Silvia Amaro
This week, we welcome back a friend of the podcast, Sílvia Amaro. Sílvia is the current anchor of Europe Early edition at CNBC. Previously, she was a digital reporter for CNBC across Europe, specializing in European markets and politics, winning CFA UK’s broadcast journalist of the year in 2021. In our conversation Sílvia shares the importance of staying active in your career, the choreography of putting together a live show, and why her 4am starts are the best gig she’s landed yet.
You can watch Sílvia host CNBC’s Europe Early Edition here:
https://www.cnbc.com/silvia-amaro/
Guest: Sílvia Amaro - LinkedIn, Instagram
Music: John Abbot, City Phases, courtesy of Epidemic Sound
Marine Saint
Welcome to Inspire the Women in Journalism podcast, where we speak to the best female voices in the industry, charting their breakthroughs, career triumphs, and challenges. We’re your producers. I'm Marine Saint.
Freya Shaw
And I'm Freya Shaw. Across each episode, you'll hear from a different woman who's making waves in journalism. We ask our guests what has changed in the media industry, their career highs and lows, and how they navigate being a woman in journalism. Our show will also feature exclusive roundtable discussions between inspiring women from every beat and background in the media.
Welcome to episode five of the Women in Journalism Podcast. Our guest this week is a friend of the podcast, Sílvia Amaro. Sílvia is the current anchor of Europe, early edition at CNBC. Previously, she worked across Europe specializing in European markets and politics. In 2021, she was recognized as broadcast journalist of the year by CFA uk. She also like me, studied at City.
Marine Saint
As well as all this work, Sílvia has been a support to us at Women in Journalism. Along with being a board member, Sílvia helped us create a sisterhood of guests and stories to explore as we created the show. She was the guest host for our very first episode with Sophy Ridge, and we got a glimpse into her career and couldn't wait to find out more.
Sílvia, welcome to the podcast.
Sílvia Amaro
Thank you so much. What a lovely intro, you've made my day already.
Marine Saint
It's a pleasure to have you on again. Sílvia, can we start off by asking you how did you first get involved with Women in Journalism?
Sílvia Amaro
Ooh, good question. It's been several years. I think I joined, I became a member right after the pandemic. Or during the pandemic actually. And at the time I was feeling like many of us, that I was stuck in my career. I was struggling to take the next step. And so I was looking for support. I was looking for, um, a place where I could ask certain questions, hear advice, and I found that with Women in Journalism. And so I've been a member ever since.
Freya Shaw
Yeah. And so I know, like I said, you did an undergraduate degree like me at City University. How did that help you in those early career stages? Was it finding a mentor? Finding a beat or sort of learning a wide range of things and skills?
Sílvia Amaro
So, City was very special to me at the time because obviously I had left high school, I had left my home country, and so there were a lot of new and exciting things happening in my life. I love the setup at City. It's the reason why I chose to study at City was the facilities. You had a TV studio, you had several radio studios, and I just felt it was going to be a great place to gain practical skills. And so spending three years at City and doing my undergraduate, there was such a huge learning curve for me.
I gained so much confidence. I met people from different countries. I learned a lot about journalism, which is what I wanted, and I experimented a lot. I was part of student media. I wrote for the website. I had my own show, radio show, if you can call it, with some of my classmates. We experimented with making a TV show, so I tried all of the media formats.
And then the other amazing thing was the access to some extent that you could have by being at City, which was knowing where opportunities were. And so, for instance, I did an internship with an international news magazine. I was welcoming guests in a TV channel, which was a job that made me waking up at four 15 in the morning.
I think that was my very first early shift. I actually managed to work at the Olympic Games in 2012 as well, so I, I was learning about all of these opportunities by being at City and I made use of all of them as much as I could, you know, so. That was excellent because no doubt that's what then allowed me to get a job post university was having so much work experience.
Marine Saint
And for that first job, and also I guess moving countries for university, how did you adjust to going abroad? How did you find, I guess, the courage as a young journalist to move away for those first jobs? Did you find that there were just better opportunities in the beat that you were interested in covering?
Sílvia Amaro
It's a very interesting question because I just grew up. Somehow with the dream of studying in London, so you could have told me anything at that age, you know, 12, 14, 16, it wouldn't have mattered because I had made up my mind that I was gonna study in London, and so I just moved to London. And then my first job, I got it while living in London, but the editor at the time asked if I wanted to move to Brussels for that job.
