Media Masters

Zillah Byng-Thorne is chief executive of Future plc. Founded in 1985, the leading publisher produces some of the UK’s most popular magazines, including Country Life, FourFourTwo, Marie Claire and The Week. Joining Future in 2014, Zillah has presided over a spectacular turnaround in the company’s fortunes - publishing 160 titles, and expanding the brand’s portfolio to include video games and digital magazines; and in 2020, they ventured into e-commerce, purchasing insurance company...

Erin McCarthy is editor-in-chief of Mental Floss. Founded in a university dorm room in 2001, the intellectual trivia brand for “curious people” blurs the lines between entertainment and education, and its “smart, quirky content” has reached over 1 billion people across multiple platforms including print, online, YouTube and podcasting. Joining in 2012, Erin hosts many of their most popular YouTube shows, and edited their book ‘The Curious Reader;’ as well as creating, producing, and hosting...

James Bloodworth is an author and political journalist. A former editor of the blog Left Foot Forward, James’ work has appeared in The Guardian, The Spectator, the New Statesman and The Wall Street Journal. Author of ‘The Myth of Meritocracy’ and ‘Hired: Six Months Undercover in Low Wage Britain', his work was long-listed for the 2019 Orwell Prize. In this in-depth interview, James discusses his experience going undercover in the low wage economy for his book ‘Hired’ - and why a number of...

Ricky Sutton is the founder of Oovvuu, the world’s leading AI video-matching engine. Launched in Australia in 2014, Oovvuu uses AI to match ad-funded videos with relevant news articles anywhere in the world instantly. The business has 600 participating broadcasters and its content is seen by millions of people daily. In this in-depth interview, Ricky reflects on starting out in his career and why he decided at the age of 12 he wanted to be a war correspondent; delves into how Oovvuu helps...

Jason Cowley is an author, writer and editor-in-chief of the New Statesman. Since taking the reins in 2008, Jason has pushed the political and cultural magazine’s print circulation to a 40-year high. The publication’s longest-serving editor since the 1960s, he previously held staff roles for both The Times and The Observer. In this in-depth interview, Jason details how he used the time during lockdown to redesign the magazine’s branding - and launched a new “elegantly designed” website;...

Galen Gordon is senior vice president of talent strategy and development at ABC News. An award-winning journalist with more than 25 years experience in both network TV news and sports, he was previously a producer for the likes of NBC, CNN and ESPN. In his current role, based in New York, Galen ensures that ABC News reflects the society it serves - both on-air and behind the camera. In this in-depth interview, Galen argues that - as well as being the right thing to do - promoting diversity...

Darren Scott is editor of SFX, the world’s most successful sci-fi, fantasy and horror magazine. Approaching three decades of success, it is the market leader - and takes in films and comics, as well as games. Darren previously wrote for The Guardian and The Independent; and spent 10 years as editor of Gay Times, the largest, longest-running and most-recognised LGBTQ+ media brand. In this in-depth interview, Darren explains how there was no such thing as a typical week for him before the...

London N. Breed is the Mayor of the City and County of San Francisco. The untimely death of her predecessor Ed Lee in December 2017 saw Breed appointed acting mayor, and the following year she won a special election and gained a mandate in her own right - becoming the first-ever Black woman elected to the role. Since taking the reins of the city, Mayor Breed has spearheaded its Covid recovery programme, making public safety and affordable housing her priorities in office. San Francisco has a...

Nathalie Cox is an actor, model and co-founder of CountryLine, a global media brand and community uniting country music fans around the world. Launching five years ago, Natalie’s role as creative director involves capitalising on a surge of interest in country music worldwide. The subscription service offers fans access to backstage interviews, exclusive sessions, gig guides and tickets. In this in-depth interview, Nathalie delves into turning her passion for country music into a business...

Richard Bernabe is an internationally acclaimed wildlife and travel photographer. Throughout his career, he has travelled to over 60 countries to capture incredible shots of the natural world on behalf of National Geographic, CNN, the New York Times, and the BBC. He has also built a significant following online, amassing a reach of over one million followers on both Instagram and Twitter, and has been named by Huffington Post as one of the most influential photographers on the web. In this...

