Good morning. It’s Monday 12th May.

A truncated briefing this week – normal service resumes from the 19th.

“Things Learnt (Then Forgotten)” – Week 16.

How To Interview The President…

For “delivering piercing commentary on powerful people and institutions with deftness, creativity – and a fearlessness that led to her departure from the news organisation after 17 years.”

Ann Telnaes, a cartoonist for The Washington Post who quit after editors killed this sketch criticising the Post owner and other media execs has now won the Pulitzer Prize for illustrated reporting and commentary.

News In Brief

Nick Robinson’s Political Thinking podcast is to be broadcast regularly on BBC Two at Friday lunchtimes:

“What the BBC is trying to do, and I hope Political Thinking does, is to say we can learn from the fact that we’re in a competitive market in which politicians don’t have to appear – that they have stories to tell, but we’re not partisan, and we’re not creeps, and we will ask proper questions.”

Guardian interview with Robinson: READ MORE

Channel 4 Chief Exec Alex Mahon is stepping down after 8 years.

READ MORE

Thanks to those who have got in touch about their experiences of appearing on podcasts for our new course component – The New Media Landscape.

We’re still keen to gather more insights. Please do get in touch, we’d love to hear from you.

Footnotes:

On this day: The Labour leader John Smith died on this day in 1994.

Weather: 24 and sunny in Crete, which is where I’ll be when you read this.

Mutts: Leo very much on-brand…

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

Have a super week.

All at Inside Edge

I claimed with confidence we would return on Monday 5th – which I’ve now realised is a Bank Holiday.

So we’re back a week early.

Good morning. It’s <re-checks diary for the 68th time> Monday 28th April.

“Things Learnt (Then Forgotten)” – Week 15.

Apple’s business model and your cognitive powers…

Stories scheduled for the next seven days:

Today: Parliamentary elections in Canada.

Trial begins for men charged over Sycamore Gap tree felling.

Tuesday: Donald Trump holds rally to mark his 100th day in office.

Wednesday: CCC report on progress in adapting to climate change.

Thursday: UK local and mayoral elections.

Mike Amesbury constituency by-election.

Apple and Amazon announce results.

Friday: UK local elections results.

First court hearing for Russell Brand on rape charges.

Saturday: Federal elections in Australia. 

Sunday: Re-run of Romanian presidential election.

F1 Miami Grand Prix.

UK newsrooms in the year 2025…

• Overwhelmingly white (90%), university educated (91%) and non-religious (71%)
• Left-leaning. In 2015, around half (54%) identified with the political left, but this has risen to three quarters (77%)

Reuters surveyed over a thousand UK journalists. 

And as organisations (including Inside Edge) agonise over their social media presence….

• Social media is widely used by UK journalists professionally, with 70% saying they regularly used it to discover news stories and 57% saying they regularly used it to promote their journalism. Almost all UK journalists used social media for their work at least some of the time.

READ MORE

Speaking of which….

We’ve designed a shiny new section to be included in a number of our courses – The New Media Landscape.

As readers of the Briefing will know, it’s a time of seismic change for news. From the way it is funded and sourced to the way it is covered and disseminated. This has implications for organisations and interviewees, and this section is a chance to bring you right up to date.

We’ve included a great sequence on how to prepare for and participate in podcasts. We’ve spoken to some of the key players in the sector but we’d like your input too…

What are your experiences of appearing on podcasts?

Please do get in touch.

“Any changes to the seating chart will merely be symbolic of the deeper shifts in the media dynamics in Trump’s Washington, where the mainstream press is fighting for viewers and relevance while the alternative conservative media steadily expands its audience – and basks in the warm glow of Trump’s affection.” 

I’ve received some feedback that the Briefing has been a tad Trump-heavy of late, which is probably fair. But he’s (by accident or design) rewriting the relationship between the media and The Executive, and it would be odd to ignore it.

So instead I’ll plug this Politico piece on the change to the White House Briefing Room. (West Wing viewers will read and weep silently for CJ…)

READ MORE

Despite being 20 (!) episodes in, Evan Davis has now been told by the BBC he can no longer host his podcast about heat pumps due to the corporation’s concerns that discussing the technology risks “treading on areas of public controversy”.

This feels like one of those stories that is on the face of it fairly insignificant, but feels part of a wider (and perhaps more worrying) narrative…

READ MORE

Footnotes:

On this day: A billionaire businessman from California became the first paying passenger to go to outer space on this day in 2001.

Monday weather: Newcastle – a mighty 21 degrees and sunny. (Go Geordies.) London – 23 degrees and sunny.

Mutts: Every so often they get half a poppadom each. Find someone who looks at you the way Stan and Leo look at half a poppadom…

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 fortnight (I think…)

All at Inside Edge

I claimed with confidence we would return on Monday 5th – which I’ve now realised is a Bank Holiday.

So we’re back a week early.

Good morning. It’s <re-checks diary for the 68th time> Monday 28th April.

“Things Learnt (Then Forgotten)” – Week 15.

Apple’s business model and your cognitive powers…

Stories scheduled for the next seven days:

Today: Parliamentary elections in Canada.

Trial begins for men charged over Sycamore Gap tree felling.

Tuesday: Donald Trump holds rally to mark his 100th day in office.

Wednesday: CCC report on progress in adapting to climate change.

Thursday: UK local and mayoral elections.

Mike Amesbury constituency by-election.

