One of the things I want to do with this newsletter is give a sense of what people within the media say and think about their own organisations.
With that in mind, here are some of the insights on Sky News that I have got from people who work within that broadcaster.
The basics (aka things people often get wrong about Sky News):
1 Sky News is free. You can get it on every TV box, YouTube and online via Sky News’ website.
2 Rupert Murdoch doesn’t own Sky or Sky News anymore. Comcast does. And it also owns NBC, which President Trump considers rabidly left-wing.
3 Adam Boulton doesn’t vote.
4 Many Sky News presenters and correspondents have been approached to stand for election and work in governments for all parties, not limited to the UK. None have accepted so far.
5 Though Sky News is part of the UK broadcasters’ ‘pool’ with ITN and the BBC, it doesn’t automatically get questions at press conferences. In fact, during the Coronavirus crisis, there’s a 1 in 6 chance that it gets a slot.
Some more contentious opinions:
6 Non-’name’ reporters and behind the scenes people are mostly a bit embarrassed by the stars.
7 BBC News isn’t much of a concern apart from its size and the privileged access it gets gifted by some institutions.
8. On Kay Burley, there’s essentially a 48-52 split in who rates her. She works really hard, but can sometimes compromise the slow, hard work of the politics team by being a bit of a diva.
9 People are proud to work for Sky News but probably too proud -- it means some people won’t leave and others who are shit get more credit than they should.
10 There are more female producers than male producers