And I just said, yeah, of course. I was meant to be there for three months. I ended up staying two years before I came back to London, and it was not such a premeditated move. It was both moving to London and moving to Brussels was just following the dream and the opportunities, you know, , and of course moving countries is not easy.
It can be very difficult and lonely at times, but it also makes you more resilient and you get to know different people, see different things. And as a journalist, that experience is very, very valuable. So I would recommend it to anyone who hasn't had that experience to perhaps considering an internship abroad or do one of the university years abroad as well. It just opens up your mind. And again, in journalism, I find that to be critical.
Freya Shaw
Yeah, definitely. I mean, I think it's one of those things that it always looks so daunting, but as soon as you are out there and in that environment and learning and doing the thing you love, it probably gets a lot easier. When you left, you went to cover sort of economics and markets.
How did you decide on that as a topic? Is it something you felt confident in before or is it perhaps something that fell into your lap?
Sílvia Amaro
So during university, I decided that I wanted to do economics and financial news. That became very clear to me because at the time. There was the so-called sovereign debt crisis.
And so I witnessed it and I had family and friends that were suffering from that crisis. And for me it became clear by being at City University, studying journalism and knowing the reality the, the, how much people were suffering from this crisis that I just had to learn about these topics and explain them to people so then they wouldn't suffer again. So that became my mission. And so when looking for jobs and developing my career, I knew that that was the path that I wanted to take. And you know, I didn't have a financial background. I had a journalism background. But you, well, you don't know, you just learn.
You teach yourself, you do courses, you speak to people. Again, being a journalist requires you to be confident to talk to other people. And so I just did that. And when I joined CNBC in 2016, for instance, I remember having a conversation. About what the bond market is. I just needed to know what is a yield and, you know, I need, I needed to understand.
And so I taught myself all of these things, either by studying them online or speaking to people. And then doing the job. Day by day after day, you develop this knowledge and, and right now I know what the bond market is, what a yield is. And so you gain the experience and you gain the confidence also by doing the job.
But the beauty about being a journalist is that what you don't know? You ask and you find out.
Marine Saint
Yeah, definitely that curiosity to learn I think is really important there and very fitting to your narrative as well. I think especially business news, people find it so daunting and both Freya and I, you know, me interning at the FT, Freya at The Economist, you don't always expect that you might start in business news. Because it can seem so foreign to the kind of standard news that you are covering and immersed in growing up.
Sílvia Amaro
But it's so important, all our lives revolve around it. True. You know, politicians will make decisions based on what financial markets are doing. And so if we, if we understand this, if we know more about it, I feel that then it just empowers us. More to take better decisions for our lives.
Freya Shaw
But also, as you were saying, Sílvia, about wanting to teach people about these things, the best skill people have as a journalist is communication. So if we're able to understand these topics and communicate them in your case on air or in articles in ways that are digestible, I think that's a skill that, you know, from watching your show you, you've clearly mastered. Do you have any tips in scripting and what's your process like for that in the morning?
Sílvia Amaro
So being an anchor requires constant learning, and it's not like you stop preparing for the show. So I'm reading constantly and I am asking questions constantly, and I am on my phone quite a lot messaging people and trying to figure out what's going on with certain things. So it's being an anchor, it's, it's a mission also in your day-to-day life. So I prepare most of my show from a practical point of view.
I do most of my prep the day before, during the afternoon. I come into the office at 4:00 AM That gives me usually an hour to check things that have happened overnight. Any updates to the guest list? And then I go into the studio and I go over the rundown. I double check what are the headlines and I make suggestions.
And the day before as well, I send an email to my team asking for the elements that I would like the following day. So that is part of my prep. So for instance, I'll give you a concrete example. In today's show, we were going to talk about the fact that it's been one year since, uh, uh, this labor government started here in the uk.
And we, I asked, we had had an interview with the governor of the Bank of England earlier in the week. So yesterday I asked my team, can we prepare a quick soundbite from what he told us early in the week? Because I would like to show that, uh, tomorrow's show. So, I do the bulk of it to sum it up, I'll do the bulk of it the day prior, but then there's always things that change overnight.
And then of course you have breaking news, so you can't even, it's a constant preparation, but you never, you are never fully prepared for everything because ultimately you just have to also be quite reactive to what's happening on the day and in the moment.
