The Publisher Podcast by Media Voices
Media Voices is a weekly look at all the news and views from across the media world, featuring leading figures from media and publishing businesses
Thu, April 17, 2025
Building recurring revenue and audience connections: in conversation with Memberful's Jen Matichuk
In this bonus episode of The Publisher Podcast, sponsored by Memberful , we hear from Jen Matichuk, Strategic Partnerships Manager at Memberful. Jen spoke about how membership is a powerful way to diversify revenue, whether you need to introduce membership tiers (spoiler: you don't), and how to deliver value that converts. She also explores the value of community, and why evolution and iteration are key for retention. This episode of The Publisher Podcast & Newsletter is sponsored by Memberful , a best-in-class membership solution for independent publishers and journalists who want to diversify their revenue stream and connect with their audience. Memberful lets you offer membership perks and exclusive content to your loyal audience, giving you full control over who has access to your articles, newsletters, and podcast episodes. Take control of your publishing business this year with Memberful. Visit memberful.com/publisherpod and get started with a free trial.
Mon, March 31, 2025
Immediate Media’s Alex White on giving staff the space to innovate
On this week’s episode of The Publisher podcast we hear from Alex White, Group Managing Director for Immediate Media’s Knowledge portfolio which includes BBC Gardeners' World, BBC History and Immediate’s parenting business, MadeForMums. We spoke about the benefits that come from the company’s focus on publishing verticals, how the magazine publisher is bringing a culture of innovation into the business by giving staff the space to innovate and how she believes encouraging an ‘entrepreneurial spirit’ is crucial to compete. This season of The Publisher Podcast & Newsletter is sponsored by Memberful , a best-in-class membership solution for independent publishers and journalists who want to diversify their revenue stream and connect with their audience. Memberful lets you offer membership perks and exclusive content to your loyal audience, giving you full control over who has access to your articles, newsletters, and podcast episodes. Take control of your publishing business this year with Memberful. Visit memberful.com/publisherpod and get started with a free trial.
Mon, March 24, 2025
Deutsche Welle's Sam Baker on solving the problem of podcast promotion
In this episode of The Publisher Podcast we hear from Sam Baker, Senior Producer of Deutsche Welle's award-winning podcast Don't Drink The Milk. She takes us through the appeal of documentary and narrative podcasts, how the team is experimenting with video and AI, and how overlapping interests allows DW to find new audiences for its audio. And, of course, we discuss where the title 'Don't Drink The Milk' originates from. It's a fascinating story - and one that succinctly explains the appeal of culture podcasts, and why audio is a wonderful medium for explaining history. This season of The Publisher Podcast & Newsletter is sponsored by Memberful , a best-in-class membership solution for independent publishers and journalists who want to diversify their revenue stream and connect with their audience. Memberful lets you offer membership perks and exclusive content to your loyal audience, giving you full control over who has access to your articles, newsletters, podcast episodes, private community chats, and more. Take control of your publishing business this new year with Memberful. Visit memberful.com/publisherpod and get started with a free trial.
Mon, March 17, 2025
Bloomberg's Marissa Zanetti-Crume on strategy for audience-first news products
On this week’s episode of The Publisher Podcast we hear from Marissa Zanetti-Crume, Bloomberg Media’s Global Head of Product. Marissa talks about how her product team are collaborators, integrating content, technology, and commercial considerations. We also spoke about Bloomberg Media’s newsletter strategy and how its 70-strong newsletter portfolio is a mix of subscriber exclusives and free newsletters positioned to deliver both revenue and reach. Marissa explains how the introduction of a live audio Q&A has given Bloomberg journalists the opportunity to engage directly with their audiences. This season of The Publisher Podcast & Newsletter is sponsored by Memberful , a best-in-class membership solution for independent publishers and journalists who want to diversify their revenue stream and connect with their audience. Memberful lets you offer membership perks and exclusive content to your loyal audience, giving you full control over who has access to your articles, newsletters, and podcast episodes. Take control of your publishing business this year with Memberful. Visit memberful.com/publisherpod and get started with a free trial.
