1. TV-a clever contraption derived from the words Terrible Vaudeville-we call it a medium because nothing’s well done.
Goodman Ace (1899-1982) U.S. humorist. Letter to Groucho Marx (1967)
2. I’m all in favour of free expression, provided it’s kept strictly under control.
Alan Bennett (b.1934) British playwright. Forty Years On (1969)
3. There is not one shred of evidence that the Internet has had any downward influence on North American or European newspaper circulation.
Conrad Black (b.1944) Canadian newspaper proprietor and business executive. Press conference (March 2000)
4. Newspapers…remain powerful outlets for advertising and information (and political influence)…literacy and the printed word are not as out of fashion as many have feared.
Conrad Black (b.1944) Canadian newspaper proprietor and business executive. A Life in Progress (1993)
5. Someone once described the information business as exactly the opposite of sex. When it’s good, it’s still lousy.
Michael Bloomberg (b.1942) U.S. entrepreneur, business executive and Mayor of New York. New York Times (November 1993)
6. A continuous clash of egomaniacal monsters, wasting more energy than dinosaurs and pouring rivers of mone
y into the sand.
Robert Bolt (1924-95) British screenwriter and dramatist. Referring to the movie industry. Sunday Times (London) (June 1961)
7. The market will pay better to entertain than educate.
Warren Buffett (b.1930) U.S. entrepreneur and financier. AGM speech (1986)
8. If you look at the entire chain of entities-studio, networks, stations, cable channels, cable operations, Internet distribution-you have to be strong in as many of them as you can.
Peter Chernin (b.1953) U.S. chief operating officer of News Corporation, chairman and C.E.O. of the Fox Group. Forbes (June 1998)
9. We’re in the attention getting business.
Peter Chernin (b.1953) U.S. chief operating officer of News Corporation, chairman and C.E.O. of the Fox Group. Forbes (June 1998)
10. Journalism largely consists of saying “Lord Jones dead” to people who never knew that Lord Jones was alive.
- K. Chesterton (1874-1936) British novelist, poet and critic. The Wisdom of Father Brown (1914)
11. Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice; journalism what will be read once.
Cyril Connolly (1903-74) British critic, essayist and novelist. Enemies of Promise (1938)
12. Television thrives on unreason and unre
ason thrives on television.
Robin Day (1923-2000) British broadcaster. Grand Inquisition (1989)
13. The British Press is always looking for stuff to fill the space between their cartoons.
Bernadette Devlin (b.1947) Irish politician. 1970. Attrib.
14. The first time a rat saved a sinking ship.
Greg Dyke (b.1947) British television executive. Referring to the puppet Roland Rat, whose popularity saved a failing television program. Quoted in The Adventure Capitalists (Jeff Grout and Lynne Curry; 1998)
15. I realized that the only successful people in TV would be those who recognized that it was just a small part of the leisure industry.
Noel Edmonds (b.1948) British broadcaster and media executive. 1987. Quoted in Noel Edmonds (Alison Bowyer; 1999)
16. We live in an anonymous world where people are desperate for their fifteen minutes of fame.
Noel Edmonds (b.1948) British broadcaster and media executive. 1987. Quoted in Noel Edmonds (Alison Bowyer; 1999)
17. As a publisher, we’ve not done acquisitions.
Duncan Edwards (b.1964) British publishing executive. Marketing (July 2000)
18. Scale in publishing is increasingly important.
Duncan Edwards (b.1964) British publishing executive. Marketing (July 2000)
19. What I love about magazines is that an individual can change the destiny of an entire business.
Duncan Edwards (b.1964) British publishing executive. Marketing (July 2000)
20. The most important thing we’ve done with this company is to stay away from emotional investments in over-priced media assets.
Michael Eisner (b.1942) U.S. chairman and C.E.O. of the Disney Corporation. Forbes (January 1987)
21. The music industry is toast. It has been completely overtaken by events and can do nothing about it.
Shaun Fanning (b.1981) U.S. software entrepreneur. Referring to music downloads on the Internet. Sunday Times (London) (May 2000)
22. Is there enough creativity to go around? No, there never has been.
Michael Grade (b.1943) British television executive. Referring to the rapid development of new media. Marketing (June 2000)
23. When I started out, people were afraid of parish priests. Now they’re afraid of newspapers editors.
Michael D. Higgins (b.1941) Irish politician. 1997. Attrib.
24. Some day we’ll call it personal broadcasting.
Nobuyuki Idei (b.1937) Japanese chairman and C.E.O. of Sony Corporation. Forbes (May 2000)
25. Blood sport is brought to its ultimate refinement in the gossip columns.
Bernard Ingham (b.1932) British politician. Speech (February 1986)
26. The media…is like an oil painting. Close up, it looks like nothing on earth. Stand back you get the drift.
Bernard Ingham (b.1932) British politician. Speech (February 1990)
27. Television is simultaneously blamed, often by some people, for worsening the world and for being powerless to change it.
Clive James (b.1939) Australian writer and broadcaster. Glued to the Box (1981)
28. Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.
