Thread by @EmporersNewC

I'm uncomfortable about people attacking experienced GB News presenters (Thread)

As a failed entrepreneur, I don't think people should be attacked for trying something new.

I don't know how GB News looked like on paper a few months ago, but I doubt it looked like this.

It might also go on to be an established channel after these teething problems.

For me, obviously, Andrew Neil would have been a red flag, but then I've analysed some of his work and it has come up short.

But for many Andrew was respected, and a figurehead taking the reigns has to instil potential presenters with confidence in the venture.

Yes, they had technical problems, but so did BBC News.

The difference I think is that BBC news ran for 3 weeks before going live, and I don't think GB News did.

They didn't get access to the Reuters media pool, which is a horrific thing to find out in the weeks before you go live. It really made a difference as to their content, and as an entrepreneur, I really felt sorry for then on that one.

Having got the initial investment, I don't think it's a project that can't be turned around.

(Assuming they want to, or they may think they have a winning formula here, but I don't think so.)

There are challenges, the first being that Andrew Neil attacked potential future advertisers both personally and generally.

Burning bridges as a startup is not a good move. Regardless of what you think their motives are, they are still potential sources of revenue in the future.

Part of their brand was around being champions of 'free speech', which they have now basically trashed.

If they go the way they seem to want to go, then they are going very niche, and with the kind of audiences they can get from that, they may need some good Russian backers.

The majority of people don't want to hear culture war stuff, it's really just for the political bubble.

There is a mass of complicated arguments about how we deal with inconvenient history, but when the Colston statue came down, the most intellectual argument we got in favour of keeping it was:
"We learn history from statues".

(We don't)

If GB News wants to spend all their time talking about statues and flags, what is happening on university campuses, I don't think it's going to last.

They don't have to lose it, but personally I think they should be compartmentalising that, and creating slots that make use of the experience of some of their presenters.

I think they have already successfully done this with Andrew Neil's slot. Some have dismissed the Rishi Sunak interview as soft, but I thought it was a good interview.

It's annoying that there are other demands in the political broadcasting that aren't being met, and a channel that is claiming to be disruptive does not appear to be trying to meet them.

Personally I'd like to see more long form detailed discussion, and that's niche too. A channel dedicated to that wouldn't be commercially viable.

I just don't see why they aren't looking at that now on a station that said it wanted to be disruptive but has so far produced the BBC's Andrew Neil Show, LBC on sofas, and a zoom call between Dan Wootton and his mates.

People think I want GB News to fail, but actually I believe our system is broken and what I want is for GB News to take this opportunity to give us something different.

The system is broken, and maybe presenters heard about a channel that was going to be different and they wanted to be part of it.

I don't think anyone should mock people who wanted to be part of something new and disruptive, just because it looks like their gamble didn't pay off.

I do think that yesterday meant that some people should be evaluating if the channel really intends to be a disruptive innovative channel, of if it wants to double down and follow the niche culture war angle.

As a failed entrepreneur, my advice to anyone starting out is:
(a) You have to be innovative.

I was actually good at this.

(b) Go where the money is.

This was advice from ex-Dragon Doug Richard who dropped his plan for one company after a customer asked for a different service, and he ended up with a very successful business. It's the one I failed on.

In short, I believe if GB News could do so much, and while it insists on doing so little, it's not going to be a successful business.

As someone whose business failed, this makes me sad.

/End