Marina Hyde: Why I Left The Guardian

Welcome back everybody to the restless. entertainment. Now Marina, you I was. just reading last week your last ever. column for the Guardian. >> Yes. >> Which is where you used to work. I don't. know if you know that. >> I wait. >> Yeah. Wait, what? Uh and I was looking. at I was doing something which you would. never do which is I looked at the. comments and they were so positive. It. was [clears throat] unbelievable. I felt. I felt like I'd gone back to like 1992. or something. There was there was a real. sense of D room. Things can only get. better. Everyone was so thankful to you. and everyone was but one of the things.

everyone was asking is what's Marina. going to do next and lots of people. going I presume she's going to another. newspaper I presume she's doing this. that or the other so lots of people were. wondering but we are going to reveal now. exactly what you are going to do next. what form it takes and why and it's not. Italian brain rot. >> it's not it may be okay. >> don't I just let's not rule it out no. I'm launching something today we're. recording on Monday in partnership with. goldh hanger who make this great podcast. with us. Um, and it's called Always On. and it's going to I know we're naming.

after the nervous breakdown it's going. to give me. And it's one place for my. writing, also my new YouTube show and. various other sort of projects that are. coming down the pipeline. And it's you. can go to marina.com. It's free to. subscribe. I'm going to keep it free for. quite a long time because I want to see. if people like it. Um, and then maybe. towards the very end of the year make it. paid. um and a paid offering. So, it. will be writing. It's also videos. There's quite a lot there already. Um.

and it will be about entertainment and. culture and politics and sport and you. know all my personal obsessions. >> The rest is entertainment is presented. by Octopus Energy whose generation. business backs, builds and manages. renewable energy projects. On screen. though, the practicalities of sourcing. power are slightly more negotiable. Certainly in script I mean my favorite. energy source story back to the future. of course they're supposed to have. plutonium they don't have plutonium so. they were like.

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energy projects with 5.7 gawatt of. capacity across its portfolio. Enough to. power all the homes and businesses of. Birmingham, Leadeds, and Manchester. combined. A slightly more conventional. approach to generating power. >> So, essentially, you've been writing two. columns a week for a very, very, very. long time. doing it for the Guardian who. pay you a sum of money. Uh it goes out. the Guardian sort of get the traffic. from that you get the lovely you bask in. the reflected glory of it. But this is.

far more I mean you're you're you are. you are doing what we talk about a lot. which is you're sort of taking. everything inhouse. Well, that's why we. are talking about really because it's. it's forget about me for a minute, but. it's what what what this sort of move. symbolizes and other people are doing it. as well, I think is quite interesting. The idea in the old days that you could. set up independently if you were a a. journalist or someone who was part of a. leg legacy media organization was just. unthinkable. Like, you know, I am now I.

suppose bundling as it were. Putting. lots of my things all together. Someone. once said to me, there's two ways to. make money in media. Bundling and. unbundling. I'm currently bundling. >> I look forward to the unbundling era. >> and the idea that is that bits of it. sort of funnel in to other bits of it. But. >> still doing the podcast, right? Sorry, I. should have checked that very very early. on. >> Do you think I would do you think I. would ever leave this podcast? Don't be. stupid. Um but the it's interesting. because lots of people are are making. these kind of moves and what I think is.

particularly interesting is that you. know you kind sometimes hear about the. kind of big splashy things but there is. a whole middle class as it were the sign. of any prosperous society is a sort of. thriving middle class yeah there's a. whole middle class of people as it were. who have left legacy titles and thought. well I tell you what and particularly. interesting who have said okay I'm going. to the journal Journalism is now sort of. part of the creator economy in some. ways. Sometimes people feel like, oh, I. might be a micro influencer, but I have.

see far better engagement doing it this. way. >> So, if you're an aviation expert, for. example, rather than working for an. aviation magazine, you just go you you. literally you have a site where people. will. >> it's incredible. Some of the people I. follow on Substack or some of the I'll. talk about the different platforms and. what they offer. So, but some of the. people I follow are just total. specialists. And you think, well, no. legacy media title would ever get. someone like there's a person I follow. called Casey Lewis. She's absolutely. brilliant. She does Gen A and Gen Zed. trends. I mean, if you how could you.

