First, full disclosure: I worked with this year’s jury President, Claire Atkinson, in New York at PR Week US magazine, for a brief period in 1999. I’m sure we discussed many important things, but what I remember most is drinking chocolate martinis at the bar of the Tribeca Grand Hotel.
Claire and I have drifted in and out of touch since then – but I was aware of her impressive career. This has included stints at the New York Post, where she spent seven years covering media, then NBC News, where she was senior media editor. More recently she was chief media correspondent at Business Insider.
Currently she writes an influential newsletter, The Media Mix, and is working on a biography of Rupert Murdoch, due for delivery next year. So I’m relieved she even has time to preside over the Epica Awards jury in December.
Claire (who’s English, by the way) was born to be a journalist. Or perhaps it’s more accurate to say that a passion for media was instilled in her by her parents. “They would listen to [BBC] Radio 4 all the time, all day long. We’d watch the TV news in the evening. They’d go to sleep listening to the radio. They were basically news junkies. So from the earliest time, when people asked me what I wanted to be in life, I’d say I wanted to be a journalist.”
Start spreading the news
She headed for New York at the age of 28, solo and without a job. “I’d been international editor of Broadcast magazine in the UK, and I met a lot of Americans who were in the business of international program sales.”
This was the dawn of global media empires. The Wall had come down, the USSR had broken up, US media companies were opening TV stations in Central Europe.
“I came to the conclusion that the capital of media is New York. And New York is also the capital of ambition. If you want push your career as far as you think you can go, New York is the place to do that.”
She’d also been entranced by American culture thanks to TV shows like Cheers, Taxi, Soap and of course Friends. So rather than climbing the British trade journalism ladder, she decided to “move sideways and try something different”.
After establishing herself as a freelance media reporter, she snagged a full time job on the newly-launched PR Week US, and has barely looked back since. Journalism – and the media in general – remain great passions. “Journalism gives you a ringside seat to history,” she observes. “Plus you get to interview some wild people that you’d normally never get to meet.”
A portrait of power
She loves media and advertising because “it’s a ball that’s constantly in motion”. The evolution is continuing before our eyes, she says, with social media influencers being afforded the same deference as the press at events ranging from the Cannes Film Festival to the Democratic National Convention.
She adds: “I’m fascinated by commercial messaging and the way companies speak to us, as well as how people in power speak to media, and how the media speak back.”
Which is a handy segue into her Murdoch biography, which will be published by Grand Central Publishing, a division of Hachette. Why Murdoch?
“When you write a book about someone, you have to live with them in your head for a very long time. And the only person I could imagine doing that with is Rupert Murdoch. A lot of people will be aghast to hear that. But he’s a fascinating person. This is a person who wants to test himself to every degree possible, publicly, privately and in business. He created the world’s first mass media company. He’s curious, he’s relentless, he’s about exploring life. I would argue that he’s the most fascinating figure of the last 100 years.”
There have been biographies before, of course. How will hers be different? “Most people think of Rupert as Logan Roy in Succession: this grumpy, brusque, difficult guy. There’s an element of truth to that, but there are other Ruperts, as I’ve learned by speaking to people who’ve worked with him for decades. He engenders a great deal of loyalty.”
There’s also a less-recounted global angle: “We think of him as influencing English-speaking media. But his influence goes much further than that. He bought a TV station in Germany. He launched Star TV from Hong Kong, reaching almost all of Asia. He worked on satellite ventures in Latin America. He had the capability of broadcasting to all of Europe through the Luxembourg beginnings of BskyB. I think there’s a largely untold story about the way he wanted to bring mass media to almost everyone on the planet.”
Mixing it up
Sounds like a read and a half. In parallel, she’s building an audience with her newsletter, The Media Mix. This was inspired by a desire to express her opinions. “After 30 years of working for corporations, I wanted the freedom to write what I wanted to say, whenever I felt like it. Above all, I wanted to have a voice. As journalists we’re often told that our voice isn’t important – it’s the voice of the person you’re interviewing. But with a newsletter, people are coming to you for your take on the news.”
All of which made Claire an ideal pick for the role of jury president. Commenting on the benefits of a jury of journalists, she says: “We’re always looking for what’s new, what’s different. We spend our lives scouring the internet for stories, watching TV, reading the news. So I think we’re hyper-aware of innovative ways of communicating…As far as I’m concerned, if my eyes are open, I’m working.”
Marketers and journalists are on the same page, she adds. “Like us, brands want to know where society is going, because they need to be aware of the cultural trends that are going to influence how they sell things and where they’re going to advertise. So I think a jury of journalists is highly appropriate for an advertising awards show.”
The Epica Awards are currently open for entries until October 11.