Good morning. It’s Monday 7th April.

Stories scheduled for the next seven days:

Today: EU trade ministers meet following US tariffs announcement.

Tuesday:  King Charles and Queen Camilla begin state visit to Italy.

Court of Appeal hears Prince Harry’s challenge over police protection.

Wednesday: US reciprocal tariffs come into effect for the EU and countries including China, South Korea, Japan and India.

Thursday: ‘Coalition of the Willing’ defence ministers meet in Brussels.

The Masters begins.

Friday: Monthly UK GDP estimate.

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu expected to appear in court.

Saturday:  Presidential election in Gabon following 2023 military coup.

Sunday: EU introduces counter-measures to US tariffs.

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

A morning soundtrack for many of you. 

My view – for what it’s worth – is too often at the moment the programme feels like a slog of a listen. It also doesn’t feel as agenda-setting as it used to. 

The papers are awash with rumours of discontent amongst the main presenters, most notably Emma Barnett and Nick Robinson – the sort of gossipy story the BBC will hate. But there’s an argument corporation comms should even lean into this a bit. Today doesn’t feel heavyweight any more. It needs egos and big beasts (Redhead/Timpson/Humphrys/Naughtie/Husain). Robinson is allegedly (and I quote the Mail On Sunday here) over-bearing? Well so he should be. 

I know it’s not as easy as the good old days when PMs phoned in, big-hitters came on air for 20 minutes and weren’t media trained within an inch of their lives (ahem). But it still feels like the programme has lost its way. 

Unless.

Maybe it isn’t Today that has changed. Maybe it’s me. All those news podcasts listened to on delayed trains…is the way I get (or expect) my news a model Today just can’t squeeze itself into anymore? 

As ever, your thoughts welcome. 

“Things Learnt (Then Forgotten)” – Week 13.

The problem with Algeria and the Seychelles…

“Newsletters with a few handpicked stories, podcasts delving into a single subject, and a reduction in story counts have already emerged as early winners from the news avoider war.”

Interesting article from the Guardian on the rise in news avoidance, a theme we’ve touched on a couple of times in previous weeks. 

What are newsrooms doing (or planning to do) to fight back?

READ MORE

News In Brief:

Tortoise Media has announced its first big hire for The Observer ahead of completing its takeover of the title later this month.

Times journalist Rachel Sylvester will be the paper’s political editor.

Speaking of the Observer’s impending new chapter, commentator Mic Wright writes:

“While Tortoise has made a big noise about investing more in its title, its future is surely going to be more focused more on long-form features, analysis and breaking stories that are less tied to the daily ebb and flow of reporting.”

We’ll read with interest.

What do politicians listen and read?

Source: INHouse

And delicious irony from The Sunday Times:

Footnotes:

On this day: US President Jimmy Carter decided to postpone production of the controversial neutron bomb on this day in 1978.

Monday weather: Edinburgh – 15 degrees and sunny. Hull – 14 and sunny

Mutts: Stan throwback. 2018…

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

“To be detained and deported from the country where I previously lived for five years…has been extremely distressing.” 

The BBC’s Mark Lowen – kicked out of Turkey after reporting on the anti-government riots.

Good morning. It’s Monday 31st March.

“Things Learnt (Then Forgotten)” – Week 12.

What now runs to 359,000 pages?

We’re enjoying the ongoing debate about whether the current dizzy pace of the news agenda is exposing a flaw in the podcast model.

Here are the thoughts of Paul Stanworth – Commissioning Editor for Podcasts at Sky News:

“I think it’s a good reminder that people generally don’t consume news like ‘news people’ do. We see the numbers tick up for our daily Trump podcast for several days afterwards – they come for the analysis but they also come for the familiarity and warmth of hosts they’ve decided they like. Matters less when it is. There’s been one occasion where we’ve taken the late decision to re-record that to be in tune with events but the audience understands what’s going on: it’s published at a particular time and if the subject they want isn’t on that episode, it’ll be on the next. For news, consumption is changing and newsroom behaviours definitely being challenged as they try to change with it.”

