Tomorrow's Business

Published by

Simon English

Senior City Correspondent at The Evening Standard

Rent the news, own the analysis

A good piece from the FT wades into what we might expect from GB News, and lays out what it understands to be its business plan (on which, more tomorrow).

From a content point of view, the idea is to rent the news, own the personalities and the analysis.

This offers a clear opportunity for flaks to get in early with offers of brilliant TV friendly folk, who will talk for free or nearly free in the service of the GB News brand (and their own).

The flaks can make their clients a substitute for the reporters GB News doesn’t seem to plan to hire many of.

The problem this plan produces is, what happens if everyone just rents the news, and no-one actually collects it?

Certainly, if every other news outlet is relying on the BBC for the facts, it can’t really bitch about BBC bias on those facts, it needs to do its own reporting. Or shut up and accept that the licence fee is a bargain (it totally is).

Established rivals are understandably suspicious of GB News, but probably in the wrong directions.

The desire to insist it will be the UK version of Fox News plays into its hands from a PR point of view, since when it turns out to be much smarter than that, liberal media commentators will have to remark that it is not that bad, even clever, even well-informed.

There is a list of senior staff so far, here.

And more from Press Gazette here.

I think we should wish GB News well. Once it gets going, maybe it will decide to buy news rather than just rent it, and hire some news hacks to do that.

In the meantime, surely we can cope with some different views even if we don’t share them.

Andrew Neil is such a good journalist, my bet is this venture turns out to be a far more effective opposition to Boris Johnson and co than Labour or The Guardian.

(Don’t say: not difficult.)

Register here

1) Is Virgin Money worried about the housing market overheating?

2) Are boohoo’s supply chain issues firmly in the past? What lessons has it learnt?

3) Are inflation concerns driving trade at Barrack Gold?

4) Is ITV enjoying a sudden ad boom, or is the money still mostly going to Google?

Number of the day: $0

“Always-on consumer-led environment”

Translation: We try to answer emails quickly.

See Tweet

1) Record mortgage lending as housing market heats up. BBC

2) Aid pours into India from around the world. FT

3) Mike Ashley’s Frasers to buy back shares worth £60m. Telegraph

4) Blustery bank holiday helps windfarms set new record. Guardian

Journo move of the day

PR Moves

Katy Broomhead, previously Senior Media Relations Manager at KPMG UK, has been appointed Head of Communications for Interpath Advisory, the newly-independent turnaround and restructuring business.

Rachel Symons, previously a Senior Account Director at Chameleon, is now a Senior Account Director at MikeWorldWide.

Catherine Hems, previously an Account Director at New Century Media, is now Senior Communications Manager at Godwin Developments

PR Jobs

Free Partners LLP looking for a talented Communications Account Manager to support their Communications Director. This role would be best suited to a candidate with at least two-years agency experience, who understands the importance of delivering on time and on budget and has experience of developing and executing PR and digital marketing plans and strategies. You’ll report to the Communications Director and will have authority over all associated accounts and will be supported by Free’s Marketing and PR Assistant. View job

An exciting role within the heart of the charity to lead BITC’s external communications function, building and managing key relationships, both inside and outside the organisation, and proactively creating opportunities to increase the visibility and influence of BITC. The role is uniquely positioned to build a close working relationship with the CEO and her personal office, this role will see the successful candidate building on the CEO’s senior relationships within Government and the Media. This person will support the CEO promoting BITC’s work and the issues upon which we campaign, along with writing thought-pieces from the Chief Executive for the Media or Government. View job

Powerscourt are looking for a proactive, organised and enthusiastic communicator to join their growing healthcare team. Over the course of the global pandemic, Powerscourt has won a number of healthcare accounts. This role is an exciting opportunity for a self-starter looking to accelerate their career development trajectory, by working alongside their Head of Healthcare in running existing accounts and contributing to new business. If you’d like to find out more detail on the role, please email Samantha.field@powerscourt-group.com

This year we are highlighting senior PR moves and PR Jobs in our Tomorrow’s Business newsletter. Send through to us any senior hires or roles you would like flagged to our community.

Results

Boohoo, Virgin Money, WANdisco

Trading updates

ITV, One Savings Bank, Hiscox, Direct Line, Barrick Gold

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