Marine Saint
Definitely, and all that breaking news that you have to juggle, I guess no one can plan for that. We were also so curious to understand a bit more about your career journey at CNBC. 'cause you've been there, if I'm not mistaken, for nine years and risen through the ranks to your current anchor position. What have you learned in your new role, and what is it about CNBC that made you stay in the brand, I guess in the company for all this time?
Sílvia Amaro
To be honest, I've always wanted to work for CNBC before I joined CNBC because it's a channel that brings financial markets and politics together, and I love those topics. So for me, it always, always looked like a good fit for my personality and the kind of journalism that I like and I enjoy doing.
I've been here for, yeah, almost a decade when you start doing the maths. Uh, which, you know, time just flies by when you're having fun, I think. And the people I enjoy, my colleagues, like we were welcoming a new colleague this week and I told her, you know, this is the best newsroom because everyone is just so nice, so kind, and we work so well together.
And as an anchor. I've realized this even more so than in my previous roles, which is a TV and putting a TV show together is completely teamwork. You are watching me on air, but there's a thousand things happening in the background that are not related with me whatsoever, they will impact me, but I'm not doing them.
So it's the choreography behind the show in putting the show together that amazes me every single day.
Freya Shaw
Yeah, definitely. I mean for the listeners, me and Marine had the privilege of going to the CNBC studios and getting a little mini tour off you, Sílvia. We met some of the team and we sort of could see some of the preparation that they were already doing for the later shows.
And I think it definitely is a really big team effort. One thing I remember is. I had never been in a broadcast studio before and I remember seeing the auto queue. And sometimes you said that you don't even use the auto queue, you just have to stand up there and talk. How do you cope with that?
Sílvia Amaro
I love live news, I love the surprise of, of it all. So at CNBC, we don't, uh, our shows are never fully scripted. On the auto queue, I'll have the name of the guest and I'll have, um, perhaps, you know, an introduction to, to show an interview that we did yesterday or something like that.
But the show is never fully scripted. And I enjoy that because, you know, as an anchor you need to be flexible and you want the show to be conversational. And so if you're reading too much, then. It's just not a fun show to watch. You know, you also need to make the show entertaining. We're doing news, but you are still trying to have the most amount of people as possible watching.
And so I think the fact that we don't script everything is a positive in order to achieve that goal. And like I said, I enjoy having to ad-lib and I think. That then gives the anchor an opportunity to show what they know and who they are. So for instance, in my case, I have the privilege to have one hour for a show focused on the European continent.
My whole background as a journalist has been covering European politics, and I keep. Uh, very close contact with my sources. So often you will hear me on air saying, you know, d eu and the US are having trade conversations. Here's what I've been hearing from my sources in Brussels. So I'll add some colour that I've gathered, and I believe that that's also added value for the person who's watching.
Marine Saint
Definitely, I mean, it must also help your audience connect with you more, recognize you more, as someone, a face of CNBC, but also someone they can trust.
Freya Shaw
I also, I think it shows a lot of authenticity as well. I think that always comes across, on your show, I know you've, again, this is something you've touched on with Sophy that I was just curious to learn more about. But you post a lot of your clips from your show on social media. And you touched on the response sometimes that female anchors get, I was wondering where you could, whether you could share a little bit more about that than perhaps you did on the Sophy episode.
Sílvia Amaro
So I noticed that in particular at the start of my career, not so much now, but when I started doing some packages and video reports that were shared on YouTube and other social media platforms.
I started noticing that the comments on packages produced by women were different than the comments that were, in videos than by my male, male colleagues. So I noticed that, but the reality is I didn't let that being a problem or stopping me from trying to do what I wanted to do. And I just think, like Sophy said, you know, in our jobs are very public facing, that's okay, we just have to accept that there are people watching and that's what you want and you're not going to please everyone ever. And that's also okay. And when it comes to what she said about perhaps. Women being a little bit more scrutinized, scrutinized on their looks than men. This, we are not going to change the world in every aspect overnight, but you just can't let that get to you.
You know, you have to be confident enough to trust yourself, trust your work, and not let comments that might not be very pleasant impact your self-esteem.
Marine Saint
Absolutely. And I know that there are negatives to social media and the response you might get, but have there also been positives? Do you think that now as an anchor you kind of need social media, maybe for news gathering, but also to establish a platform for yourself?
How have you found it's helped you in your journey?
