John Ryleys keynote speech at the MHP Young Journalist Awards

May 25th 2022

Head of Sky News, John Ryley, gave the keynote address at the annual MHP 30 to Watch Young Journalist Awards in London.

Speaking as what might politely be described as an elder of the journalism industry, there are few opportunities more rewarding than to address what can completely accurately be described as the future of that industry.

The most important thing for me to say is that I am resoundingly optimistic.

And I believe that my optimism is not blind but rather the reflection of a clear-eyed view of the state of British journalism today and its potential for tomorrow.

When you get to my age the tendency is to look back at decades past and to develop a rose-tinted reminiscence of a better bygone age.

So, it was when I first walked into the Invicta Radio newsroom in 1984 armed only with a Classics degree that enabled me to count backwards from 1000 in Latin, a skill that proved less than invaluable when scouring the mean streets of Kent for Red Hot Breaking News.

The older reporters in the newsroom were convinced that the best days of the world's second or third oldest profession had died out sometime in the 1970s, together with their tailors.

As I moved through some of the greatest newsrooms in the world, from the BBC in the late 1980s to ITV News in the 1990s and finally to Sky News, the refrain remained the same.

Our best days are well and truly behind us.

But in many ways Sky News was born exactly because of a belief that the best days of journalism lay ahead as long as the industry was ready to adapt, innovate and stimulate.

Because the truth is that if we are ever to talk about the golden age of journalism, we should be absolutely clear about something:

The golden age of journalism is always ahead of us.

It is what we are all working towards, not moving away from.

And what makes me most optimistic is you.

LINK:	https://www.skygroup.sky/en-gb/article/head-of-sky-news-john-ryley-s-s...
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