Media Masters

John Paton is chairman of the Independent and Evening Standard, and a non-executive director at the Home Office. With a long career as an executive and investor, he has led media companies across the US, Canada and Europe, overseen $7bn in financial transactions, and has previously served on the board of prominent organisations such as the Guardian Media Group. In this in-depth interview, John outlines their ambitious plans for global growth - having abandoned the Independent’s paper...

Paul Tweed is an international media lawyer. One of the world’s foremost reputation managers, he has never lost a libel case, and has an impressive roster of clients including Liam Neeson, The Duchess of York, Justin Timberlake, Jennifer Lopez, Harrison Ford and Johnny Depp. In this in-depth interview, Paul takes us behind-the-scenes of some of his most high-profile cases, including an early win for Britney Spears, for whom he was the first in the business to obtain a media apology; argues...

Tom Rogers is a media and technology industry leader who has revolutionised TV business news and TV itself. Best known for his time as the first-ever president of NBC Cable, he created CNBC and MSNBC and then spent eleven years as President of TiVo - transforming TV consumption globally and bringing Amazon & Netflix to our screens. In 2006, he received an Emmy for outstanding contribution to the development of television, and was inducted into the Broadcasting Hall of Fame. In this in-depth...

Andy Coulson is a strategic media advisor to CEOs and global leaders. In a meteoric career which included editing the News of the World and serving as Prime Minister David Cameron’s director of communications, it all came crashing down in 2014 when he was convicted of conspiring to intercept communications and sent to prison. Andy apologised for making significant mistakes as editor but denied - and still denies - breaking the law. In this in-depth interview, Andy reflects on the lessons...

Tim Harford OBE is an economist, writer and broadcaster. A Financial Times senior columnist, presenter of BBC Radio 4’s ‘More or Less,’ TedX speaker and honorary fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, he was awarded an OBE in 2019 for services to improving economic understanding. His best-selling book ‘The Undercover Economist’ enlightened millions of readers about the economic principles powering everyday life. In this in-depth interview, Tim discusses his mission to encourage people to...

Julia Angwin is co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Markup. Founded in 2019, the nonprofit newsroom has pioneered open-source data journalism to hold Big Tech to account and assess its impact on society. A winner (and two-time finalist) of the Pulitzer Prize, Julia previously held senior positions at ProPublica and The Wall Street Journal, and is author of the best-selling book ‘Dragnet Nation,’ a searing exposé of America’s “surveillance economy.” In this in-depth interview, Julia shares...

Errin Haines is founder and editor-at-large of The 19th*. Founded a year ago and based in Austin, Texas, the nonprofit, non-partisan newsroom covers the intersection of women, politics and policy. Named after the US Constitution’s 19th Amendment, their mission is to encourage the participation and representation of marginalised people in democracy. Her career has taken in senior positions at the Associated Press, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and she is also a regular on-air...

Jamie East is a broadcaster, journalist and podcaster. Known for his witty commentary on showbiz and entertainment, he started ‘Holy Moly’ in 2002, which went on to become one of Britain’s largest and most influential gossip sites. He has presented Channel 5’s ‘Big Brother’s Bit On The Side’ and ‘Thronecast’ for Sky Atlantic - and has recently launched his new daily podcast ‘The Smart 7’ which summaries the news in seven minutes. In this in-depth interview, Jamie argues that traditional...

Melanie Leach is CEO of South Shore Productions, and has spent decades creating iconic programmes for the BBC, ITV, Netflix, and beyond. Her production credits include the Emmy award-winning ‘Educating’ series for Channel 4, ‘The Real Marigold Hotel’ for the BBC - and ‘Hotel Inspector,’ now Channel 5’s longest-running show. Launched in 2019, and backed financially by ITV Studios, South Shore creates documentary, popular factual and entertainment programmes for stations and streaming...

Stephen Sackur is the presenter of BBC HARDTalk - the most popular news interview programme in the world, with 70 million viewers. Before this, he was an award-winning BBC foreign correspondent covering landmark global events such as 9/11, the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the civil war in Sri Lanka. In this in-depth interview, he takes us behind the scenes on the “crackling tension” in the HARDTalk studio; reflects on some of his career highlights, from the first ever on-screen...