Mon, March 10, 2025
Zetland's Tav Klitgaard on designing news products that younger people will pay for
This week on The Publisher Podcast by Media Voices, we're joined by Tav Klitgaard, Group CEO of Zetland Media. As well as news publication Zetland, the Danish company also has a book publishing business, an AI transcription startup, and has recently launched a Finnish publication called Uusi Juttu, which has attracted 15,000 paying members within the first two months. Tav discusses the importance of designing products to address user needs, and how that pays back in attracting paying younger audiences, as well as taking their subscriber-first business model to Finland. He also explains why audio has been such a pivotal part of making Zetland successful as a member-driven publisher, and what future he sees for video podcasts. This season of The Publisher Podcast & Newsletter is sponsored by Memberful , a best-in-class membership solution for independent publishers and journalists who want to diversify their revenue stream and connect with their audience. Memberful is human-first, not software first, so whether you’re launching, growing or switching platforms, the team at Memberful are committed to providing exceptional support at every stage of your journey. Take control of your publishing business this new year with Memberful. Visit memberful.com/publisherpod and get started with a free trial.
Mon, March 03, 2025
Metro's Newsletter Editor Sophie Laughton on the future of publishers' newsletters
In this week’s episode of The Publisher Podcast, Metro.co.uk’s Newsletter Editor Sophie Laughton takes us through… everything newsletter. From how the Metro’s redesign allowed the newsletter team to break silos, through how they’re solving discovery issues, to what newsletters offer that no other medium can, Laughton provides an A-Z on newsletters for publishers. This is both a newsletter strategy 101 and a rallying cry for what newsletters can offer to publishers. This season of The Publisher Podcast & Newsletter is sponsored by Memberful , a best-in-class membership solution for independent publishers and journalists who want to diversify their revenue stream and connect with their audience. You can easily set up and manage your membership program with Memberful’s intuitive features, from multiple membership tiers and payment options to cater to different audience segments, and maximise your revenue potential. Take control of your publishing business this new year with Memberful. Visit memberful.com/publisherpod and get started with a free trial.
Mon, February 24, 2025
Women’s Running’s Esther Newman on serving a range of audience needs
On this week’s episode of The Publisher Podcast we hear from Esther Newman, Senior Editor and Podcast Host at Women’s Running. Esther explains that a recent exercise to create a persona for the typical Women's Running reader led to the realisation that there were a range of audiences accessing the brand in a variety of ways. While running is the banner that attracts readers to the brand, a whole host of women’s interests are what drives the community. From a monthly print magazine through a weekly podcast, to a Patreon Discord and social channels, Women’s Running is ‘so many things’ to its diverse audience. This season of The Publisher Podcast & Newsletter is sponsored by Memberful , a best-in-class membership solution for independent publishers and journalists who want to diversify their revenue stream and connect with their audience. Memberful lets you offer membership perks and exclusive content to your loyal audience, giving you full control over who has access to your articles, newsletters, podcast episodes, private community chats, and more. Take control of your publishing business this new year with Memberful. Visit memberful.com/publisherpod and get started with a free trial.
Mon, February 17, 2025
Reach Plc's Dan Russell on achieving 4 million referrals from WhatsApp
On this week's episode of The Publisher Podcast we hear from Dan Russell, Reach Plc's Engagement Director (for short). Reach Plc achieved its best ever month for traffic in January, based in no small part on a social strategy that is tailored to each platform - and doesn't rely on chasing huge hits. The teams across Reach's titles have also seen success in building communities on WhatsApp where, as Russell explains, the limited nature of messaging apps can be a benefit rather than a drawback. He discusses why publishers cannot take the rarefied space of messaging apps for granted, and how the engagement team disseminates universal lessons about community growth across the entire portfolio. This season of The Publisher Podcast & Newsletter is sponsored by Memberful , a best-in-class membership solution for independent publishers and journalists who want to diversify their revenue stream and connect with their audience. You can easily set up and manage your membership program with Memberful’s intuitive features, from multiple membership tiers and payment options to cater to different audience segments, and maximise your revenue potential. Take control of your publishing business this new year with Memberful. Visit memberful.com/publisherpod and get started with a free trial.
