We dig into the memory bank of the City’s great and good. To mark 20 years of City AM, we spoke to the man who’s been there from the start, Lawson Muncaster, in this week’s Square Mile and Me

CV

• Name: Lawson Muncaster
• Job title: Managing director at City AM
• Previous roles: Vice president international sales at Metro, vice president international sales EMEA ar CNN, Scottish TV sales exec
• Age: 55
• Born: Irvine, Scotland
• Lives: Between North Berwick and London
• Studied: Politics – but only for six weeks before I left university
• Talents: Ping pong, pool and I’m actually not bad with maths
• Motto: Plus est en vous – there’s more to you than you think
• Biggest perk of the job? The people
• Coffee order: Cappuccino, no chocolate
• Drink order: Guinness
• Favourite book: I don’t read, I’m dyslexic
• Favourite film: Caddyshack or Shawshank Redemption

What was your first job?

Pouring pints in a casino in Edinburgh when I was 17.

What was your first job in the world of business?

I was a trainee salesman for Scottish television.

When did you know you wanted to build a career in the newspaper industry?

I was working within advertising, the murky world of media, for CNN in the late 90s, early 2000s, which got me involved in the business cside of news. I then left them to join Metro International – so that was my first taste of newspapers, and I wish I’d started many, many years before!

While I thought the Metro concept was brilliant, I found it quite hard to work out in my head how you could make money. Whereas with City AM being specifically focused on one market, the Square Mile in London – that excited me and convinced me and others to get up at 6am.........

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