WHO SIGNED THIS OFF: JANUARY EDITION
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JANUARY EDITION:
WHO SIGNED THIS OFF?!
WELCOME TO THE FIRST EDITION OF WHO SIGNED THIS OFF?, THE HARPSWOOD NEWSLETTER FOR FOLK WHO CARE ABOUT COMMS AND CLIMATE IN 2026.
We’ll be looking at important stories in media and PR, name-checking those nailing their comms, analysing how climate is reported, hailing the exciting work done by our brilliant clients… and occasionally mentioning what Harpswood’s been up to.
If you’ve heard of Philip Tetlock, you’ll know that even experts have a dreadful record when it comes to predicting the future. So rather than dusting down the crystal ball we’re highlighting three media stories worth keeping an eye on this year:
🗞️ Daily Mail owner DMGT attempting to buy the Telegraph for £500m. The sale of the Telegraph has dragged on for two years but should be resolved in 2026. DMGT also owns The i Paper and Metro – and may be forced to sell one or both over competition concerns. Dovid Efune, the owner of the New York Sun, remains in the hunt.
📺 The BBC will file a motion to dismiss the £3.7bn lawsuit from Donald Trump over Panorama’s edit of his January 6, 2021, speech. Expect developments in this case to frame discussions on BBC Charter renewal – the Government is considering if the Beeb should be funded by adverts or tax.
📱LinkedIn will continue to dominate the business social media space. Recent research (reported on in The Times) found that everything you thought you knew about successful posts on the platform may be wrong: images don’t make that much difference; longer posts are better than shorter ones; and emojis can undermine engagement. Cue dozens of LinkedIn hot takes on the findings…
While some were slumped on the couch mainlining Quality Street as 2025 tailed off, Octopus Energy powered on. The UK’s largest energy supplier (and Harpswood client) announced a deal to sell a minority stake in Kraken Technologies for around $1bn, valuing Kraken at $8.65bn. Octopus is spinning out its tech business from the mothership and a potential IPO for Kraken in London or New York has been hinted.
Who Signed This Off? also welcomes two new clients into the Harpswood fold: Furbnow, home energy upgrade specialists, and Rivan Industries, builders of modular synthetic fuel plants.
And we always want to hear from you, drop us your thoughts or the topics you'd like to see covered in the next edition - whosignedthisoff@harpswood.com.
FOUNDERS UNFILTERED
"MAKING PROGRESS IS DOING FEWER THINGS FASTER"
This month Becky Lane, co-founder of Furbnow, is in the hotseat. Furbnow focuses on retrofitting homes for energy efficiency. Having already renovated 1,000 homes across England and Wales, Furbnow is committed to decarbonising 100,000 homes by 2030.
Becky has recently featured in: BBC West Midlands, FT Sustainable Views, the I, Ideal Home, Homebuilding & Renovating and more....
Which purpose-led company do you most admire?
Olio - I love how they’ve built a community as well as solving a real issue with waste. I've been an avid user for 6 years!
What’s the scrappiest thing you’ve done to make progress?
I love how they’ve built a community as well as solving a real issue with waste. I've been an avid user for 6 years!
What’s the one piece of advice you wish you could tell all entrepreneurs?
Olio - Making progress is doing fewer things faster.
If you could go back to day one, what would you tell yourself?
Olio - Have more faith in yourself that you can build this.
What’s one book you think everyone should read?
Growth Levers by Matt Lerner. I go on about it so much. Simple and transformational.
Finish this sentence:My purpose is…
My purpose is to make it aspirational and attainable to have a comfortable, healthy home.
One word you hope people use to describe you - and one word for your business?
For me - passionate. For Furbnow - focused.
NEWS-O-METER
🤩 NAILED IT
Pubs campaigning against a business rates hike banned Labour MPs from their favourite drinking spots – and sparked a quick u-turn from Rachel Reeves. The Chancellor is now providing pubs with "temporary support" on business rates and is widely predicted to be reversing the decision entirely.
