Edition 501

Good morning, it’s Monday 30th June. 

Kicking off this week with some thoughts on the x1.5 generation…

Stories scheduled for the next seven days:

Today:  UK GDP National Accounts.

Wimbledon begins.

Tuesday: Welfare Reform Bill vote.

Wednesday: UEFA Women’s European Championships begin.

Thursday: Ofsted chief inspector addresses Festival of Education.

Friday:  Anniversary of Labour’s landslide general election win.

Oasis reunion tour begins in Cardiff.

Saturday: Tour de France begins.

England and Wales play first Euros matches.

Pride in London parade. 

Sunday: Brazil hosts BRICS Summit without China’s Xi Jinping.

The F-Bomb

When the President wanders casually over to reporters on the White House lawn and says, “we have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard they don’t know what the f**k they’re doing”, should broadcasters play the clip uncensored?

CNN did. The Washington Post and Channel 4 News didn’t.

Here’s a roundup of how various news outlets navigated the dilemma:

READ MORE

(For what it’s worth, I hate using the **s in a newsletter read by adults. But without them chances are this email would sail straight into your junk folder…)

I coached someone last week dead set on having a pop at the media in their interview. Given their topic it certainly wasn’t without justification, but remains a risky strategy and always makes me recall the old saying…

“Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel”

The internet can’t decide who originally said the quote, but it’s worth bearing in mind if you decide to blame the media…when appearing on the media.

And related…

Source: Reuters Institute

READ MORE

News In Brief:

The BBC has launched its first website paywall, charging users in the US ($50 a year) for unlimited access to news on BBC.com.

“Court reporting is essential for a just society. It’s time to save it.”

READ MORE

Footnotes:

On this day: Three Russian cosmonauts were found dead in their Soyuz 11 space capsule after it made what looked like a perfect landing in Kazakhstan on this day in 1971.

Monday weather: London – 34 and sunny (good luck if you’re reading this on the tube). Edinburgh – 23 and cloudy.

Mutts: Stan and his funny little friend Roxie…

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 great week.

All at Inside Edge

Farewell Paul Johnson. The man who led the Institute For Fiscal Studies for 14 years is off to run Queen’s College Oxford.

The airwaves will be poorer for his leaving, as will our collective grasp of the public finances. He’s a brilliant communicator and one of the very best at accessible complexity.

He also has a delicious (and entirely deliberate) turn of phrase. Members of the Liftable Quote Club (and I am definitely one) – revel in this parting shot to the chancellor… 

I should declare a slight conflict of interest as I work with the IFS from time to time, but as someone who has spent the last 16 years trying to get to the bottom of how researchers communicate with clarity and impact, Paul Johnson is up there with the very best.

Good luck to him.

Good morning, it’s Monday 23rd June. 

And this – improbably – is our 500th Monday Media Briefing.

(Some thoughts on that number here (Linkedin)

Stories scheduled for the next seven days:

Today: Government expected to publish its 10-year Industrial Strategy

Tuesday: Netherlands hosts NATO Summit

Wednesday: Committee on Climate Change Progress Report 2025

Thursday: Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends European Council leaders’ summit

Friday: Glastonbury Festival begins

Saturday: British & Irish Lions tour of Australia begins

Sunday: San Francisco and New York City Pride

Here are some of the Top Lines: 

We’ll come back to it in the weeks to come but you can read the full report here.

“There are two very different versions of media training. How do I make a boring person interesting? And how do I make an interesting person boring?” Richard Osman

Media Training gets the Marina Hyde and Richard Osman treatment on The Rest Is Entertainment. 

LISTEN HERE (on wherever you get your podcasts)

Thoroughly enjoyed this Linkedin content from BBC veteran Nick Garnett…

News In Brief:

Former BBC journalists Jo Coburn and Stephen Sackur are joining Times Radio

__

“Countering disinformation and providing verified, independent news is what makes the BBC World Service the most trusted international news provider in the world.”

Lord Blunkett makes the case for more World Service funding.

READ MORE (p/w)

Footnotes:

On this day: An Air India passenger jet disintegrated in mid-air off the coast of Ireland, killing all 329 people on board, on this day in 1985.

Monday weather: St Andrews – 18 and cloudy. Bournemouth – 21 and sunny.

I mentioned at the top this was Monday Media Briefing number 500. Interested in the stories in the news from the very first?

Mutts: I also tried to find a photo from September 2013. It’s pre-Leo unfortunately, but here’s the old timer in (marginally) more spritely 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 great week.

All at Inside Edge

March 1990, Newcastle City Hall.

Aged 13, I was taken to see Nigel Kennedy perform Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. It blew my mind. 

35 years later and I’ve just seen him perform the work again.

He’s a funny fellow – and if you’ve never heard of him this gives you a flavour. But he’s beyond brilliant, and the more I think about the concert, the more I think he’s actually an (extremely) unlikely media training poster boy. 

So, a very different MMB this week…

MR KENNEDY’S GUIDE TO MEDIA TRAINING

Good morning it’s Monday 9th June. 

1) Keep your content fresh 

It’s Vivaldi’s Four Seasons for heaven’s sake. If you’ve spent time on hold to a utilities company or travelled more than three floors in a lift you’ve heard it. But in his hands it sounded like it was composed yesterday. Let’s face it, in interviews we’re often discussing content we’ve lived and breathed for years. If Mr Kennedy can take a 300 year old cliche and make it sound fresh, then you can do the same with your stuff.

