The media landscape is changing at pace – and keeping up with the latest developments and moves will give every comms expert an advantage over their rivals. Every week take a look at the media business from mainstream and ‘legacy’ media to cutting edge tech and the latest trends and developments – and how you can use that know-how.
My only professional dealing with Marina Hyde was slightly tricky.
Some 25 years ago, the Daily Express was in the midst of its latest redundancy round and the rest of the news desk had upped sticks and fled with their payoff cheques in hand.
I was literally the only hand left on the news desk ship as management tried to work out what to do.
It was then I took a call from Marina, who was working on the Guardian’s diary at the time, asking something along the lines of what was going on, why was everybody leaving and what was the plan. Inexperienced with handling calls about corporate strategy and somewhat thrown on what exactly I was allowed to say, I didn’t do the obvious and slam the phone down. Instead, I ummed and ahhed and gibbered.
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I don’t think I gave anything away but there may have been a slight air of incompetence.
A couple of days later there was a piece in the Guardian diary about the disarray at the Express. Marina said something vaguely along the lines of “what chance have they got, there’s just a bumbling idiot left on the desk”.
C’est la vie.
It’s interesting that 25 years later Marina is leaving the Guardian after a brilliant 25 years of comment and opinion. She’s sharp, incisive, witty and opinionated. And she covers a lot of territory – politics and culture to sport and showbiz.
Her plan is to launch her own brand, Always On, to take advantage of the opportunities digital media now offers.
She will now produce regular written columns on Substack, a new YouTube show, and original social content, with more formats set to follow.
She’s working with Gary Lineker’s podcast company Goalhanger, who said the new brand would allow Hyde to be more “immediate, personal and playful, with the freedom to follow whatever she finds interesting, funny, strange or important”.
The business is, I imagine, going to rely on a variety of revenue streams, subscriptions, sponsorship and YouTube advertising among them. Goalhanger announced earlier this month it is creating its own in-house advertising sales operation offering partnerships across its content.
I am sure she will be a riveting success.
But for PRs and comms specialists, it is worth recognising how much Marina, who already hosts the hit podcast The Rest Is Showbusiness, is an indicator for where the media is heading.
Goalhanger co-founder Jack Davenport said the plan was to build “around unique personalities: people with a distinctive voice, an incredibly loyal audience and the ability to create far beyond any single format”.
Marina is high profile, a brilliant writer and broadcaster. She’s not the only “big name” to make the solo leap – the BBC’s Amol Rajan launches his first show of the Amol Rajan Connection today on his media platform which will feature a YouTube podcast, a members’ website and digital content across LinkedIn, TikTok, Threads, Instagram, and YouTube Shorts.
But importantly this goes beyond the star names. It’s going to be the direction of travel for any outlet, big or small, that wants to make an impression.
Ironically, The Guardian from where Marina is departing, has shown some understanding of the issue. They are creating 40 roles to train relatively inexperienced hacks to become creator journalists.
The aim is to build skills across audio, video, photography, text and audience engagement. And it ties in with the publisher’s launch of Guardian Studios to do video shows.
These creator journalists are going to need to be able to build up their audience by having authority in an area, building a personal brand that has a relationship with an audience and having a sense of authenticity and humanity.
For PRs, it is a rich new area to pursue - and we are still in the foothills of this revoIution. Here are a few things to consider for starters.