A.J. Liebling (1904-63) U.S. journalist. The Wayward Press (1960)
29. Television brought the brutality of war into the comfort of the living room. Vietnam was lost in the living rooms of America-npot the battlefields of Vietnam.
Marshall McLuhan (1911-80) Canadian sociologist and author. Montreal Gazette (May 1975)
30. The medium is the message.
Marshall McLuhan (1911-80) Canadian sociologist and author. Understanding Media (1964)
31. Whenever I see a newspaper, I think of the poor tress. As tress they provide beauty, shade and shelter. But, as paper, all they provide is rubbish.
Yehudi Menuhin (1916-99) British musician. Interview (1982)
32. It’s like a bug that bites you and get in your bloodstream.
Paul Merton (b.1957) British comedian. Referring to movies. Observer (London) (October 2000)
33. I am not realizing a dream to become a media mogul. I am realizing my dream of creating a truly global media company.
Jean-Marie Messier (b.1956) French media owner. Sunday Times (London) (September 2000)
34. A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself.
Arthur Miller (b.1915) U.S. dramatist. Observer (London) (November 1961)
35. Information is the most valuable commodity in the world today and this business is about giving people access to information that is relevant to their lives.
James Murdock (b.1973) Australian chief executive and chairman of Start TV. Forbes (July 1998)
36. I don’t give a damn what the media critics say. It’s what your readers say. If you haven’t got any readers, you’re only talking to yourself.
Rupert Murdoch (b.1931) U.S. C.E.O. of News Corporation. Quoted in Good Times, Bad Times (Harold Evans; 1983)
37. The power of the press is very great but not so great as the power of suppression.
Lord Northcliffe (1865-1922) British newspaper owner. Daily Mail (London) (1918)
38. I’ve been lonely for the active question and answer sessions only the Irish media can provide.
Denis O’Brien (b.1958) Irish telecommunications entrepreneur. Sunday Times (London) (October 2000)
39. Not only is this the first live televised war, it’s also the first war ever covered by sober journalists.
- J. O’Rourke (b.1947) U.S. humorist and journalist. Referring to the Gulf War. Give War a Chance (1992)
40. Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.
Shimon Peres (b.1923) Israeli former prime minister. Financial Times (London) (January 1995)
41. The revolution people are talking about is one of form rather than substance.
Michael Perry (b.1934) British business executive. Referring to new electronic media. Marketing (March 2000)
42. For a politician to complain about the press is like a ship’s captain complaining about the sea.
Enoch Powell (1912-98) British politician. Guardian (London) (December 1984)
43. Government always tends to want, not a really free press, but a managed and well-conducted one.
Lord Radcliffe (1899-1977) British lawyer. 1967. Quoted in What the Papers Never Said (Peter Hennessey; 1983)
44. I think editors are excellent marketers. They know their audience and produce copy to appeal them-they just don’t call it marketing.
David Robinson (b.1959) Australian marketing executive. Marketing (June 2000)
45. No self-respecting fish would be wrapped in a Murdoch newspaper.
Mike Royko (1932-97) U.S. journalist. Chicago Sun Times (1984)
46. In the rarefied air of the media, a single misstep separates sitting on top of the world from standing in the unemployment line.
Harriet Rubin (b. 1952) U.S. author. “Success and Excess,” Fast Company (1998)
47. Television? The word is half Greek, half Latin. No good can come of it.
- P. Scott (1846-1932) British editor. Quoted in The BBC’s First Fifty Years (Asa Briggs; 1985)
48. In a world full of audio-visual marvels, may words matter to you and be full of magic.
Geoffrey Smith (b.1926) British journalist. Letter (July 1987)
49. Freedom of the press in Britain means freedom to print such of the proprietor’s prejudices as the advertiser don’t object to.
Hannen Saffer (1879-1962) British journalist. Quoted in Swaff (Tom Driberg; 1974)
50. The newspaper and magazine business is an intellectual brothel from which there is no escape.
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) Russian novelist. Quoted in Wit and Wisdom (Charlotte Bingham; 1982)
51. A critic is a man who knows the way but can’t drive the car.
Kenneth Tynan (1927-80) British critic. New York Times (January 1966)
52. No first world country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity-much less dissent.
Gore Vidal (b.1925) U.S. novelist and critic. Referring to the United States. A View from the Diner’s Club (1991)
53. News is what a chap who doesn’t care much about anything wants to read.
Evelyn Waugh (1903-66) British novelist. Scoop (1938)
54. I hate television. I hate it as much as peanuts. But I can’t stop eating peanuts.
Orson Welles (1915-85) U.S. actor and movie director. New York Herald Tribune (October 1956)
55. Journalism-an ability to meet the challenge of filling the space.
Rebecca West (1892-1983) British writer and journalist. New York Herald Tribune (April 1956)
56. In the old days men had the rack. Now they have the Press.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish writer and wit. Fortnightly Review (February 1891)
57. Television contracts the imagination and radio expands it.
Terry Wogan (b.1938) Irish broadcaster. Observer (London) (December 1984)