2) Don’t aim for perfection 

Because the concert wasn’t perfect. He fluffed notes, the orchestra missed a cue or two. And in interviews this is the equivalent of your stutter, your um, or momentary pause. Think about why we love live music – it’s precisely because it isn’t slick, rehearsed and corporate. So why on earth should you aim to sound like that as a spokesperson?

(There obviously comes a point where imperfection compromises credibility. But that point is often further down the line than you might think.) 

3) Bring the energy

So much so that the horse hairs come off your bow. Literally for Nigel. (Metaphorically for you.) 

4) Bring the unexpected

Halfway through the second movement – Summer – the sound morphed from the familiar tune to an arrangement of Mungo Jerry’s In The Summer Time. Shouldn’t have worked. Did work. Don’t fall back on the same examples and illustrations in interviews. Mix things up. Bring your Mungo… 

5) Sound authentic

What can we all hide behind? On the classical music stage perhaps it’s tuxedos, formality, and convention. In interviews is it sanitised messages (devised by committee) and delivered in report-speak? Nigel Kennedy dressed the way I do for an early morning dog walk in February*, ambled around the stage, and deliberately defied every one of those conventions. Of course he only gets away with that behaviour because he’s secure in what he does, and his ability to communicate that to the audience. But could you get into a headspace where you begin to feel the same?

*I’m obviously not advocating you dress for an appearance on Good Morning Britain like you’re about to walk the dogs on a dark morning in February, but you get my point…

**Handily, this section allows me to shoehorn in the customary dog photo…

6) Be generous

It wasn’t all about him. He gave constant credit to the orchestra. He allowed the spotlight to fall on different players and carved out space for them to shine. Be generous on panels and in discussions. Don’t judge your performance on how much airtime you seize, judge it on the quality of your content when you do get your chance. 

7) And enjoy it 

As Kennedy launched into an impromptu Bach partita encore I heard someone behind me say “he just doesn’t seem to want to leave the stage.” He was genuinely enjoying himself, and for an audience member it creates an instant, powerful connection. This final one is undoubtedly easier for a musician than a spokesperson, but it allows me to finish with a concept I often return to in media training sessions: 

When you’ve prepared in the right way. When you know how to control interviews. When you know you’ve got something newsworthy and impactful to say, there is absolutely no reason why media engagement can’t be something you can enjoy.

It’s a superpower.

Thank you very much Nigel. 



(We’re off next week but normal service resumes on Monday 23rd June.) 

All at Inside Edge

Good morning. It’s Monday 2nd June.

“Visibly successful women, if they have “made it” in stereotypically male domains, may be perceived as better than their male counterparts.”

Fascinating research reported in the FT that female economists are more trusted by the public than men.

First things first – the study found public opinion is influenced by the views of experts…so pipe down Michael Gove. However the additional effect of seeing an opinion expressed by a female economist was “20 per cent greater than the effect of seeing the same opinion expressed by a male expert.”

You can read the paper, by Sievertsen and Smith here

Or chance your luck with the FT’s mighty paywall here

(Or book some media training, because you can bet we’ll be talking about it too.)

“Things Learnt (Then Forgotten)” – Week 18.

Sudden Baseline Syndrome…and splattered windscreens.

Stories scheduled for the next seven days:

Today: Strategic Defence Review expected.

Possible Ukraine-Russia talks in Istanbul.

Tuesday:  South Korea holds early presidential election following Yoon impeachment.

Wednesday: PMQs returns after half term recess.

Thursday: Holyrood by-election for Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse.

Japanese private lunar lander due to land on the Moon.

Friday: Court hearing for group charged over arson attacks linked to Keir Starmer.

Saturday: England play Andorra in World Cup 2026 qualifier.

Roland Garros women’s singles final.

Sunday: Tony Awards.

The Guardian gives the floor to four war reporters covering conflicts across the world.

“If we did not take these risks, no one would hear about this war and the atrocities taking place in it. The free world would not move to save and aid the people of Sudan due to its preoccupation with the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.”

READ MORE

News In Brief:

Farewell to Jo Coburn, who has been at the BBC since 1997 and presenter of Daily Politics since its launch in 2018.

She discusses her career over a (boozy) lunch with Sascha O’Sullivan for the Westminster Insider podcast. LISTEN HERE

__

A news agency boss has warned police forces are “‘strangling the freelance court reporter into extinction” with press-release coverage of criminal cases.

READ MORE

The New Media Landscape:

The Chicago Sun-Times lays off 20% of its staff, then outsources a summer guide to a freelance writer, who then uses AI to create a summer reading guide filled with books that don’t exist.

READ MORE

___

More Americans watch television on Youtube than anywhere else. April marked a third consecutive month at the top of the Nielson chart, recording their largest share to date (12.4%)

READ MORE

Footnotes:

On this day: Queen Elizabeth II was crowned at a coronation ceremony in Westminster Abbey in London this day in 1953.

Monday weather: Middlesborough -19 degrees with patchy sun. Swansea – 16 degrees and cloudy.

Mutts: A nearly-good photo ruined (as usual) by little Leo…

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 great week.

All at Inside Edge