14 years. I cover media, which can mean anything from writing about the future of the music business to how tablets are changing dry scientific journals.

I like asking impertinent questions of important people and finding out how things work, but the first time I remember wanting to be a journalist was at age 11, watching Brian Hanrahan cover the Falklands War for the BBC. (I’ve done nothing remotely dangerous since.)

Before the FT, I was dispatched to ring the numbers on prostitutes’ calling cards in phone booths around Baker Street in search of “Sandra”, the escort of a disgraced fund manager called Peter Young.

- Battles between content companies and digital giants
- Consumers’ embrace of rental models like Spotify and Netflix and the risks that poses for companies that sell things like CDs, downloads or DVDs.
- The rise of multicultural media consumers in the US and beyond
- Power shifting to sportsmen, actors, celebrities (and even newspaper columnists)

To be distinctive, to think digitally and to give the most thoughtful audience on the planet something thought-provoking in everything we do.

If I can name-drop for a moment, it’s a toss-up between sharing a bottle of pink Cristal with Mariah Carey and getting a card from John Waters thanking me for “my favourite capitalist article ever”.

- Keep your contacts warm
- Write about the things you find interesting (and, dare I say it, entertaining)
- Just pick up the phone and keep asking questions

Prince – 1999 (on vinyl in 1982)

The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman (you may recognise the surname) is a very enjoyable newspaper novel.

I’ve blotted most of them out, but asking Sir Howard Stringer how Sony’s Kindle sales were going didn’t go over too well.

Never getting through my to-do list.

Resign for the good of the country

“Knock knock”
“Who’s there?”
“Felix”
“Felix who?”
“Felix my ice cream, I’ll lick his.”