If it’s any consolation, many people have similar problems understanding the various different types of editor that we have at the FT …
Weekend news editor, the Financial Times. I did write the headline.
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If it’s any consolation, many people have similar problems understanding the various different types of editor that we have at the FT …
🙋♀️ me too.
YES. Finally someone who shares my correct opinion.
I have been waiting for someone to write a book about this but I haven’t found one yet.
A telegram or a picture postcard
💥 European capitals are working on “pretty precise plans” for potential military deployments to post-conflict Ukraine including “the necessary items for a functioning build-up of troops” with US backing, EU president Ursula @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu tells @financialtimes.com on.ft.com/4p0FdvZ
To be completely honest, my favourite version was the Suede cover that they did for the Warchild charity album Help in 1995 …
It’s just a rumour that was spread around town
Good news for Glasgow: a new winter coat, and shoes for the wife - and a bicycle on the boy's birthday … www.ft.com/content/2316...
This is actually a normal-sized chair, isn’t it.
The assassination of Andriy Parubiy, the former speaker of Ukraine’s parliament and a fierce opponent of Russia, is the most significant killing in a string of high-profile murders since the war with Russia began. www.ft.com/content/d08a...
How do u feel about Travis tho?
Here’s what the Taylor swift and Travis kelce engagement taught me about B2B sales:
The amount of wishful thinking going on at some media outlets is disgusting.
1953. Molesworth invents AI.
Yes! And stocking up the freezer to enliven my winter porridge.
A dose of reality for those obsessed with immigration: in another generation (or sooner) the problem will not be TOO MANY IMMIGRANTS!!!! It will be too few. www.ft.com/content/8bfd...
A dose of reality for those obsessed with immigration: in another generation (or sooner) the problem will not be TOO MANY IMMIGRANTS!!!! It will be too few. www.ft.com/content/8bfd...
The detail of how of news bureaucracies organise themselves is a much bigger (and more boring) factor in many media controversies than is widely appreciated
Enjoying these two sharply differing comments sitting next to each other under @stephenkb.bsky.social ‘s weekend books essay on James the VI and I www.ft.com/content/2c12...
First as tragedy, then as farce, etc etc.
In a gold rush, sell shovels. Etc.
It literally finishes tomorrow! But I agree it is fantastic.
FT still has full-time critics in art (US and UK), film, theatre, dance, pop music, classical music and architecture/design, plus many other regular contributors. You can read them all here www.ft.com/arts Subscribe if you want to support them/us!
“What if the real doomer scenario is that we pollute the internet and the planet, reorient our economy and leverage ourselves, outsource big chunks of our minds, realign our geopolitics and culture, and fight endlessly over a technology that never comes close to delivering on its grandest promises?”
Anyone who has worked in newspapers will appreciate the detail that they got his byline wrong!
Totally agree. I greatly enjoyed it.
A short thread about the process of narrative construction in mass communications, and how ‘news’ works …
Oh miso is an incredibly useful ingredient! Honey miso cod also works very well, if you eat fish. I had the most amazing honey miso cod at a place in Canary Wharf with George Iacobescu (name dropping, sorry!) about a decade ago. Could eat that dish every day.
Honey miso aubergine … incredible.
For old books I buy paper (usually secondhand, partly for environmental reasons, usually on Abe Books), but new books I mostly buy on Kindle (and often read on my phone, on the commute! It’s fine for something that can be read in short bursts).
Am sure you’ve read this, but relevant: www.penguin.co.uk/books/305267...
I say “Hello, Kate speaking”, which makes me feel like Hyacinth Bucket ….
It’s becoming just another part of @dsquareddigest.bsky.social ‘s unaccountability machine.
Happy to answer questions about it, applications open now …
Calling mid-career biz & finance journalists! Check out this amazing fellowship at @stiglercenter.bsky.social at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business … It’s 1 term in spring 2026, you get to live & study in Chicago, I did it a few years ago. www.chicagobooth.edu/research/sti...
Israel kills five journalists, because it alleges that one of them works for Hamas, which he and his employer Al Jazeera deny. Reports say at least one other person killed. Proportionality out the window. www.ft.com/content/1bd1...
Tonight’s front: Europe wants to be in the room where it happens, in Alaska on Friday … a legal wrangle over Russia oil sanctions … and - nice problem to have? Spain has a solar energy glut.
Interesting! Yes it is def about needing to break everything that is happening down into processable / understandable chunks. In journalism choosing what matters, and what doesn’t, is basically the job of editors. It’s a responsibility to the readers to try and give them what they need to know.
I was thinking about this earlier and basically decided that EVERYTHING IS NARRATIVE or perhaps more accurately NARRATIVE IS EVERYTHING … then I thought perhaps like many evangelicals I’m being a bit too absolutist 😂
True - they spotted a compelling narrative!
I think the Lib Dems’ problem in that period was a hangover from the coalition tho. V hard to shape the narrative about yourself convincingly when you’ve just come out of that situ. You’re hopelessly tied to another party’s agenda and policies in the public eye, even if not actually espousing them.
I think Andy Burnham gets this - eg. In this interview: bylinetimes.com/2025/07/19/a...
I wrote a column for @prospectmagazine.co.uk nearly a decade ago saying: politics is the art of telling voters stories that explain their everyday experience. For the last 15-20 years the UKIP/Reform narrative on immigration has been the winning story in British politics. Labour needs its own story
Further addendum: bsky.app/profile/kate...
Yes and - v relevant to politics - if you’re not creating your own narrative then someone else is going to create it, about you. It’s not as though the news media sit around deciding what it will be - it often just happens almost organically, because some narratives are more compelling than others.