Sílvia Amaro
So I would say that I'm not focused on social media, so I would say that from all the anchors that I know, I'm perhaps the one that is the least focused on social media. For me, my focus is on getting information and speaking to sources, and I think that's my added value as a journalist, because then I will bring that to my show and I will bring that from, for some of my social media posts.
But, I am on social media relatively regularly. I don't post every day, but I will post almost every day on LinkedIn because I find that, for instance, that platform actually sparks a nice debate about what is going on in the world sometimes. So. I don't make social media my priority, but I still try to be on social media as regularly as I can so that I can still have that debate with people out there because as Sophy also mentioned in her episode, as journalists, we need to avoid being in our bubble all the time.
You need to know the reality. You need to know, uh, what's going on. You need to talk to people. You can do that via social media of course, but the majority of my time I try to do that by calling people and messaging people.
Freya Shaw
It's finding the right space for that, the one that would give you the most benefits and the most insight that would be directly relevant.
We've heard from you, I'm not sure if you've shared this on the podcast before, but we've heard from you that. It was a dream to become an anchor. How are you adjusting your goals and dreams? And do you think it's important to have goals that are sort of, um, achievable, aspirational, and how do you go about setting yourself goals within your career?
Sílvia Amaro
It's a very good question. I, I am not sure how, but when I was 12 years old. I decided I wanted to become a journalist, and then I decided it has to be TV journalism. I have to be an anchor, and so those early aspirations have definitely shaped my whole life. Now that I'm an anchor, you could be asking, okay, one next, but the reality is that I worked really hard to get to this position, and now my focus is to enjoy it every single day as much as I can. I. I enjoy coming to the office at 4:00 AM. I don't, I'm not sure if you will hear that from a lot of people, but the reality is that I do, I feel very privileged to have a show. I feel very privileged to have this position where I learn every single day, and I think having aims and dreams in life is very, very, very important.
You don't need to know exactly what you want to do, but. Finding your passions and following them will just bring you happiness in life. So whatever is your career, whatever your passion is, just follow it. And if you have certain doubts about, okay, is this really what I love? Just do it. Find out. And then if you don't love it, then change it.
Do something else. So, yeah. Uh, it's important to have career aspirations, but make sure you're enjoying life. The moment that you achieve them, make sure that you savor that moment.
Freya Shaw
Yeah. Or it's setting more long term and short term goals then, and sort of like daily, like you said, daily aspirations.
Marine Saint
Sílvia, that's also really good advice for us going forwards. And as you know, we like to end every episode asking our guests for a piece of advice, which has really stuck with them throughout their careers. Is there any more advice or maybe a piece of advice that has really stuck with you and resonated with you, which you'd like to share with our listeners?
Sílvia Amaro
I have been very privileged to receive a lot of advice throughout my career.
I feel like I've been surrounded by a lot of inspirational and amazing people, but I would say that the one that I would highlight for whoever is listening, and this I think also works. Whatever you are in your, whatever you are in your career, is stay. Stay in motion. I received this piece of advice when I, as I highlighted earlier, I was feeling a little bit stuck in my career.
So one of the, one of, one of the ways to deal with that is by making sure that you're going to networking events like women in journalism is a good example. Or you go and you do an additional course. I know, just seek for alternatives and tools to make sure that you are evolving in your career. So you don't have to change roles all of a sudden all the time and companies, and you can't, uh, you don't necessarily need to be promoted all the time to feel like you are developing your career.
So investing in tools that just make you better at your job will be a positive to help you further down the line in getting that promotion or get or working in a different newsroom or in a different country. And ultimately staying in motion will just help you also as a human being. I believe that, or one of the reasons why I'm a journalist is because I feel like I'm an internal student.
I just love learning and staying in motion. Provides me with that constant learning,
Marine Saint
That drive to keep going, that motivation, I think we can really tell throughout everything you've told us. I also just love the tagline, stay in motion. I don't know about you Freya…
Freya Shaw
Are you suggesting we rename the podcast?
Marine Saint
Yeah. New name I think! But Sílvia, thank you so much for coming on. We learned so much. We can see why you love your 4:00 AM start so much. Thank you for sharing with us.
Freya Shaw
I mean, we'd love having a 4:00 AM start with you. It's been such a privilege for us to interview you. You have been such a help for both me and Marine behind the scenes.so thank you.
Sílvia Amaro
You're very, very sweet and you should be very proud of the work you're doing. The podcast is amazing and I cannot wait to keep listening to the next episodes.
Freya Shaw
Thank you very much.
