Some 46 Conservative parliamentarians have called on the Prime Minister to intervene against the ongoing advertiser “boycott” of media outlets. This is a subject dear to Guido’s heart and wallet. There is a concerted campaign by some smart people on the left to defund right-of-centre media. It first of all requires the delegitimisation of right-of-centre publications (and now broadcasters). This is why you hear the like of Owen Jones repeatedly describing the Spectator and Guido as “far right”. They cherry pick a provocative article, or below the line comment, or the late night ramblings of one presenter to paint the overall output as unacceptable and, crucially, dangerous for the brands of advertisers. They also try to frame the content as “disinformation”.
It works; Toby Young’s Daily Sceptic and the Conservative Woman website are defunded of advertising. Google, which dominates automated programmatic advertising, has effectively blacklisted their content – primarily for airing dissident views over Covid measures. Whatever your view of their content, this is unhealthy for democracy. During the pandemic, Guido’s YouTube account was locked by the algorithm when we featured content from Nadhim Zahawi – who was at the time the vaccines minister. Ditto when we featured an interview with Donald Trump by Nigel Farage where Trump disputed the presidential election outcome. Twitter deplatformed the New York Post during that same presidential election for breaking the story about Hunter Biden’s laptop. It was alleged – falsely – that it was a Russian intelligence operation. Hunter is now facing related charges evidenced by content found on the laptop. It can’t be good for democracy to have tech platforms censoring content in response to political pressure.
After just over three and half years at Guido, Christian Calgie has decided to go get his fingers inky at the Express where he will become their Senior Political Correspondent. Guido will pay a fuller tribute to Calgie’s talents before he leaves…
Christian will be gracing Guido with a couple more weeks of reporting before he switches to doing the same for Sam Lister. Yes, we’re hiring…
GB News’ editorial shakeup continues. Guido understands Dan Falvey, the Express’s Deputy Digital Political Editor, is heading to Paddington in January as GB News‘ new Head of Digital News, replacing Becca Hutson who left in October. He’ll be a familiar face to many of his new colleagues at the channel, given former Sunday Express editor Mick Booker is now GB News’ Editorial Director, and Reach’s ex-Editorial Director Geoff Marsh joined as the channel’s Chief Digital Officer last month. Three’s a crowd…
Late last night, the Reach PLC union members paused today’s planned strike over pay. Express and Mirror hacks were set to walk out today, Wednesday 31 and 14–15 September after Reach offered staff a mere 3% or £750 pay rise. The National Union of Journalists announced last minute today’s strike has now been suspended…
The pause came as the union announced talks had been resumed with Reach “with a view to reaching a fair and acceptable settlement for all of our hardworking members.” The rest of the strike days remain in place…
The remaining three strike days and period of working to rule remains in place and will be active should the negotiations over the Bank Holiday weekend not yield any meaningful proposals from the company.
— Mirror NUJ Chapel (@MirrorNUJ) August 25, 2022
The continued threat of Express strikes is bad news for anyone who likes reading regurgitated Guido articles hours after they’re published here…
Reach PLC hacks have voted to strike this month following a “meagre” 3% pay rise offer. Express, Mirror and Star journalists, as well as those from countless local news outlets, will walk out on Friday 26 August, Wednesday 31 August, and 48 hours from September 14th to 15th. They will also work only contracted hours from 1 to 13 September…
Reach offered staff a pay rise of either 3% or £750 minimum, which the National Union of Journalists said wasn’t enough, especially after last year’s 1% increase. A total of 79% of members voted for the strike action on a 70% turnout.
Ironically the NUJ’s local chapel representatives rejected the 3% pay offer by a ratio of four to one shortly after The Mirror published a front-page splash about chief executives earning up to 86 times their average workers’ salaries while trying to suppress staff wages.
Reach’s chief executive, Jim Mullen, earns £4 million, which according to the Press Gazette works out to 104 times as much as his median employee. Will millionaire socialist Kevin Maguire, on a six-figure salary – be joining the picket line? Guido has a feeling this is one strike the Government will be delighted to see…
Last night Guido revealed The Express has promoted deputy pol-ed Sam Lister up to pol-ed, replacing Macer Hall who announced his departure a week ago in the pursuit of “new opportunities”. Lister, according to previous incumbent Patrick O’Flynn, is the first female to hold the role at the paper after joining the paper almost four years ago. Sam tells Guido:
“‘I’m absolutely thrilled to take on the role of political editor at the Daily Express and head of politics for the brand.
I’ve got big shoes to fill taking over from Macer Hall, who was a fantastic boss and is a true gent.
I’m so lucky to be working with such a talented team at the Daily Express and I’m really excited for the future.
I’m really pleased to have kicked off the first day in the job with an in depth interview with leadership front runner Liz Truss.”
Read Sam’s Truss interview, the by-line of which first tipped Guido off about the promotion, here…
