Of course nothing is actually new. You can discern the ghosts of FT Alphaville's Markets Live in the format and a straight line can be drawn from the Fugger newsletters, with their chit-chatty business news of the day, to this week's Spot Markets Live transcript (and The Blind Spot in toto), but SML seems very fresh.
Here's an example from August 8:
....MUCH (I mean MUCH) MOREToday’s Spot Markets live session is with Dario Garcia, the Blind Spot’s assistant editor, who formerly worked as a corporate investigator for Kroll.
Comments from Izabella and Dario that address audience questions have been put in bold
Spot Markets Live – 08/08/22Izabella Kaminska 10:58Hello there!
Anyone out there?
My usual seance tactic.
Howdy!
All seeing Graham here as well
good good
So hello and welcome back to Spot Markets Live, the real-time markets chat that takes you on a whirlwind tour of the markets.
We are now back every Monday at 11, with a hope to gear up more sessions around Sept/Oct. We are also hoping to do more impromptu sessions as and when markets bleed.
Those reading this in transcript form, if you fancy a login to help us expand the test over the weeks to come please email admin@the-blindspot.com.
Today I’m joined by Blind Spot assistant editor Dario Garcia Giner,
Hello Dario!
Dario Garcia Giner 11:01Hello Izzy!
Izabella Kaminska 11:01Before joining me at the Blind Spot, Dario was a corporate investigator at Kroll. But he has given up on that world for the much less glamorous world of start-up journalism.
Dario is currently a nomad, so the living incarnation of the Work-from-home dream.
But Dario originally hails from Marbella, Spain, and is a fluent Spanish speaker obviously, as well as French and German.
How are you finding the transition to journalism?
Dario Garcia Giner 11:03The first thing to say is that it’s great to wake up without a knot of anxiety in my chest
Otherwise, I’m finding it both very fascinating and challenging to write for public consumption!
Much better than spending days or weeks on a piece of material for it to disappear into the netherworld of corporate boardroom politics
Izabella Kaminska 11:04Yeah, that must be weird. Doing all that work and finding out all those tidbits and intriguing factoids and not being able to publicly share them. Kind of the opposite of journalism.
Dario Garcia Giner 11:04Definitely.
Izabella Kaminska 11:04First a little housekeeping.
Blind Spot subscribers may have noticed the lack of an email this weekend. Unfortunately, I was struck down by a bug on Wednesday (just after interviewing Niall Ferguson) and have only just recovered.
If you haven’t seen the podcast you can view it here:
Niall clarifies the most important point: that his name is pronounced NEIL not N-ial (as in denial).
There’s also a good Trump impression there from him.
But really the takeaway for me is that Niall is structurally long bitcoin and crypto, and is kind of worried about the potential for nuclear weapon deployment.
But back to my absence: These are the perils of a start-up operation I’m afraid, and ironically one of the critiques I made of the Substack model was that people don’t anticipate things like sick leave or time off when they start those things.
Small Blind Spot announcement: I can report that I have now managed to raise a little bit of angel money. Don’t worry, TBS is still fully 100% controlled by me. It’s a 2-year convertible debt note. But it does mean we will be making some investments as of September, including a refresh of the website and hopefully some more people investments.
Dario Garcia Giner 11:07Can’t wait to see what comes from it!
Izabella Kaminska 11:07well, as it happens…
If you know anyone who is interested in joining a start-up journalism operation, do let me know. I am looking for young aspiring writers or maybe those transitioning from careers in the city and keen to have a stab at journalism/analysis. I’m also looking for affordable deals on web design and such the like. Feel free to email me on izabella@the-blindspot.com.
DO SPREAD THE WORD
We are building this together, and the objective is to maintain a discerning but open minded voice in the market for financial news.
I can also announce that on August 22 SML will be co-hosted by a former M&A reporter who I am hoping to convince to become a permanent fixture at TBS. This will be her trial run to see if it’s for her.
Izabella Kaminska 11:10Let’s proceed – though it’s a bit peak summer. So not the usual amount of quality tidbits. But we still have a few
FTSE is up about half a percent at 7,470. The top gainer is Hargreaves Lansdown, up 7% – which looks like a relief rally following news on Friday that profits had fallen and business had slowed.
Here’s the story from the FT