Michael Ornstein is an actor, writer and visual artist. He began his creative career as an actor in New York, taking in 25 years on and off Broadway, before moving into film and television - where he is perhaps best-known for playing Chucky in the TV shows ‘Sons of Anarchy’ and ‘Mayans M.C.’ In recent years, he has shifted his primary focus to another of his great passions - painting. In this in-depth interview, Michael talks us through his varied and accomplished career, and how choosing to...

Darren Marble and Todd Goldberg are co-founders of the TV show ‘Going Public.’ The series streams on the ‘Entrepreneur’ platform and charts the rise of founders on their capital-raising journeys - uniquely allowing viewers to ‘click-to-invest’ in the featured companies in real-time, live, while they watch the show. They’re currently halfway through season one and have already bagged 10 million views, 25 million ad impressions and 200k website visits - as well as raising over $10 million so...

Sarabeth Berman is chief executive of the American Journalism Project, a philanthropic organisation which supports local non-profit newsrooms. The project’s mission is to accelerate the sustainable growth of regional news for the long term. In this in-depth interview, Sarabeth discusses the “real harm” to communities that the decline of local news has caused - and the “lack of transparency and accountability local governments enjoy as a result;” outlines their approach - partnering with...

Simon Leslie is the founder and joint chief executive of Ink. Founded in 1994, they are the world’s leading travel media company, producing 33 in-flight magazines for 24 airlines worldwide, including many of the largest carriers in the world, such as Easyjet and Virgin Atlantic. In this in-depth interview, Simon talks through the “incredible challenge” the pandemic caused the air travel industry, tackling the terrible devastation that the global depression bought on both aerospace and...

Christopher Snowdon is a libertarian writer, commentator and self-styled “scourge of the nanny statists.” He joined the Institute of Economic Affairs in 2012 as their head of lifestyle economics, where his work focuses on social freedoms and what he sees as “the dangers of prohibition.” He often appears on TV and radio programmes offering a contrarian view on political topics and lifestyle choices, and writes regularly for a number of titles, including Spiked, The Critic and The Daily...

Harry Jarman is founder and editor-in-chief of Gentleman’s Journal, the men’s luxury lifestyle magazine. Launched in 2011, the print edition regularly sells 35,000 copies, and overall monthly reach online regularly exceeds one million. It has expanded to include both its own e-commerce website, and a creative agency which builds campaigns for fashion clients. In this in-depth interview, Harry reflects on how the journey began, spotting a gap in the market when he was unable to promote his...

Christopher Lamb is the Vatican correspondent for The Tablet. Founded in 1840, the weekly journal is a hugely influential voice amongst the 1.3 billion Catholics worldwide. Joining in 2009 from the Daily Telegraph, he also appears regularly on TV news around the world. In this in-depth interview, Christopher reflects on the depth of his access to the Vatican, and his ringside seat witnessing Pope Francis’ battle to modernise the church - suggesting “the forces seeking to block a Pope’s...

Batya Ungar-Sargon is deputy opinion editor of Newsweek, and author of ‘Bad News: How Woke Media is Undermining Democracy.’ Before Newsweek, Batya was opinion editor of The Forward, the largest Jewish media outlet in America, and has also written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New York Review of Books, and appears regularly on MSNBC and CNN. In this in-depth interview, Batya argues that mainstream news is “no longer just liberal,” but by being “woke” is “abandoning the...

Jolyon ‘Jon’ Connell is a journalist-turned-entrepreneur who founded the hugely successful global magazine The Week. His new venture ‘The Knowledge’ monitors hundreds of news media and compiles the very best stories into one weekly, easy-to-digest newsletter. Jon started his career at The Sunday Times, later becoming deputy editor of The Sunday Telegraph, leaving in 1994 to launch The Week - which now has editions in the UK, US and Australia, and was sold to Dennis Publishing in 2018. In...

Simon Walker is a media entrepreneur, and founder of Marquee TV, a streaming platform which brings live performances to a global audience and was recently described by The Financial Times as ‘Netflix for the arts’. In a career spanning senior management roles at the BBC, EMAP and EMI Music, Simon has been at the heart of the entertainment industry’s transformation to digital for nearly three decades. In this in-depth interview, Simon shares how Marquee TV “provided a lifeline” to arts...