Last word on this and then we can all move on. Take a look at the Politico running order for last week’s Spring Statement from the Chancellor. I think the news podcast model is safe for now…

Stories scheduled for the next seven days:

Today: Yvette Cooper hosts Border Security Summit.

NASA press conference with astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.

Tuesday: Energy price cap changes take effect. 

Wednesday: Planned implementation of US reciprocal tariffs.

Rachel Reeves at Treasury Committee session on Spring Statement/Heathrow CEO at committee session on power outage. 

Thursday: NATO foreign ministers meet.

Friday: England hosts Belgium in UEFA Women’s Nations League.

Elton John releases new album. 

Saturday:  US deadline for Chinese group ByteDance to divest TikTok.

Sunday: Employer National Insurance Contribution changes take effect.

Non-dom tax status abolished.

The Olivier Awards. 

News In Brief:

Unherd Political Editor Tom McTague has landed a big new gig as editor-in-chief of the New Statesman. He replaces Jason Cowley, who stepped down from the title in December after more than a decade and a half at the helm.

Matthew Doyle, Sir Keir Starmer’s director of communications has stood down less than nine months after entering Downing Street.

More than 50 former BBC World Service senior journalists and executives have warned the government that China and Russia will step into any gap left by the broadcaster as it faces possible cuts to its funding.

The BBC breaks into the Top 50 news websites in the US for the first time:

(Source: Press Gazette)

And…

Definitely less credible.

(Less dateable however is beyond the scope of our coaching, thank goodness…)

Footnotes:

On this day: An anti-poll tax rally in central London erupted into the worst riots in the city for a century on this day in 1990.

Monday weather: Cambridge – 14 degrees and sunny. Dundee 13 and cloudy

Mutts: Asleep, as per…

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

Morning all, it’s Monday 24th March. Let’s kick off with the week ahead…

Today: MPs debate Planning and Infrastructure Bill for the first time. 

US, Russian and Ukrainian officials hold separate talks in Riyadh.

Tuesday: US intelligence chiefs at Senate hearing on worldwide threats.

Verdict announced in Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini corruption appeal.

Wednesday: Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivers Spring Statement and OBR presents economic and fiscal forecast.

Thursday: France hosts ‘Coalition of the Willing’ meeting on Ukraine.

RFU holds vote of confidence in Bill Sweeney.

Friday: Reform UK local elections campaign launch.

Former Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson in court on bribery charges.

Saturday: FA Cup quarterfinals.

Partial solar eclipse. 

Sunday: Mothering Sunday.

Last week I quoted one of my old editors at 5Live who felt the current pace of the news agenda exposed a weakness in the podcast model.

Reader Ben emailed to say:

“I’ve definitely noticed them being “out of date” but I think we’re forgiving of it because of the investment/para-social relationship we have with the hosts. I think we relate to them being out of date in the way we might relate to a friend not having every single detail of the news agenda in a casual coffee conversation. In other words I think they occupy a different space to “news”.” 

Spot on. (Though would you meet your out-of-touch friend just a bit less often after a while? Time will tell.)

“Things Learnt (Then Forgotten)” – Week 11.

What links Freddie Mercury and Dr Seuss?

“If an entire newsroom can be sidelined overnight, what does that say about the state of press freedom?” 

The National Press Club reacts to the news the Trump administration is shutting down the Voice Of America after eight decades.

“An entire institution is being dismantled piece by piece. This isn’t just a staffing decision – it’s a fundamental shift that endangers the future of independent journalism.”

A White House statement said the order would “ensure taxpayers are no longer on the hook for radical propaganda”

READ MORE

Jack Blanchard, Politico

News In Brief:

The latest UK newspaper print circulation figures show the Daily Mirror under 200,000 for the first time since Edward VII was on the throne. A 100% increase in cover price over the last five years to £1.70 has helped defend circulation revenue (while at the same time probably hastening decline).

___

The Independent is to launch a news service which it said will use AI tools to summarise its journalism for “time-poor audiences”.

