Ep 119: Building a Global Media Empire | Justin Byam Shaw (Chairman, ESI Media - Evening Standard&the Independent; Founder, Felix Project) - a podcast by Ling Yah

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

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