Mon, February 10, 2025
Press Gazette's Richard Jamieson on monetising a 60-year-old B2B brand
This week on The Publisher Podcast by Media Voices, we're joined by Press Gazette's Chief Commercial Officer Richard Jamieson. He takes us for a behind-the-scenes look at how the industry publication makes money, and the huge changes he's overseen in its commercial strategy over the past few years. Richard outlines the opportunities he saw coming onto a well-respected B2B brand which previously had limited commercialisation but a really strong audience. He also discusses the results of some big changes to their daily newsletter over the past 18 months, the power of face-to-face events, and Press Gazette's newly-launched registration wall. This season of The Publisher Podcast & Newsletter is sponsored by Memberful , a best-in-class membership solution for independent publishers and journalists who want to diversify their revenue stream and connect with their audience. You can easily set up and manage your membership program with Memberful’s intuitive features, from multiple membership tiers and payment options to cater to different audience segments, and maximise your revenue potential. Take control of your publishing business this new year with Memberful. Visit memberful.com/publisherpod and get started with a free trial.
Thu, February 06, 2025
Media Briefs: Norkon's Eirik Næsje and Birger Søiland on the power of live
Live content is a crucial tool for publishers for attracting and retaining readers, especially younger audiences used to finding real-time information from social media. Publishers have an opportunity to add vital context and expertise compared to alternative sources. This is the latest in our Media Briefs series of short, sharp sponsored episodes with senior executives from a vendor working with publishers to make their businesses better. In this episode we hear from Norkon CEO Eirik Næsje and VP of Sales Birger Søiland. Norkon delivers innovative solutions to help publishers meet their growth objectives, with a vision to be the global standard in media to attract, engage and retain readers. Eirik and Birger talk to Peter about the increasing importance of live content in 2025's media landscape, including as a tool to enable discovery and build habit. This episode is sponsored by Norkon. Trusted by publishers like Amedia, La Presse and The Minnesota Star Tribune, the SaaS solutions provider is transforming the digital media landscape with innovative live content solutions that help publishers meet their growth objectives. Visit Norkon.net to find out more.
Mon, February 03, 2025
Hearst's Katie Vanneck Smith on making magazine memberships successful
This week on The Publisher Podcast we speak to Katie Vanneck Smith, CEO at Hearst UK. Katie's career spans The Times, The Wall Street Journal and the Telegraph, as well as co-founding Tortoise. In the two years since joining Hearst, the company has launched and revamped membership programmes for Elle, Good Housekeeping, Men's Health and Women's Health, and soon Prima and Runner's World. Katie talks about subscriptions versus memberships, the importance of publishing teams, the future of print, and what the point is of industry associations as she takes up her role as chair of the PPA. She also dives into the formulas that make memberships successful. This season of The Publisher Podcast & Newsletter is sponsored by Memberful , a best-in-class membership solution for independent publishers and journalists who want to diversify their revenue stream and connect with their audience. Memberful lets you offer membership perks and exclusive content to your loyal audience, giving you full control over who has access to your articles, newsletters, podcast episodes, private community chats, and more. Take control of your publishing business this new year with Memberful. Visit memberful.com/publisherpod and get started with a free trial.