possibly have that as a correspondent in. a in a newspaper, media outlet, whatever. But it it is so great. She you. get it almost every day from her and. it's an amazing digest of all this stuff. around it. Someone else I follow will, you know, do deep analysis of sort of. franchise box office, right? And it's so. specialist. It's like how I don't know. how many people could be interested in. it, but enough to make this person way. more money than they could possibly have. imagined. >> Well, like a niche magazine, you know, W. used to be full of just hundreds of.

magazines for very niche interest, but. if people are, you know, happy to pay. five pound for a magazine each month, it's a business. >> Yeah. And I suppose what drew me to do. it, so I was thinking, okay, I want to. do this. What I do like is I love more. of a direct relationship with readers. I. really like that. I love that you can do. like reg I'm going to do regular Q&As, things like that. That's quite I've. really enjoyed questions for you. >> I bet [laughter] you have from YouTube. who there's great people who sort of run. YouTube in the UK that I love the data. you get back and you get it as you know.

instantly and on an ongoing basis. So. you can see I've got sort of a couple of. videos. There's a new one coming back, Man City. But um there's one already up. there about tech bros and how they're. changing the way they dress for quite an. interesting reason. And it's so. interesting to see how to get the sort. of feedback on all of that and the data. on that. >> Now, so you leave the Guardian and I'm. I'm listen I'm assuming that other. legacy media organizations uh would have. wanted your services, but I've I have. both presented and listened to this. podcast for long enough to know that.

probably isn't the direction of travel. anymore. So, what made you think, "No, I'm just going to do this myself.". >> This episode is brought to you by our. friends at Lloyds. >> Now, let's talk about movie con artists. Who are your absolute favorites? >> Movies, TV, and book, my answer is the. same, and it's Tom Ripley. >> I was going to say him. It's one of the. greatest characters of all time. >> So, from the Talented Mr. Ripley books. by Patricia Highmith, there's five of. them. So, if you like Talented Mr.

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about how Lloyds protects you from. fraud. AI powered scam checks, voice. biometrics, and real-time alerts are. just some of the ways Lloyds are. protecting you based on Lloyd's Banking. Group data 2023 to 2025. Well, you yeah, no, you're right. I've. I've been really lucky and you know all. over the years. and every year some of the other titles. would offer me jobs which is very nice. but there was no way I was going to go. to another title as I.

>> I mean this sounds so kind of. pretentious doesn't it but I wanted to. own my own value I don't see why I would. need to go to another title I can own it. >> um. >> you want to see you want to sink or swim. by yourself. >> yes and you know I've been around a long. time and I back myself to do it And I. don't need to be saying, "Would it be. possible for me to write about X today?". And then having some guy on the phone to. me saying, "I don't really like what's. happened in the third paragraph here.". It's like, "Oh, I tell you what, I think. I'll just do it by myself. Thank you.".

So that that was that was a draw. >> Wow. >> Not having some guy telling me they. didn't like the third paragraph. Uh, no. offense. >> I would have called it gloves off. [laughter]. >> Marina Height gloves off. I would call. it Marina Hide unshackled. And the the. picture would be like you but like with. gaffer tape over your mouth as if like. what you're about to say. >> Oh my god, I'm finally finding my voice. Yeah, I can't stand that. Have you. noticed that I haven't said that? I can. finally say what I like. Don't be. ridiculous. I said what I liked at the. Guardian. That's absolutely I cannot. stand that play. I It makes me feel it's. so mortifying particularly when people.

who leave the BBC do. It's like you've. had a great living off those people for. like 25 years and it's a it's a. wonderful organization and I really I I. and you know what they always turn out. to have nothing to say. I definitely. think that there's no particular reason. that opinion has to be delivered in. thousandword chunks and it can easily. and be and really excitingly I've made a. few videos already and I really enjoy. the process of being able to embed all. the clips and funny kind of bits of. footage and I don't know movie clips and. everything in so that it's it's quite a.

sort of complete world and you don't. have to click out to see what. something's about. It's all embedded in. it in a in a weird way. So I I'm. enjoying doing those a lot. That's some. something totally different that I'm. having to learn from scratch. But it's f. again it's fun to learn new things and. to say how does this work and what what. makes people stay watching it and you. know how do I structure this because. it's different to structuring things. where you can kind of bury a lead a bit. further down. You can't do that. You've. got to say things at the top and I don't. know I like learning the rhythms and the.

new dynamics of different ways of. presenting the same thing. It's all. opinion in the end. >> Yeah. creative people in every. generation that they follow the same. path usually, which is what's next, what's interesting, if I'm going to be. doing x amount of work, is there a way. of increasing the revenue I get from. that x amount of work? That's that. that's sort of how you build a creative. career. So, you've been writing two. columns a week for 25 years anyway, so. you're going to keep doing that. There's. nothing that's going to stop you writing. two columns a week.

