Goldfish and the first rule of journalism

The first rule of journalism is read the papers.

The same holds true for communications advice.

These days the first rule can be couched as “read the news” given print’s scarcity and people’s reliance on digital formats.

Either way, at least 60-90 minutes a day devoted to the news is essential in either role. If you’re not doing that, you’re not doing your job. And of course, in our constant rolling news environment, you need to dip in and out throughout the day.

The essential core requirement of being informed is what links the two professions. And we’re not talking well informed. We’re talking best informed.

I no longer need to explain to Newsroom recruits the importance of knowing what’s going on. Only news junkies make good reporters. You can’t hope to get stories if you’re not on top of your beat, whether its Westminster or widgets, but also current affairs more broadly. The same holds true for the most august editor or garlanded columnist.

Similarly, you can’t hope to advise the Boardroom if you’re not rapaciously consuming the news.

As an adviser there is nothing worse than a CEO asking if you’ve read such and such an interview or seen or heard so and so on the television or radio, and your response is to simply give it the goldfish.

High quality, valued advisers are also the best informed advisers, bringing not just expertise and experience but also context and relevance. Others just state the obvious. This fact holds true for non-executive directors too. The CEO can be laser focused on their specialist topics but that’s why they have advisers - to bring bandwidth.

Without being the best informed in the room, advisers can’t make the most of their profession’s unique status – that of an external third party who brings something crucially different to a decision-making process.

Reputationally that process should normally always include such critical questions as, “how will this look?” and, “have you thought this through?” the answers to which will always rely on being the best informed because they’re questions about context and relevance.

If you’re not the best informed, you can’t provide challenge ,and if you can’t provide challenge then you’re just another goldfish.

PS How to actually read the news

Digital news has all the convenience of portability, external links, video content and being ?updated during the day which is why I have them. But if your job is to be the best informed then starting the day well by reading a pile of newspapers still can't be beaten. That may look a daunting task, but only to the amateur (and not the well-informed adviser type).

A newspaper page is a unique creation. Everyone is different but everyone is designed and laid out to make reading it easy. You read a headline, then a standfirst, then an introduction. Few people realise that a well written news story can be read and understood by simply reading the first and last paragraphs – maybe the first two pars at a stretch. You can then decide whether to read the whole piece because by then you will know all five essential facts of any story: who, what, when, where, and why.

A newspaper page is laid out to allow your eye to scan all stories incredibly quickly, far more quickly than laboriously scrolling up and down a website or app, selecting a story, opening it, closing it and then returning to a landing page.

A newspaper page also allows you to intuitively understand what the most important stories are and why. The editing and story selection process is far more obvious on a page of professionally produced newsprint than a webpage or similar. Having a curated collection of news (especially to begin your day) is better for the brain than the never ending flow that is the internet.

And once you’ve read one daily newspaper you haven’t exactly read them all but if you start with a quality title, you can then scan the rest to check for any different stories they’ve come up with – again a pretty quick process. In other words, you don’t have to read the same story in every different paper because there’s enormous overlap - probably 75%-80%.

Radio and TV bulletins are excellent ways of consuming the headlines but they are limited by time, number and type of stories (TV requires moving pictures).

Given the essential role that consuming the news plays in the advisory world, I think it’s still best done by reading a pile of print editions as your first job of the day (and it’s another practical reason for attending the office).

Make the most of print while it lasts -it makes your life easier.

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