Hearts & Minds: The Silly Season? Does the world stop in August anymore?

Today is the Glorious Twelfth, when tradition dictates, grouse shooting in the UK can begin. It is peak holiday across much of the globe. In the City, where the old adage is ‘sell in May, gone away until St Leger Day’, there remains a month to go before this year’s St Leger horse race at Doncaster on 13 September. It is true. No one appears to be around; everyone is off.

In the media, this is the ‘silly season’ when desperate newsrooms would fill space with trivia. CEOs have been known to decline offers of interviews because they believe nobody is reading; announcements are postponed because it is felt they won’t be taken seriously, that they will be lost in a sea of frivolity and speculation. That certainly is how it has been. Yes, but is it really the case these days?

The world might once have slowed, but now, not so much. Usually, politicians take a break. But we have a US president who generates headlines wherever he is, regardless – in Florida, on Air Force One, before and after he plays golf. This week, talks are due to take place that might end the war in Ukraine, with all the implications that brings; the Gaza conflict rages on with the ramifications there; the new tariffs landscape is unfolding; economic indicators still pour forth. There is no shortage of major news.

People are working; they are just not at their desks. They might not be doing so with the same intensity, granted, and meetings can wait, but to suppose they are not studying their emails, watching events, would be foolish. As you read this, by the pool, at the beach, over a coffee on a terrace, on your phone, look around. What are the others doing? They’re viewing their phones as well. Over there and there, they are hunched at their laptops. On balconies, folks are sitting, tapping away on keyboards.

It would be unwise, in comms, to drop your guard. Stories can emerge from nowhere and take off, just like normal. Likewise, the notion that this is not the moment to be pro-active is old hat. In many respects it represents a perfect moment. Online does not stop, links are posted and they are followed. People want something to read and they are able to concentrate and absorb and think. The silly season really is not so silly anymore.

Chris Blackhurst is one of the UK’s foremost business journalists. He was previously Editor of The Independent and City Editor of the Evening Standard.