>> Oh my god, I can't stop it. It's of. course you can't. And so at some point. you do have to say, okay, what's the. best way for me to do that? Why do I. enjoy doing it? I enjoy doing it because. I like, you know, to explore the world. around me and I like to interact with. people. What's the best way for me to do. that? And what's the best way for me to. have control over that? What's the best. way for me to grow that in a direction. that I want to where there isn't another. stakeholder who wants a certain thing. that I don't want? And there is now that. platform that allows you to do that.

It's scary because you're because you're. turning down a salary, right? You're. turning down a salary. You're going to. zero pound. You're doing exactly the. same amount of work as before and you're. building something. But we got to the. stage in our culture where that feels. for a lot of journalists like a risk. that worth taking. >> Well, yeah, it is scary, but I want to. be scared again because I feel that. making doing things I've done various. things over the last few years. I. started screenwriting. I did this. podcast and I did all of those. primarily. Well, first of all, because I.

was massively interested in them, but I. did consciously say, I want to be scared. again each time because I feel that. being scared about things first of all, even though you're quite tired because. you're doing tend to be doing more work, it makes you feel younger because you. you are not in a comfort zone and you. don't feel that and and I feel that I. enjoy being out of the comfort zone and. learning a new thing and thinking, okay, how does this work? How am I going to. make it work? Backing myself, I guess. The thing the other thing you said was. yes. um you know, you want more control.

and you want you think why why can't I. own my own value and I'm afraid that's. what I really thought which is I would. like to own my own value and I would. like to be in have more control and put. things in one place and see what I can. build because I'm interested in building. something. It's exciting to take a risk. and it's also exciting to build. something and to think that much, you. know, further down the line you can. bring up other people perhaps via that. which I think that is of particular. interest to me. So I I have to say that.

I'm really excited about it. As I said, it's called Always On. You can find it. at marina.com. I've already done a lot of writ I've. done some writing about celebrity. traitors the 21 types of TV detectives. you can see on celebrity traitors. >> Tom Hston Richard is on a press store. that I'm hugely enjoying at the moment. for his Everest thing and uh yeah so. I've had I've written about him when I. left the Guardian I actually they I've. said a quote saying I was so grateful. for my because it's 25 years there but I.

you know ultimately we're all in the. audience business and I'm it was a great. privilege to serve that one and I I do. regardless as being in the audience. business. If you write opinion, if you. write something different in newspapers, if you do investigative reporting, it's. totally different. But if you write. opinion, you are in the audience. business. >> Yeah. You're in the entertainment. business. >> Yeah. Ultimately. >> Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And um Oh, well, listen, I'm I'm very excited. Your new. endeavor, always on uh which is just. loads and loads of things that come out. of your brain on any given day all in.

one place. And we can find it. >> at marina.com. >> Well, that's my recommendation as well. >> Oh, thank you. Yeah. Um, so this week we. have a Q&A uh which will be on Thursday, but we also have two more Traitors. reaction episodes after Thursday and. Friday's episodes. Thank everyone has. been so lovely about those gang busters. >> I know it's incredible. >> I'm really glad we split it down to per. episode now. >> We I mean you have to so much to talk. about. >> Yes, there is. >> But the god the amount of messages I get. with really sociologically kind of. forensic examinations of group dynamics.

on that show, but it's it's it's those. are lots of fun to do. Right. So we do. do one do one on Thursday, do one on. Friday. Q&A as well. And our bonus. episode this week is the latest episode. of our history of Big Brother with Kate. Lauer and Tim Hanks, the man behind it. all. >> Right. >> See you. That's a lot. I assume it's See. you tomorrow. There's a lot going on. >> Talk about always on. >> Yeah. This exactly is it's Yeah, it's. it's a busy time. This is like our World. Cup uh celebrity traders. >> Yeah, it is. It's like we're like Gary. Micer and Allan in New York.

>> We need a kitchen island. >> Oh, sweet. >> Like tap us all over. >> Yeah. [laughter]. All right, >> see you next time. >> See you next time. [music]. [music]. >> [music].