

“I don’t think anyone is indispensable…we often refer to people like yourself as ‘talent’ – I’d like to ban that word…Everyone should be treated equally, regardless of rank…We’re sorting this culture.” 

The final word on Talent goes to Libby Purves in The Times (herself a former Today programme producer then presenter):

“If the culture changes, good. Let the affronted talent ease its vanity with Clive Myrie-type £10k dinner speeches. If the T-word itself gets banned, still better. It is widely hated by gifted, anxious programme makers who see their production money eroding and their intern runners living on Greggs pasties and student debt. “Got no budget,” they mourn. “Effing talent’s had it all.””

The week ahead:

Monday: Employment Rights Bill debated for the first time in the Commons

UN Biodiversity Conference (COP-16) opens

Tuesday: World Economic Outlook published 

Wednesday: Inquest into the death of Brianna Ghey

Thursday: Prime Minister Keir Starmer and King Charles in Samoa for CHOGM

Friday: Lionesses play Germany 

Sunday: Israel holds National Remembrance Day for October 7 attacks

Snap election in Japan 

The boss of the Institute for Fiscal Studies Paul Johnson is stepping down next year.

He’s a superb communicator. Never shies away from economic complexity, yet roots his numbers in the audience’s world. 

Reliable. Friendly. Generous with his time and expertise. Understands the impact media engagement can have.

Newsrooms and audiences will miss him.

A rare foray into sport for this week’s Monday Media Briefing…

“Gareth Southgate was not a naturally confident public speaker, but gradually honed his act until he perfected the art of saying nothing very wisely.”

Jonathan Liew’s excellent article about communication in elite sport.

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“The analysis on why he died, written by the people who caused him such pain, who themselves have so little understanding, is at best ironic and at worse an insult.”

Former Sun Editor David Yelland on the Mail’s coverage of Liam Payne’s death:

Footnotes:

On this day: Tragedy hit the Welsh village of Aberfan as a coal slag tip engulfed a school burying at least 130 people and injuring many more on this day in 1966.

Quiz: Not sitting this week

Weather: 13 degrees in Edinburgh, 16 degrees in Exeter, 2 degrees in Edmonton, Canada.

Coffee? Inside Edge is in London, Birmingham and Pontypridd this week

Mutts: In warmer times…

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