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Ep 119: Building a Global Media Empire | Justin Byam Shaw (Chairman, ESI Media - Evening Standard & the Independent; Founder, Felix Project)
Entrepreneurs must be ruthless, obsessive and willing to cut corners.
Something that Justin Byam Shaw, Chairman of ESI Media, would know.
He co-owns (alongside Evgeny Lebedev) the Evening Standard & the Independent, and also co-founded the Felix Project - one of the biggest food redistribution charities in the UK!
If you've ever been in London, you'll notice the Evening Standard lying around Tube stations. It's a 100% free quality newspaper and I'd always wondered - what does it take to run it? How do you manage to keep a newspaper free on such a scale?
Well today, Justin shares it all.
He takes us through his decision to:
🔥 Study classics at Oxford University - even when everyone told him it was good for nothing!
🔥 Pivot from advertising - when he realised he was terrible at it
🔥 Drop out of British Telecom within 1 week of finding a market gap to launch his own startup - at a time when it wasn't the "cool thing" to be a founder
🔥 Buy both the Evening Standard & the Independent (alongside the Lebedevs)
And also his thoughts on:
🤔 How George Osborne faired as Editor of the Evening Standard
🤔 How to turn around failing media companies
🤔 Launching the The i newspaper (within 7 months of acquiring the Independent!)
🤔 The rise of superstar journalists turned media personalities
🤔 The media publication he'd be most interested in taking over & what he'd do differently!
Highlights:
- 4.44 Studying "good for nothing" Classics at Oxford?!
- 7:18 Being bad at advertising
- 9:27 Moving to British Telecom when it'd just privatised
- 11:34 The talent show that kickstarted Justin's entrepreneurial journey
- 12:38 Remortgaging his apartment?!
- 15:32 Expanding to 12+ countries
- 19:39 The tipping point
- 20:54 Life after acquisition
- 22:34 Arrogance
- 26:59 Being ruthless
- 29:00 Buying the Evening Standard
- 33:41 Launching The i in 7 months?!
- 36:38 Not going digital with the Evening Standard
- 38:58 Internal resistance
- 40:27 Appointing George Osborne as editor
- 45:14 What do media owners expect from their editors?
- 49:23 Journalists become media superstar personalities
- 51:59 Buzzfeed
- 53:05 If Justin could buy any newspaper publication, it'd be...
- 55:14 The Felix Project
📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/119
💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter that deconstructs how you build a portfolio career to prepare yourself for the future of work: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062
✍🏻 Leave a review on STIMY: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/so-this-is-my-why/id1521191442
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By Ling Yah
4.8
2222 ratings
Entrepreneurs must be ruthless, obsessive and willing to cut corners.
Something that Justin Byam Shaw, Chairman of ESI Media, would know.
He co-owns (alongside Evgeny Lebedev) the Evening Standard & the Independent, and also co-founded the Felix Project - one of the biggest food redistribution charities in the UK!
If you've ever been in London, you'll notice the Evening Standard lying around Tube stations. It's a 100% free quality newspaper and I'd always wondered - what does it take to run it? How do you manage to keep a newspaper free on such a scale?
Well today, Justin shares it all.
He takes us through his decision to:
🔥 Study classics at Oxford University - even when everyone told him it was good for nothing!
🔥 Pivot from advertising - when he realised he was terrible at it
🔥 Drop out of British Telecom within 1 week of finding a market gap to launch his own startup - at a time when it wasn't the "cool thing" to be a founder
🔥 Buy both the Evening Standard & the Independent (alongside the Lebedevs)
And also his thoughts on:
🤔 How George Osborne faired as Editor of the Evening Standard
🤔 How to turn around failing media companies
🤔 Launching the The i newspaper (within 7 months of acquiring the Independent!)
🤔 The rise of superstar journalists turned media personalities
🤔 The media publication he'd be most interested in taking over & what he'd do differently!
Highlights:
- 4.44 Studying "good for nothing" Classics at Oxford?!
- 7:18 Being bad at advertising
- 9:27 Moving to British Telecom when it'd just privatised
- 11:34 The talent show that kickstarted Justin's entrepreneurial journey
- 12:38 Remortgaging his apartment?!
- 15:32 Expanding to 12+ countries
- 19:39 The tipping point
- 20:54 Life after acquisition
- 22:34 Arrogance
- 26:59 Being ruthless
- 29:00 Buying the Evening Standard
- 33:41 Launching The i in 7 months?!
- 36:38 Not going digital with the Evening Standard
- 38:58 Internal resistance
- 40:27 Appointing George Osborne as editor
- 45:14 What do media owners expect from their editors?
- 49:23 Journalists become media superstar personalities
- 51:59 Buzzfeed
- 53:05 If Justin could buy any newspaper publication, it'd be...
- 55:14 The Felix Project
📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/119
💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter that deconstructs how you build a portfolio career to prepare yourself for the future of work: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062
✍🏻 Leave a review on STIMY: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/so-this-is-my-why/id1521191442
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