🥶 FAILED IT
South East Water boss David Hinton partially blaming his company’s failure to supply water in Tunbridge Wells on the extra demand caused by residents working from home was never going to hold much, er, water.
💀 DEATH NOTICE
2025 ended with the alarming announcement of the death of PR.
(Alarming for a PR agency at least.) The irony-meter needle touched 11 as Sir Martin Sorrell, founder of S4 Capital, used the most traditional of legacy earned media – Radio 4’s Today – to drop his bombshell message: “There is no such thing as PR anymore.” Sorrell, former chief of WPP, the communications behemoth, engaged in an at-times heated debate with Sarah Waddington, boss of the PR trade body PRCA, about the rise of the term “story-teller” on LinkedIn in the US. Sorrell’s dramatic statement – and his more casual aside that there were no “dirty macs in pubs anymore” – was part of his argument that “flooding the internet” with story-based content is key to communications. By the end of a noisy seven minutes, both frostily agreed that story-telling mattered and that PR played a significant part in it.
🔥 HOT TAKE
The Met Office confirmed at the start of January that 2025 was the hottest year in the UK since records began.
That meant four of the last five years have been in the top five warmest years since 1884. Professor Richard Betts, Head of Climate Impacts Research for the Met Office, spoke with Channel 4 News. Anchor Alex Thomson said: “We’ve gone into a world, particularly recently have we not, where politicians instead of disagreeing about politics, some of them are actually disagreeing about physics, actually saying ‘this isn’t happening’”. Professor Betts responded: “It beggars belief.” Days later, the World Meteorological Association said 2025 was the third hottest year on record globally.
🔌 POWERING ON
Speaking of perception vs reality… if you believe the naysayers, the electric car market is running out of power.
Yet of the 2 million cars sold in the UK in 2025, half a million were all-electric (and nearly one in three cars sold in the UK in December were all-electric). But a row continues to rage in the media about electric car mandate target levels. Mike Hawes of motoring group the SMMT is leading the lobby who say government targets are too ambitious and need to be reviewed. Colin Walker of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit says the policy is boosting the all-important second hand EV market. It certainly looks like the policy is driving us towards cleaner motoring faster than we would otherwise get there.
HARPSWOOD RECOMMENDS
🎧 HEARD BY HARPSWOOD
If you want to get a grip on the state of the UK at the start of 2026, take a listen to The Stats of the Nation, the five part More Or Less special on BBC Sounds. Presented by Tim Harford – the journalist who sets the bar for the clear presentation of numbers – the series analyses NHS performance, the cost of living crisis and life expectancy (among other big subjects). It’s all done in the simplest of language (and with some occasional off-kilter humour).
📺 SEEN BY HARPSWOOD
Traitors exploded into life yesterday when Robert - who's had heat on him since the start of the show - messed up his mission with spectacular consequences. Faithfuls leader Kemi rounded on him at breakfast, dramatically declaring that she had “irrefutable evidence” of his treachery in the form of a damning note left lying around. Canny Nigel played his cards close to his chest for most of the day before confirming Robert had been seduced at a show-stopping round table. The episode ended on a cliffhanger as word came down from the turret that there would be no more seductions after May’s council elections. What a season it’s been…
SPEAKING PLAINLY
🗣️ MIND YOUR LANGUAGE
Sir Keir Starmer wants everyone to know that Britain is “turning a corner” in 2026. The PM used the phrase (or variants of it) four times in his recent extended interview with Laura Kuenssberg - three of them in the first five minutes of the chat. He has been mocked by journalists for his use of technocratic business words like “missions” and “milestones” – but this interview was notable for his consistent (and welcome) use of plain English.
HARPSWOOD IRL
MEET OUR LONDON TEAM IN JANUARY AT:
🗓️ Roxhill’s Q&A: How to pitch to The Times Entrepreneurs Network @ Myo St Pauls on Wednesday 21 January.
🗓️ Climate Tech Time @ The Conduit on Wednesday 28 January.
Before the event we will also be hosting free PR office hours. Email whosignedthisoff@harpswood.com to grab a slot.