Follow the Rabbit

From Davos to your Inbox: Narratives, Newsletters, and Nuances with Adrian Monck

Apr 9, 2025

Adrian Monck, former communications chief at the World Economic Forum and independent journalist, dives into the complexities of the modern media landscape. He discusses the challenges of maintaining journalistic integrity while navigating algorithm-driven demands in his successful newsletter, 'Seven Things.' Monck shares his journey from broadcast journalism to independent publishing, emphasizing the paradox of freedom in writing without institutional constraints. He explores how evolving media consumption alters authority and trust, revealing the inherent 'incoherence' of today's narratives.

43:18

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Adrian Monck

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Quick takeaways

Adrian Monck emphasizes the tension between journalistic integrity and algorithmic incentives, reflecting the challenges of maintaining authenticity in independent publishing.

The evolution of journalism is marked by a shift towards multimedia storytelling, highlighting the need for thoughtful content amidst a fragmented media landscape.

Deep dives

Adrian Monk's Journey in Journalism

Adrian Monk highlights his diverse career spanning over four decades, beginning in broadcast journalism during the late 80s and early 90s, where he reported on significant global events like the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Gulf War. Transitioning to academia in 2005, he took on the role of head of journalism at the City University of London, where he focused on training future journalists. His tenure at the World Economic Forum further established him as a key figure in modern communication, transforming it into a platform promoting diverse voices. Now, as an independent journalist, he maintains his weekly newsletter, 'Seven Things,' which serves as a creative outlet for his observations on geopolitics, culture, and technology, encapsulating his insights with a witty style.

Intro

3min

Building a Personal Publishing Empire: The Journey of Independent Newsletters

3min

Navigating Journalism in the Digital Age

27min

The Evolution of Journalism: From Newsletters to Poetry Performances

5min

Navigating Information: Curating Newsletters and Insights

5min

How the former Davos communications chief navigates the tension between algorithmic demands and journalistic integrity in his quest to make sense of a world that resists coherence

In this episode of Follow the Rabbit, we explore the changing landscape of cultural impact with Adrian Monck, whose newsletter "Seven Things" has become an intriguing case study in post-institutional thought leadership. After working in television journalism, academia, and finally as the World Economic Forum's communications architect for 13 years, Monck now creates a weekly geopolitical digest that reaches over 160,000 readers—all while earning "nothing" and negotiating holidays with himself.

Our discussion delves into the tensions that define today's media ecosystem: the algorithmic punishment for including links (which doubled Monck's engagement when removed), the paradoxical freedom of writing without institutional constraints, and the challenge of maintaining critical perspective in a world that resists coherent narratives. As Monck puts it with remarkable candor, the underlying message of his 40 years in journalism is "incoherence"—the world simply does not make sense in the tidy ways we often assume.

What emerges is a sophisticated investigation into how media consumption and creation are fundamentally altering. We are watching the alteration of authority and trust, similar to how we have seen the emergence of third places and the re-contextualization of health as a luxury in earlier seasons. Monck is a unique hybrid: someone whose insider knowledge lends credibility, but whose independence allows for refreshing candor about anything from tech millionaires' "craven" emails to the shifting economics of written media (which he claims is "going the way of poetry").

Monck's experience demonstrates how we are all negotiating the tension between algorithmic pressures and human judgment. His weekly newsletter, which is a deliberate blend of geopolitics, economics, technology, and cultural observations, symbolizes a type of resistance to attention fragmentation by providing seven carefully picked insights rather than an unending scroll.

Chapters:

00:01 - Introduction to Adrian Monck and his background

03:10 - Starting a "publishing empire" with Seven Things newsletter

05:52 - Adrian's writing process and weekly discipline

07:35 - Finding unique angles that big media organizations miss

11:15 - The unpredictability of audience engagement

12:43 - Platform challenges and LinkedIn's algorithm

14:22 - Experimenting with different platforms (Substack, Threads, Bluesky)

17:26 - The shift toward video content and its dangers

20:17 - Maintaining editorial restraint in the attention economy

24:56 - Approaching criticism with nuance and experience

27:49 - The incoherence of the world from 40 years in journalism