Access: Meet Andy Silvester, Editor, City AM
"We're a local newspaper that just happens to be at the centre of the financial universe"
Photo credit: Andy Black
Many journalists jump across from the newsroom to PR. But City AM editor Andy Silvester is one of the few public relations pros to journey in the other direction. Here, he talks about the challenges of running a daily business publication, nailing op-eds and why his publication is a “local newspaper that just happens to be at the centre of the financial universe”…
Andy Silvester is editor of City AM. Before taking the helm of the free London business newspaper, Silvester spent nearly a decade working in PR/comms: for business lobby group the Institute of Directors (IoD); pressure group the TaxPayers’ Alliance; and head of PR/leader writer at The Sun.
He joined City AM in 2019 under the editorship of former IoD comms colleague Christian May, eventually taking the top seat in 2021.
Working in journalism isn’t too different to PR. Editing is fundamentally about messaging and storytelling, which is what good PRs do every day. If you have a good team of journalists around you, it’s mainly about pointing the ship in the right direction. Having two former PRs editing a newspaper initially attracted scepticism [May has moved back into PR, as managing director of Teneo] but it’s paid off. It was incredibly brave of City AM’s owners to do that.
You’ll be surprised how much knowledge you acquire by osmosis. At The Sun, I was head of PR, but also wrote leaders. Working alongside super-bright people such as Tony Gallagher (editor), Tom Newton Dunn (political editor) and Victoria Newton (now editor-in-chief) meant I picked up editorial skills quickly.
City AM is a local newspaper that just happens to be at the centre of the financial universe. We’ve always covered the ins-and-outs of the City and Square Mile. It reflects where the money is, but we also focus on where that money is being spent, such as King’s Cross community projects or entertainment in the West End.
It helps to be a scrappy underdog punching above our weight. City AM doesn’t have the experienced journalists with strong contacts books like the Financial Times or the Times’ and Telegraph’s business desks. Our point of difference is that we give our business news ‘personality’. Essentially, what we try to do with City AM is ensure that if one of our readers gets stuck in the lift with their group CEO, they can talk knowledgeably about any topic. But we also like to make readers laugh a few times along the way too.
The ambitious assistant is always more fascinating than the big boss. Other papers mostly talk to CEOs who’ve made it. But City AM prefers to talk to people whose careers are still blossoming. The deputy CEO is always more interesting than the CEO, because of their hunger and drive.
Today, newspapers are much more than a 10-minute read in the morning. We’ve got our daily The City View podcast, our CryptoAM vertical, morning and lunchtime email newsletters, physical events plus forthcoming ESG [Environmental, Social and Governance]-led Impact AM and a new, more accessible website – where we can partner with brands if they’ve got a good story to tell.
During the pandemic, many predicted the death of free papers. We stopped printing for 18 months after Covid hit, but now our circulation is 81,000, just under our 85,000 peak in early-2020.
In 2022, every brand wants thought leadership. But many businesses make the mistake of writing what is happening inside their business – which is only interesting for those people working there! If you’re a PR ghost-writing a LinkedIn blog or op-ed, try to make it reflect wider trends or answer wider problems. And hook it to something topical too, such as a recent news story.
The key to writing op-eds is to think about the way Hollywood makes movies. Just in the same way every Oscar-winning film starts and ends with an equilibrium (with some big disruption in the middle), every op-ed should follow a basic structure: 1) Here’s what’s happening right now; 2) Here’s why it’s a problem; 3) Here’s how we’re trying to fix it.
There was a period during the pandemic where it was impossible to get brands talking about anything other than environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. Even if many of them didn’t really know what it was! Be warned: journalists are very savvy to greenwashing.
It’s odd that the food banks of Tower Hamlets and Newham are less than a mile away from the City/Canary Wharf. Businesses should be tapping into that local community for the talent that’s clearly there.
The best way to be a ‘caring CEO’ is to create profit. There’s lots of talk now that leaders should be more empathetic, but the CEO’s first job is to ensure their company is profitable, otherwise their employees won’t have a job next week.
City AM unapologetically believes that business is a force for good. Unlike other newspapers, we believe financial markets are a great thing. But we’re also a progressive newspaper with some liberal views on immigration. We’ve no interest in culture wars: they distract from more interesting things happening in the economy.
My favourite story as editor… is the recent furore surrounding Stewart Kirk, HSBC’s head of responsible investing, who was suspended by the bank after accusing the City of exaggerating the financial risks of the climate crisis. He got the City talking, with City AM at the heart of that debate.
There’s always another challenge around the corner. After having to stop City AM’s printing presses for 18 months, the first day when we started printing, there was a national shortage of van drivers, meaning we struggled to get our newspapers delivered at 6am!