The Media Leader Podcast
Alan Rusbridger is one of the UK’s most acclaimed journalists. As editor of The Guardian for 20 years, he oversaw the outlet’s transition into the digital world and landed a Pulitzer Prize for publishing information leaked by Edward Snowdon about the US National Security Agency.
Since 2021, he has worked as editor of Prospect, a leading current affairs magazine celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Prospect had an exceptional year in 2024, nearly doubling its digital circulation to more than make up for losses in print circulation.
Rusbridger joined host Jack Benjamin to discuss what is driving strong growth for Prospect. The pair also weighed up the sustainability of news media business models, the differences between US and UK press standards, whether social media platforms provide a net benefit to publishers and what journalism will look like in the age of AI.
“We’re in a world of information chaos,” Rusbridger said. “We’re in a world where people don’t know who to believe or what to believe, increasingly. We know there are bad players who are deliberately pumping out information that is wrong.
“You’ve got the most powerful man in the world actively trying to create a world in which disinformation, misinformation flourish and facts and fact-based journalism don’t. And it’s really frightening.
“Advertisers are part of that world. The advertisers I’ve spoken to are dismayed by the thought of their content swimming in this sea of garbage — I’m using a polite word — because it’s not good for their brands. It’s not good for trust in information.”
Listen now by hitting the play button or use the appropriate entry point into Spotify, Apple or Google Podcasts:
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Highlights
2:09: What drew Rusbridger to Prospect and his editorial strategy for the magazine
8:46: Drivers of Prospect‘s digital growth
14:16: Can advertising models still support news media?
24:38: Journalism’s messy relationship with AI
29:51: The failure of trust in news in the US and the UK
38:18: Why platforms are “good, bad and ugly”
43:49: What keeps Rusbridger up at night
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