“The Point About a Revolution Is You Have No Idea Where It’s Going to End”

The Resonance Test 39: Alan Rusbridger

In May 2015, Alan Rusbridger stepped down as the editor of The Guardian. He had managed, over the course of 20 years, to transform the British paper into a digital phenomenon—a truly global source of news. His book, Breaking News: The Remaking of Journalism and Why It Matters Now, details that metamorphosis. In a recent Resonance Test conversation, Rusbridger relates how it feels to not to report on Brexit Era U.K. politics (“I’m really rather relieved not to have anything to do with it”) and comments on the stress of adding a digital business to a conventional one:

Suddenly you say to your staff: "By the way, we want you to update things every five minutes, every ten minutes. We want you to do it in video and audio as well as text. We want you to be on social media. We might want you to do live events as well. And by the way, you can’t go home at 9:00 because the story keeps updating till midnight..."

Listen closely, and you’ll learn about the uncertainly of life during a digital revolution, the challenges of writing a business memoir, and even the extent of Rusbridger’s non-Chopin piano repertoire: “Given enough drink, I will sit and play show tunes all evening—but that doesn’t happen very often.”

Host: Pete Chapin
Editor: Kyp Pilalas
Producer: Ken Gordon