Media Society Update: our Substack
To explain our work, the Media Society is uploading a series of posts on LinkedIn this week on our various activities. This second post is by Ivor Gaber, co-editor of our Substack and Media Society Council member.
The Media Society Substack
We launched our Substack a year ago – October 2025, to be precise. Since that time, there have been over 16,000 views of the 35 articles we’ve posted and we now have nearly 400 subscribers.
The Substack is jointly edited by Nigel Dacre and me, and it was no surprise that we posted the first two articles. Nigel set out the thinking behind the launch of the Substack, and I reflected on how news had changed since I first got into the business more than fifty years ago.
One of the aims of the Substack is to integrate the Society’s activities across its range of platforms and to that end we have had posts covering all our panels – live and online. These have covered topics as diverse as migration and the media, Iran coverage, crisis communications, and the future of podcasts.
We have also posted about events we have co-hosted with partners – such as Matt Frei’s Steve Hewlett lecture and Deborah Turness’s Sir David Nicholas lecture.
But the main thrust of our Substack revolves around current media controversies, and there is none more controversial than the future of the BBC, whose charter expires at the end of next year. We have posted no fewer than eight articles on this topic and our contributors make for an impressive list. They include a previous Tory minister, Damian Green, former BBC executives Roger Mosey and Phil Harding, and Radio Four presenters Ritula Shah and Robin Lustig.
Not that we’ve neglected other parts of the media. We’ve covered the Sky acquisition of ITV, the Axel Springer takeover of the Telegraph, the state of local newspapers, and the broadcasters’ coverage of the World Cup.
But not all our media stories relate to immediate controversies. Other topics have included journalism safety, the Journalists' Charity, AI and Search, the streaming wars, why charities are turning away from social media, and our mentoring scheme.
In our very first post, Nigel Dacre set out why we were launching the Substack. He said it was intended to:
1. Create a new home for media writing
2. Support our Mission
3. Make us more Multi-Platform
4. Give us an excellent Writing Platform
5. Provide a new Member Benefit.
Looking back on our first year, it would be premature to say ‘mission accomplished’, but it would not be premature to say, ‘so far so good’.
Ivor Gaber
Co-editor Media Society Substack and Media Society Council Member
https://themediasociety.substack.com/
Media experts who have contributed articles to our Substack so far include: Jonathan Armstrong, James Brindle, Steve Clarke, Ben Fenton, Fergal Keane, Robin Lustig, Abby Mangold, Susan Morton, Roger Mosey, Louise Orton, Ritula Shah, Madeleine Sugden, Richard Tait, and Matt Walsh.