Rick Wilson is a political strategist, media consultant, New York Times bestselling author and co-founder of The Lincoln Project. Described as “one of the best political analysts of our times” and “the father of the attack ad,” he has an award-winning column in The Daily Beast, and also writes for The Washington Post and The Spectator. In this in-depth interview, Rick shares how The Lincoln Project was born and takes us behind the scenes of some of their most provocative and...

Alvin Hall is a broadcaster, author and financial educator. Beginning his career on Wall Street, a chance encounter with a BBC producer led to an unexpected career detour - becoming one of the UK’s most prominent business TV presenters, hosting BBC flagship programmes and landing the beeb’s first-ever interview with Jay-Z. A successful author, his best-seller ‘You and Your Money: It’s More than Just the Numbers’ has helped millions take control of their finances. In this in-depth interview,...

Alessandra Galloni is global managing editor at Reuters. Established in 1851, the organisation comprises 2,500 journalists, working in 16 languages across 200 locations in over 100 countries. Her bestselling 2013 book, “From the End of the Earth to Rome,” profiles Pope Francis and his unexpected election as pontiff. Beginning her career at The Wall Street Journal, she spent over a decade as correspondent, economics writer and editor in multiple locations including New York, London, Paris and...

Kyle Pope is editor and publisher of the Columbia Journalism Review - an essential publication for journalists, and respected watchdog of the press. Starting out as an editor at The Wall Street Journal, Kyle then moved to The New York Observer as editor-in-chief, joining CJR in 2016. In this in-depth interview, he recalls his testimony to the House Judiciary Committee, where he argued that Congress had “failed to stand up for press freedom” whilst “under attack” from President Trump; shares...

Laura Wilshaw is editor of ITV News at Ten. She previously held senior positions at Euronews, 5 News, NBC and Sky News, and her team was recently shortlisted for a BAFTA. In this in-depth interview, she reflects on this year’s “incredible news cycle” and the multifaceted editorial & logistical challenges brought on by the pandemic; ponders on the ethics of balancing human empathy with the responsibility to report fairly when covering sensitive (yet divisive) issues such as the UK’s migrant...

Jonathan Munro is the BBC’s Head of Newsgathering, leading the day-to-day activity and deployments of all journalists working across the network’s 60 international bureaux. Prior to this he spent 26 years at ITN joining as an editorial trainee, and ultimately becoming their Correspondent reporting on stories in the US, Russia and Africa. In this in-depth interview, Jonathan describes the challenges of covering a year of “a lot of shade and not much light” - including Covid-19, Brexit and the...

Professor Sir David Omand was the first UK Security and Intelligence Coordinator, and formerly director of GCHQ. Spending much of his career leading the UK’s national counter-terrorism strategy, he was directly responsible to the prime minister for homeland security. His book ‘How Spies Think: 10 Lessons in Intelligence’ is described as a “call to arms for more rational decision-making” and shares the spooks’ problem-solving skills. In this in-depth interview, Sir David argues the government...

Nicholas Coleridge is chairman of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Beginning his career as a journalist at Tatler, he moved to the Evening Standard as a columnist, and was appointed editor of Harpers & Queen (now Harper’s Bazaar) at age 29. Joining Conde Nast in 1989 he spent 26 years at the top, overseeing some of the world’s leading brands such as GQ and Vogue, operating in 32 markets and reaching over 400 million. An author of fourteen books, his renowned memoir ‘The Glossy Years’ recounts...

John Battelle is co-founder and CEO of Recount Media. Founded in 2018, they have developed “a new approach to politics” that “won’t waste your time,” by collating current affairs content to create videos that reflect the modern consumers’ shorter attention span. His eclectic career has encompassed two professorships and co-founding Wired magazine. He also wrote the best-selling book, ‘The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture,’ regarded...

Scott Omelianuk is the newly appointed editor-in-chief of ‘Inc.’ Founded in 1979, the award-winning magazine focuses on inspiring entrepreneurs and has a monthly reach of 25m. In an eclectic journalism career, taking in positions at both GQ and Esquire, Scott has also been a film producer, and presented several TV shows across fashion and design. In this in-depth interview, the self-described “under-achieving entrepreneur” explains how a series of failed ventures has given him an admiration...