READ MORE

Bucket List Moment :

I spent a brilliant three days working with the senior team at Buckinghamshire Fire And Rescue Service last week, and managed to tick this one off the bucket list…

Footnotes:

On this day: An oil tanker, the Exxon Valdez, ran aground off the Alaskan coast, releasing crude oil into the sea on this day in 1989.

Monday weather: Derby – 8 and cloudy, Aberdeen – 10 and cloudy.

Mutts: Leo, up close…

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

Morning all, it’s Monday 17th March.

“Things Learnt (Then Forgotten)” – Week 10.

Derailed by a decent anecdote…

One of my old editors at 5Live Richard Jackson asked this on social media:

“Question for podcast listeners. Has a rapid moving story (Trump) exposed a weakness? I listened to two this morning which had to admit the time they were being recorded as they might be out of date when you listened (they were) and a third that was doing a live edition. Isn’t that radio? Does it matter?”

Have you noticed this? Is the news agenda too speedy for podcasts at the moment?

The week ahead…

Monday: New Ofcom rules on online safety come into force.

OECD publishes Economic Outlook

Tuesday: German lawmakers vote on debt easing plan.

CPI and RPI Basket of Goods and Services.

Wednesday:  Matt Hancock questioned at Covid-19 inquiry hearing on procurement.

Amanda Pritchard speaks at King’s Fund leadership conference;

Thursday: UK monetary policy committee announces interest rate decision. EU leaders begin two-day summit.

Friday: Final public sector finance statistics before Spring Statement.

England face Albania in World Cup 2026 qualifier.

Saturday: Liberal Democrats kick off spring conference.

Women’s Six Nations begins. 

Sunday: Chinese Grand Prix.

Fifth anniversary of the UK’s first Covid-19 lockdown.

“What particularly angers rank and file staff members is that they believe they work hard every day to achieve impartiality, and that battle is made far more difficult when colleagues – and worse, senior staff – seem not to do their job properly.” 

He’s a bit of an armchair-general these days, but (former boss) Roger Mosey’s article on problems within BBC News is worth a read.

READ MORE

And final word (probably) on the Gaza doc furore from Hannah Barnes in the New Statesman:

“When I think back to how much scrutiny there was of the stories I covered, I simply cannot understand how this happened. Others I’ve spoken to confirm that it feels “different” this time. The mood inside the corporation is dire.”

“Why are Gen Zers like Mille Bobby Brown ageing so badly?” screamed a Mail Online headline, which I’ll assume passed you by, but it’s one of a string of similar stories which include “What HAS Millie Bobby Brown done to her face?” 

Not to sound too po-faced, but this stuff isn’t journalism. It’s a story generated from a couple of comments from random people on social media, but it does good business.

The reason I mention it is that on this occasion Millie Bobby Brown (who’s an actress by the way) has snapped and taken to instagram to call out publicly the four people who wrote the bulk of the stories. 

“This is bullying. The fact that adult writers are spending their time dissecting my face, my body, my choices is disturbing. That some of these articles are written by women makes it worse.”

One of those women is a Mail freelancer, Lydia Hawken and the only one to respond publicly. On Tik Tok she said: 

“I work on a rota system and sometimes I get to pitch stories that are my own…but more often than not I get assigned stories decided upon by an editorial team. The story about Millie Bobby Brown fell into the latter category.”

She went on to say;

“I want to say I’m sorry for writing the story and for not being brave enough to say no…This morning I officially resigned from The Mail and I won’t work with them again.” 

A grim insight into one of the grubbier corners of the journalism landscape.

Source: Mic Wright 

READ MORE

Large Group Sessions:

We’ve a set of courses up and running specifically for larger groups – up to 40 at a time. We’re running these in-person and online.

Click on the links above (or READ MORE) – or drop us a line if you’d like more info.

Footnotes:

On this day: More than 200 people were arrested after thousands clashed in an anti-Vietnam war protest outside the United States embassy in London on the day in 1968.

Monday weather: Newcastle – 8 and cloudy, Liverpool – 10 and cloudy.

Mutts: After a week of watching Crufts, some much-deserved R&R for our Stan…

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