Marina Hyde Launches Always On Media Brand With Goalhanger

Marina Hyde has found her next act after leaving The Guardian, and it is being built by the company behind her hit podcast. Hyde is launching Always On With Marina Hyde, a multi-format personal media brand produced in partnership with Gary Lineker’s Goalhanger, the podcast company that makes The Rest Is Entertainment, Deadline reported in an exclusive on Oct. 12. Press Gazette confirmed the joint venture the same day, noting the announcement arrived just over a week after Hyde published her final Guardian column.

At launch, Always On will combine a regular written column on Substack, a new YouTube show and original social content. Deadline reported that further audio, video and digital formats are planned over time, with interviews and collaborations featuring prominent British voices. Press Gazette added that the Substack will be free at first, with a paid subscriber tier and member-only features to follow. Goalhanger has framed the brand as a window into the stories, performances and absurdities that catch Hyde’s attention.

Hyde will keep her day job in audio. Press Gazette reported that she continues to co-host The Rest Is Entertainment with novelist Richard Osman, a show the pair have released since November 2023 covering media, books, TV, film and music. Deadline said Hyde was expected to share more about the venture on the podcast’s latest episode. “I’m hugely excited to be launching Always On in partnership with the brilliant team at Goalhanger,” Hyde said, adding that she looked forward to responding to “the news batsignal in whatever format feels right – written/video/podcast/social/costumed vigilantism.” She joked that the name was a tribute “to the nervous breakdown it’s going to give me.”

For Goalhanger, the launch is a test of a new model. Always On is the first project from Goalhanger X, an initiative to build creator-led media ventures around individual personalities. Co-founder Jack Davenport said Hyde “could host them all” across the company’s sport, politics, history and entertainment shows, and described Goalhanger’s role as supplying “the creative, audience and commercial infrastructure” while keeping Hyde at the centre. Press Gazette linked the move to Goalhanger’s recently announced in-house advertising sales operation, which will pitch Goalhanger X brands to advertisers as partnerships spanning written content, social, audio, video and live events.

The venture also fits a broader shift among British journalists toward owning their platforms. Deadline pointed to Amol Rajan’s recent BBC exit to launch his own operation and to former BBC figures Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel, whose Global-produced podcast The News Agents is now well established. Hyde, who Deadline noted also contributed to the HBO comedy The Franchise, brings three British Journalism Awards comment prizes and a newly published Guardian column collection, What a Time to Be Alive!, into the new brand.

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Verification: Always On launch with Goalhanger, Goalhanger X first launch, Lineker connection, Substack/YouTube/social formats and future audio-video plans, Hyde and Davenport quotes, podcast-episode follow-up, Amol Rajan and The News Agents context and The Franchise credit from Deadline (Jesse Whittock, Oct. 12, 2026). Final Guardian column timing, free-then-paid Substack, Rest Is Entertainment since November 2023, in-house ad sales, column collection and British Journalism Awards record from Press Gazette (Charlotte Tobitt, Oct. 12, 2026).