An abrupt exit at Mediaweek as James Manning is ‘sacked’; Unmade Index fades
Welcome to an end-of-week update from Unmade.
Today, an unceremonious ending for James Manning’s 24 years and 11 months at the helm of Mediaweek. And the Unmade Index goes negative again.
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I have know James for more than 30 years. What James does not know about the media industry isn’t worth knowing, and his reporting is always accurate, fair and insightful. He is also the world’s nicest bloke. What a disgraceful way to be treated and Mediaweek will be worse off without James’s influence and knowledge. Shame on you Vinyl Group.
Thanks for comment, Rochelle. James is one of the classiest and most knowledgeable journos in this space
James is an industry legend and deserves to be treated better. We all understand the economics of the business at the moment, but have some forgotten the humanity? I wrote about this very thing last week. https://morningmusely.substack.com/p/youre-not-redundant-your-job-is?r=ujeyp
Having known James even pre Mediaweek (!) … he IS Mediaweek.
And there are not many media titles that have senior management like James of which that can be said.
He has been totally supportive of every single thing I ever did & do within the media and his marquee brand knowledge is beyond.
James is truly legendary – thank you for absolutely everything. Look forward to the next chapter and look forward to catching up.
Melissa Hoyer
🙏🏻❤️
James is an amazing editor. Deserves much better especially as the publication’s owner for so long
Throughout my entire career – every single step of the way from being employed to going out on my own – James showed me (and my clients) nothing but support and encouragement. If only there were more James Mannings around!
I’m so sorry to hear this news. James has been dedicated to the media industry for so many years and is such a positive presence. I hope he finds another role in which his expertise can shine. Jane
Like all the commenters here, I have a great respect for James as both a practitioner and as an all round decent human. Likewise, I think his treatment has been appalling and it simply confirms that this ‘industry’ is oversupplied with arseholes.
However, it’s the former I choose to dwell on. I’ll share a personal story about James to illustrate not only his professionalism but his compassion.
As part of my duties, I used to have to appear on James’s Mediaweek live TV show. As an anxiety sufferer, you can imagine how much I dreaded and catastrophised at the prospect of a live TV experience. James was always kind enough to calm my nerves before the show with his soothing manner and made what would otherwise have been an awful experience more bearable. But he never shied away from asking the curly questions once I was on set!
A true gentleman.
I am shocked. But why should I be?
I think we all know that the Media business has some of the best, most knowledgeable, trustworthy, good writers … and that they generally stick around as they know, and trust, many, many media people.
Conversely, the Media business also has some who are commonly described as arseholes.
I definitely describe James being of the former. I shan’t comment on the latter.
I’d count you as one of the former too, John
I worked with James as the Deputy Editor at Mediaweek back in 2015/16 and he absolutely set the standard. Beyond simply being a professionally generous, patient, and gracious boss/manager/editor (and all-round good bloke), James has an amazing breadth of knowledge on the industry and knows everyone. It was rare that James would ever be surprised by anything happening in the media, usually because he knew about it two days prior.
As I’ve grown a career post-Mediaweek, I have used James as a guiding star on how to treat those in my team and how to conduct myself with external professional contacts.
Why you would actively want to lose James from a media business is, frankly, bizarre. And to see him exit your business in such a cold manner is pretty shameful.
I’m looking forward to seeing James’ next act.
I have been reading James’ articles almost everyday since he took over from Philip Luke’s years ago. He transformed a small narrow newsletter into a smart and far reaching media product open to advertising, which was inexistent previously. I admired his journalist well-balanced direction and integrity. I regret the new owners did not respect James legacy. Abrupt sacking is a worthless expression of power. They should have built a statue of James in the office and make him a hero instead of damaging the famous MediaWeek brand that everyone associated James with.
Didier Guerin, Executive Chairman, Media Convergence Asia-Pacific
James did a great job in the early days supporting media and in certain areas he knew his stuff better than anyone, he could be lovely but at times it was hard to get past the casual sexism. I wasn’t so surprised when I read about the MW culture this year. He certainly didn’t like getting told anything by a women.
You’ll find you are pretty much alone in this point of view. Business colleagues and people who have worked with him over the years, of both sexes, have been incredibly shocked and very effusive in their praise of James as a leader and mentor, let alone his talent as a journalist. I believe you may have mistaken as sexism his experienced guidance and efforts to deliver only top level journalism at all times. Again you are on your own on that one. The toxicity of your comments is very revealing.