Five things we learnt: ‘Meet the Expert’ with Ian King

Thursday 12th February

On Tuesday, Pagefield was lucky enough to host Ian King  in our latest Meet the Expert series. Ian is the lead voice of Sky’s Business coverage and his show – ‘Ian King Live’ – is one of the most successful programmes on Sky News. In addition to his broadcast career, Ian has held a number of senior editorial positions including Business & City Editor at The Times, where he continues to write a weekly column. He was also the Business Editor of The Sun from 2000 to 2008, and before that, held a number of roles at The Guardian, Mail on Sunday and Daily Telegraph.

Here are five things we learnt from the breakfast:

Business & broadcast: One of Ian’s gripes that came to light – prompted by one of our guest’s questions – was the frustrating dearth of in-depth and informative radio and television business programmes. Ian confessed that he had grown up in the 70s and 80s watching the Money Programme on BBC2, while in the late 80s and early 90s we had the City Programme on ITV and Business Daily on Channel 4 – with the BBC’s Working Lunch following later on in the 90s. The consensus around the table was that there is a definite appetite for more business broadcasting.

Trust: Ian followed the point above by citing an anecdote he heard from a top CEO who felt that some broadcast media covering business were disenchanted with or even disliked business. Perhaps this and the lack of business broadcasting is the fault of businesses, who have done a lot to erode our trust over the last ten years. Ian was asked whether – with this in mind – businesses have become less or more willing to communicate. He said it comes down to one simple thing – the natural inclination and aptitude of the CEOs to understand their audiences and put themselves out there in the good times and bad times. In this context, former Sainsburys CEO Justin King was identified as someone who went out of his way to communicate.

The two Eds: Inevitably, the election and business came up as a theme. Ian confirmed what we have all been hearing over the last week – the feeling in the City and the general business community was that Ed Miliband is apathetic about and often anti-business. But he was keen to point out that Ed Balls ‘gets’ business, understands the importance of growth, wealth-creation and profit and is generally well-regarded by the same people who are underwhelmed by the Labour leader.

Greece frightening: Ian offered some stark views on Greece. One of these observations was the disconnect between Tsipras’ chest thumping to his electorate and the more moderate tone he’s now taking outside the country.  Regardless of this, Ian emphasised how scary and painful the Grexit could be for Greece. Disclaimer: whilst Ian does have a tenure at The Sun under his belt, the terrible headline for this paragraph is entirely Pagefield’s responsibility.

Plus ça change: The breakneck speed and reshaping of media seems to be an omnipresent theme. But despite this, it was reassuring to hear that many of the basics of what makes a good story still applies. An interesting or strident view goes a long way. A visual backdrop can make or break a story. And something surprising or counter-intuitive will always stand out.

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