Media Training Update w/c 21st September

Edition 546

According to Ofcom UK adults now spend how many minutes per day consuming news?

(answer in the footnotes)

Good morning. It’s Monday 21st September. 


Bonnie Greer died last week at the age of 77. As a radio producer I’d always try to book her for panels. Warm and authentic, but also newsworthy. (A brilliant combination.) Wore her expertise and her intellect lightly. 


I’ll remember her most for her appearance on that extraordinary edition of Question Time in 2009 with Nick Griffin, then leader of the BNP. I was on shift at Television Centre on the day of the recording. There were hordes of furious protesters outside, and I vividly remember us being put into lockdown for a couple of hours when it looked as though the situation might turn really quite ugly.


It’s fair to say the Beeb’s editorial decision to give Griffin such a platform hasn’t aged well. Happily he did himself no favours on the night, but Greer, who later described sitting alongside him as “probably the weirdest and most creepy experience of my life”, was superb. She knew her facts, stayed completely unruffled and never rose to the bait. 

The perfect guest to sit alongside him.


It was a very big moment in broadcasting, and I think her part in it deserves to be remembered.

To Mock Or Not To Mock…

Following on from last week’s briefing, you are (as ever) completely divided. 

Regarding whether a mock interview in advance of going on air is a good thing or not 56% of you said yes, it helps. 44% said it didn’t.

Thanks as ever to all who took the trouble to vote.

Monday: G7 foreign ministers hold informal meeting on the margins of the UN General Assembly.

Prince Harry attends the WellChild Awards.


Tuesday: Andy Burnham and Donald Trump among speakers on the opening day of the UNGA general debate 
(Burnham and Trump expected to hold their first bilateral meeting).


Wednesday: Harvey Weinstein sentenced in New York.


Thursday: Donald Trump holds White House talks with Xi Jinping.

Friday: Pope Leo begins visit to France, meeting with Emmanuel Macron and visiting Notre Dame.

Oasis tickets go on sale.


Saturday: England kicks off Nations League campaign against World Cup champions Spain.


Sunday: Lucy Powell speaks as Labour Party conference begins.

Number 3/20: 



“It can feel a bit counterintuitive, but maximise your effectiveness in an interview by digging into the detail of your subject rather than building a rounded overview. In the limited time you’ve got on air, investing in specific illustrations will pay off, as it is the tangibles that provide what we call “stickiness”. These nuggets not only make sense of what you’re up to, but hook in the minds of your audience so they remember what you’re about – beyond the interview itself.”

All The News That’s Fit To Print:

(1) The Observer has raised £10 million to finance its plan to create a financially sustainable Sunday newspaper. (You might remember the title was sold by the Guardian to start-up Tortoise Media in April last year.) Since then circulation has fallen from around 114,000 to 90,000. 


(2) Meanwhile The Guardian’s latest results provides more evidence that the future of news publishing may depend less on chasing the biggest possible audience and more on giving people a compelling reason to come back, engage and ultimately pay.

Revenue from paying online readers increased by 17% to a record £126m in the year to March, with the number of recurring paying digital supporters rising by 116,000 to 1.4 million.

(3) Finally a very happy birthday to the New York Times, which turned 175 last Friday.

One in five people in the UK say they now use AI apps as a source of news.


Ofcom interviewed 5,397 adults for its 2026 News Report and, for the first time, asked them if they had used AI to access news over the past month.


This is a big deal for publishers because they generate very little click-through to original sources.

(If I have time to read it) I’ll pick out some more content from the report in next week’s briefing, but as for the question we posed at the top?


Ofcom estimates that UK adults spend 72 minutes per day consuming news.

On This Day… Bill Clinton’s Grand Jury testimony about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky was released to the United States public on this day in 1998.



Our Week: Brighton and Liverpool for us 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. Have a brilliant week.



All at Inside Edge