Apple and Amazon announce results.

Friday: UK local elections results.

First court hearing for Russell Brand on rape charges.

Saturday: Federal elections in Australia. 

Sunday: Re-run of Romanian presidential election.

F1 Miami Grand Prix.

UK newsrooms in the year 2025…

• Overwhelmingly white (90%), university educated (91%) and non-religious (71%)
• Left-leaning. In 2015, around half (54%) identified with the political left, but this has risen to three quarters (77%)

Reuters surveyed over a thousand UK journalists. 

And as organisations (including Inside Edge) agonise over their social media presence….

• Social media is widely used by UK journalists professionally, with 70% saying they regularly used it to discover news stories and 57% saying they regularly used it to promote their journalism. Almost all UK journalists used social media for their work at least some of the time.

READ MORE

Speaking of which….

We’ve designed a shiny new section to be included in a number of our courses – The New Media Landscape.

As readers of the Briefing will know, it’s a time of seismic change for news. From the way it is funded and sourced to the way it is covered and disseminated. This has implications for organisations and interviewees, and this section is a chance to bring you right up to date.

We’ve included a great sequence on how to prepare for and participate in podcasts. We’ve spoken to some of the key players in the sector but we’d like your input too…

What are your experiences of appearing on podcasts?

Please do get in touch.

“Any changes to the seating chart will merely be symbolic of the deeper shifts in the media dynamics in Trump’s Washington, where the mainstream press is fighting for viewers and relevance while the alternative conservative media steadily expands its audience – and basks in the warm glow of Trump’s affection.” 

I’ve received some feedback that the Briefing has been a tad Trump-heavy of late, which is probably fair. But he’s (by accident or design) rewriting the relationship between the media and The Executive, and it would be odd to ignore it.

So instead I’ll plug this Politico piece on the change to the White House Briefing Room. (West Wing viewers will read and weep silently for CJ…)

READ MORE

Despite being 20 (!) episodes in, Evan Davis has now been told by the BBC he can no longer host his podcast about heat pumps due to the corporation’s concerns that discussing the technology risks “treading on areas of public controversy”.

This feels like one of those stories that is on the face of it fairly insignificant, but feels part of a wider (and perhaps more worrying) narrative…

READ MORE

Footnotes:

On this day: A billionaire businessman from California became the first paying passenger to go to outer space on this day in 2001.

Monday weather: Newcastle – a mighty 21 degrees and sunny. (Go Geordies.) London – 23 degrees and sunny.

Mutts: Every so often they get half a poppadom each. Find someone who looks at you the way Stan and Leo look at half a poppadom…

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 fortnight (I think…)

All at Inside Edge

Good morning. It’s Monday 14th April.

“Things Learnt (Then Forgotten)” – Week 14.

Pinball machines, and the burden of knowledge…

Stories scheduled for the next seven days:

Today: South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol’s criminal trial begins.

Blue Origin New Shepard launches with Katy Perry and Lauren Sánchez aboard.

Tuesday: High Court holds first hearing in case against Andrew Tate.

David Lammy hosts conference on the humanitarian crisis in Sudan.

Wednesday: Supreme Court rules on Scottish gender recognition case.

UK inflation data.

Thursday:  Donald Trump hosts Giorgia Meloni at the White House.

ECB interest rate decision.

Friday: Vatican marks Good Friday as Pope Francis continues recovery.

NASUWT teachers’ union conference begins.

Saturday: US ‘50501’ protests against Trump administration.

Sunday: Review of US foreign aid programmes due

“It’s 8 o’clock, you’re (still) listening to Today on Radio 4…”

Well at least some of you are, albeit through gritted teeth. Following my moan about the programme losing its way, some feedback from you…

“I think the bromance of Nick and Amal has become overbearing and in terms of Nick, I have always found him to prefer his own voice to that of the person he is interviewing – I remember one time when he interrupted a Professor of Psychology with his own (wrong) theory taking up the valuable time allocated”.

“I find Today too naval-gazey these days promoting BBC news and current affairs programmes and framing them as ‘news’ when some of the output is questionable in its bias and lack of balance.”

“Today has lost its way and lost its tone. Editorially I don’t know what they stand for any more. The only reason I still listen is because I don’t know where else to go for morning news.”

The General Medical Council (politely) joins the Twitter/X exodus…

News In Brief:

Press Gazette has a brilliant investigation into fake experts being widely quoted in the national press.

They include a science educator called “Rebecca Leigh” who put herself forward after a journalist put out a call on X for insight on the environmental impact of avocados. Apparently she doesn’t exist.

It’s an intriguing (and complicated) tale – we’ll talk more about it after Easter.

A US judge has ordered the Trump administration to restore the Associated Press’s access to presidential events after the White House blocked the news agency in a dispute over the term “Gulf of America”.

READ MORE

Nigel Farage has bagged himself a 10th job, making £25,000 as a commentator for the Rupert Murdoch-backed Sky News Australia. 

(Take note, voters of Clacton.)

READ MORE

Footnotes:

On this day: An explosion on board Apollo 13 caused one of the most critical situations in American space history on this day in 1970.

Monday weather: Exeter – 15 degrees and drizzle. Ramsgate – 14 degrees and sunny.

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.

The Briefing takes a break for a couple of weeks but we’ll return on Monday 5th May.

Have a great fortnight.

All at Inside Edge