Tbh I think it relates to many areas of life. Constructing a legal argument, for eg. We rely on narratives to make sense of the world - that’s why it’s so important to always be asking what the narrative is and whether it’s the right one. I have strong feelings about how this applies to politics!
Yes, that is what the thread by Sunder that I was replying to was about.
Am not clear how any of what you’ve said differs from what I’ve said - ?
A short thread about the process of narrative construction in mass communications, and how ‘news’ works …
Addendum: bsky.app/profile/kate...
Yr welcome. I’m fascinated by the (often subconscious) process of narrative construction, particularly in mass communication.
Of course the decisions reporters and news editors make are also about values. What I am talking about is narratives, the stories we tell ourselves, what feels comfortable / recognisable - and how sometimes that can lead you astray. Choosing to disrupt the narrative can be a value driven decision.
Do tell me what you think news means …
> ‘what box does this fit into? Which existing story is this like?’. It can take even good journalists a while to snap out of that as a story evolves in a way that doesn’t fit the previous pattern. The best reporters and editors are on their guard for that and try to take each new situ as it comes.
It’s much easier for a reporter to pitch a story if it has a recognisable shape. And news journalism is all about existing shapes and patterns, character tropes and ways of conveying situations with shorthand that readers easily recognise. So when something happens, reporters and editors think: >
I think this is an interesting example of how news journalism can often bring the framework/shape of a previous story to a new story, in an unhelpful way. Seeking ‘olds’ - existing narratives. Trying to fit something that’s happening now into a pre-existing box rather than understanding it in itself
The correct choice!
Clearly I am not cut out for fine dining because I just don’t understand why someone would try to improve on perfection in the first place …
As a big fan of Greek salad, I would like to report a crime …
Great example of why it’s important to be careful about numbers: “The BLS asks people each month whether they and members of their household were born in the US or elsewhere … [apparently] people who’d previously identified as foreign-born have changed their minds” … www.ft.com/content/dfd8...
Yr v welcome! Longtime reader of yours, thanks for writing.
Is there a ‘not’ missing in this line? ‘… a capacity which the Almighty has conferred upon the producers of BBC current affairs programmes.’
If you were this restaurateur today, my email address is jay.rayner@ft.com. No promises but it might save you a £2k a month retainer.
Any PR firms out there want to own up to this one?
Tonight’s @financialtimes.com front: poorest hit by wage slowdown but Trump’s team continue to attack economic data … Plus, Switzerland’s 39% tariff is the country’s worst defeat since 1515, apparently. They are not happy. and OPEC has given up on its attempt to boost oil prices with output cuts.
How the eff can Brockley not be bougie enough?!
After the railway stock market boom (& subsequent crash) in 1848 we were left with a lot of handy railways
Buy the @financialtimes.com, folks.
Good book, that.
The FT View: The longer it has continued, the more it has borne the hallmarks of a vengeful assault by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government to destroy the very fabric of Palestinian society. https://on.ft.com/3UBv3Us
“So, I had to ask myself - is Big really ready to declare Most Favoured Nation status for MY imports? Or are we on a one-way track to the World Trade Organization dispute settlement mechanism?”
Tonight’s front - an EU/US trade deal, and Brits turn to VPNs to dodge new internet controls designed to protect children
Oh dear. 🤦♀️
We’re going to be the Vietnam of Europe!!! 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧
I think with us it’s just general pride in our Cumbrian heritage tbh. Spent a lot of time there as a kid.
My mother still counts yan, tan, tethera and taught us to as kids.
You need to go and apologise to the WA for so vilely traducing them
If it makes you feel any better, they’ve swapped Titania and Oberon’s lines in this production and it really works …. No? No, I thought not.
I’m sorry to hear that. I am no Shakespeare buff but it absolutely blew me away. (We did Romeo & Juliet and I have had my fill of that for sure).
Seriously it is def the same people in that cul de sac. Am surprised you haven’t heard them before, they clearly do it regularly.
“You’re right next to the Bridge Theatre, run don’t walk to get A Midsummer Night’s Dream tickets immediately!” - ?
Easily foreseen consequence of poorly thought through legislation predictably happens. www.ft.com/content/3566...
The witch of Brentford
The striking theme for me in this piece by @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social is how far our institutions are unable to keep up with (let alone counter) the online aspects of the information environment which often galvanises and underpins disorder on.ft.com/4lKmp1T
Breaking: Israel is starting to shift policy on Gaza under immense international pressure … www.ft.com/content/058a...
tl;dr No guarantee of a EU-US trade deal tomorrow Negotiators have been locked in intense talks on the eve of a crunch meeting between Trump & von der Leyen in Scotland, as Brussels seeks to avoid a transatlantic tariff war w @aimewilliams.bsky.social & @andybounds.bsky.social on.ft.com/4l4LzqZ
Yes that’s exactly where it was when I was there. Do they have spotters?
True story: I looked at buying a place on UBR about three years ago, and as part of my research I walked up and down it at various antisocial hours to see how quiet it was. In the course of which I stumbled across one of those parties in exactly that location and I noped right out as a result.
Today, in ‘violence against women and girls is the gateway drug to lots of other types of violence, so why don’t we take it more seriously?’ : www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Important reporting from Gaza:
A spokesperson for the Tea app, which aims to be a place for women to “safely talk about men,” confirmed it was hacked. The company “estimates that 72,000 images, including 13,000 verification photos and images of government IDs, were accessed”
The @financialtimes.com front page tonight.
I can sense a great opportunity to send some grad trainees out to the Square Mile to do a watch count.
The most important story in the world right now.
Could get it listed as an asset of community value?
“What do we want? A single water regulator! When do we want it? As soon as expediently possibly, taking into account the parliamentary timetable and legislative and consultative process, but definitely in time for the next general election!”
Ooh next-level sleuthing!
Could still be there on both sides while still being just one unit.