What do you see as the formula to create a truly compelling interview?
The first thing you need to ask yourself is: What it is for? Are you trying to shed light? Hold to account? Empathise? Entertain? Every interview has a different feel to it – and you need to be honest with yourself and ask what your end goal is. And you will lose your audience immediately if your tone doesn’t fit the moment. So the first thing I’d say is bring the audience with you. Explain why you think an interview is worth the audience’s time. If you fail to make your own case for doing the interview, then you’ve lost people straight away. The key ingredient of any interview is really timing. And audiences will hate it if you interrupt too much and they will hate it if you let your guest get away with things that need further scrutiny. So yes – context, timing and the ability to REALLY listen. That’s the secret.
What are the greatest challenges facing journalists today when trying to get to the truth of a story? How can media professionals counter the threat posed by “fake news”?
Be louder than everyone else. That sounds odd, but it’s actually key. If your feed is flooded with fake news but those posts have got very few followers, then it’s not an issue. But if an influential figure like Elon Musk is amplifying the fake news, then we are all in trouble. So even though I believe that journalists and publishers have the right to charge for news – to use the paywall – to make high-quality journalism financed by readers, the irony is that to save the truth we actually need to put LESS stuff behind a paywall – not more.
Can you expand on that?
There is a world in which the best-informed people – who subscribe to the Financial Times or the New York Times etc. – live in a place of evidence–based news, but all those people who don’t subscribe or cannot afford to are left at the mercy of the loudest influencers, the peddlers of trash. And that seems to me pretty undesirable. So I would say it’s imperative to sustain a model like the BBC, even if it is imperfect, and to say that this is the most democratic way of making sure everyone has easy access to evidence-based journalism. You might disagree with an outlet’s priorities or with the story telling – but if you want to check numbers and quotes and contextual analysis, it’s invaluable.
Do you subscribe to the idea that there are always two sides to every story?
I subscribe to the theory that there are often more than two sides. But it doesn’t mean all of them are of equal merit. The job of a good journalist I think is to recognise the complexities in a story but to tell it with the clarity of simplicity. That’s both the most difficult and most satisfying aspect of what we do.
Do you think the Next Generation should be taught specifically about the importance of authenticity and how to distinguish between fact and fake when consuming information?
Honestly, I think the Next Generation is teaching us! Just think of the convincing images that AI can generate. I wonder if the Next Generation is attuned to pixels in a way that ours cannot be. I welcome anything that helps us differentiate between deep fakes and reality - I’d sign up for it in a moment. But I guess what we are really teaching is context, isn’t it? Do you know enough about the story and the events and the characters to make you pause and ask what’s real and what isn’t? It’s almost the act of considering it that is key I think. It’s the first question we should all ask.
How do you see the future of the media in a world in which AI is redefining the way information is gathered and shared?
The media’s value won’t be about access to the facts - so much reporting will be routine - it will be context judgement and meaning. In other words, we will be finding out things like weather or earnings or sports results in an automated world - we already are. Even basic reporting of policy changes or prime ministerial addresses. The value we can create as journalists will be in how we frame stories – not just telling people what has happened but why it happened and whether it echoes with history. We need to build reputational trust with our brand – so we are seen reporting on the ground. We are seen with policy makers – interviewing across the spectrum. We are transparent in our reporting and our mistakes. But not cowed by malign actors who want to shut us down. Looking at the latest figures for our podcast “The News Agents”, it is clear that the hunger for analysis and news isn’t going away, whatever happens in the world of misinformation.
If you could give your younger self any advice, what would it be?
I would probably regurgitate the advice my dad and best friends have given me. Don’t burn your bridges (particularly in the media world, it’s too small). Don’t think it will all come to you without asking. You need to initiate, ask, innovate. Don’t take yourself too seriously. But the advice I have given to my own kids is quite different…Never get stuck at a party on a boat. There’s no escape.
This interview was published in the spring 2026 edition of EFG’s InTalks magazine.