Media Training update w/c 20th July

Edition 542

Good morning. It’s Monday 20th July.

Last week we blamed the heat for a grumpy feature entitled Bad Advice: words of apparent wisdom given to people ahead of media interviews.

These included howlers like “take 3 key messages into an interview” and “always name-check the presenter on air.” 

It seemed to go down pretty well, so here’s another…

“Start an interview by thanking the presenter for the opportunity to appear.”

Fairly Interesting Question Number 1: 

From the Guardian:

A brilliant long(-ish) read on Paul Dacre et al.

Fairly Interesting Question Number 2:

Posed in the (always excellent) Poynter media newsletter:

Update: 


Here’s a rundown of what the different networks actually decided to do.

Stories scheduled for the week ahead: 

Monday: Andy Burnham replaces Keir Starmer as prime minister and begins announcing Cabinet appointments.

Tuesday: Donald Trump hosts Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at the White House. 

Wednesday: Inflation data.
Financial results from Tesla, Google and IBM.

Thursday: Commonwealth Games begin in Glasgow.

Friday: Rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.

Saturday: Anthony Joshua fights Kristian Prenga in Saudi Arabia.

Sunday: International AIDS conference.

Released last week the BBC’s Annual Report lists the salaries of staff earning above £178k. (My former colleague describes it as her Christmas Day).

Top Lines from the newsroom: 

Two people earn more than £400k – Stephen Nolan and Laura Kuenssberg

Fifty-one journalists earned more than the £178,000 threshold

Anna Foster, who became a Today programme presenter in April 2025 now earns £315,000-£319,999.

Matt Chorley, the former Times Radio presenter who joined 5 Live to helm a daily politics show in September earned between £230,000 and £234,999.

Footnotes:

My fascination with the images that news organisations choose to illustrate the heatwave continues unabated.

Here’s one from BBC Online:

Sunflowers. A strange choice perhaps, given this was the week it was reported more than 2,700 people may have died in these heatwaves.

Meanwhile Guardian analysis of nearly 2,500 heatwave articles finds almost three-quarters made no reference to global heating at all.

On This Day… Thousands of Turkish troops invaded northern Cyprus after last-minute talks in Athens failed to reach a solution on this day in 1974.

Our Week: London, Portsmouth and Sheffield this week.

The Mutts:

Be part of the MMB. Thoughts on this week’s content, or interviews you’ve seen, heard, or (best of all) done, please let us know.

Back on Monday with one more before the break. Have a brilliant week.



All at Inside Edge