Ep 119: Building a Global Media Empire | Justin Byam Shaw (Chairman, ESI Media - Evening Standard & the Independent; Founder, Felix Project)
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 ✍🏻 Leave a review on STIMY: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/so-this-is-my-why/id1521191442