Thu, January 30, 2025
January 2025 wrap-up
In this bonus episode of The Publisher Podcast by Media Voices, Chris Sutcliffe, Esther Thorpe and Peter Houston take a look at what’s happened in the world of media in January. A bonus monthly wrap-up of key news is something new we’re trialling following feedback which said you missed the three of us together and our take on what’s going on. Here we discuss the boost to publisher coffers from post-inauguration donations, the capitulation of tech-bro capitalists to Trump, and ask what on earth is happening with TikTok. This season of The Publisher Podcast & Newsletter is sponsored by Memberful , a best-in-class membership solution for independent publishers and journalists who want to diversify their revenue stream and connect with their audience. Memberful is a powerful membership solution with a difference: you always retain full control over your brand, your content, your audience, and your business. Your content always belongs to you, not a platform. Take control of your publishing business this new year with Memberful. Visit memberful.com/publisherpod and get started with a free trial.
Mon, January 27, 2025
Which?'s Hannah Ballantyne on the importance of social media for building trust and relevance
In this week's episode of The Publisher Podcast, we speak to Hannah Ballantyne, Senior Social Media Manager at Which?, a not-for-profit consumer-focused publication. Hannah contributed to a fascinating article in InPublishing late last year about steering the brand's debut on TikTok ; a strategy which has won the team awards. With the ongoing saga between platforms, publishers and politicians showing no signs of cooling, we had a timely conversation about which platforms they prioritise at Which?, how they assess the value of social media to the publication, and meeting the publication's goals of sharing impartial expert advice to empower consumers. Hannah also explains why dishwasher and pothole content is taking off, even with younger audiences. This season of The Publisher Podcast & Newsletter is sponsored by Memberful , a best-in-class membership solution for independent publishers and journalists who want to diversify their revenue stream and connect with their audience. Memberful is a powerful membership solution with a difference: you always retain full control over your brand, your content, your audience, and your business. Your content always belongs to you, not a platform. Take control of your publishing business this new year with Memberful. Visit memberful.com/publisherpod and get started with a free trial.
Mon, January 20, 2025
1440's Tim Huelskamp on finding white space for a newsletter-based media business
This week on The Publisher Podcast we hear from Tim Huelskamp, CEO and co-founder of 1440, a daily curated newsletter that now reaches over 4 million daily readers. He tells us about finding white space in the newsletter market, the forecast for newsletter advertising, whether the claim to be ‘unbiased’ is a selling point for audiences, and what it means to be an employee-owned media organisation. Tim was involved in the private equity game for around a decade prior to founding 1440, spending time as co-founder of venture philanthropic funds and as an angel investor. In this episode Tim takes a very nuanced view – some might say pleasantly cynical at times – of the subject. He was very honest and forthright about when private equity works for the media, and why it often doesn't. This season of The Publisher Podcast & Newsletter is sponsored by Memberful , a best-in-class membership solution for independent publishers and journalists who want to diversify their revenue stream and connect with their audience. Memberful lets you offer membership perks and exclusive content to your loyal audience, giving you full control over who has access to your articles, newsletters, podcast episodes, private community chats, and more. Take control of your publishing business this new year with Memberful. Visit memberful.com/publisherpod and get started with a free trial.
Mon, January 13, 2025
Wessenden Marketing’s Jim Bilton on publisher product priorities for 2025 and beyond
We’re kicking off 2025’s first season of The Publisher Podcast by talking to Jim Bilton, Managing Director at Wessenden Marketing and Brandlab Research. Jim produces bimonthly research and updates on the business of content distribution through WessendenBriefing, and has decades of experience consulting for media businesses. In this episode, we explore the standout publisher product trends from 2024, what publishers are investing in this year, and how optimistic everyone is feeling. Jim also highlights some B2B and B2C publishers to watch this year from his surveys, which surprisingly are almost all legacy companies. This season of The Publisher Podcast & Newsletter is sponsored by Memberful , a best-in-class membership solution for independent publishers and journalists who want to diversify their revenue stream and connect with their audience. Memberful lets you offer membership perks and exclusive content to your loyal audience, giving you full control over who has access to your articles, newsletters, podcast episodes, private community chats, and more. Take control of your publishing business this new year with Memberful. Visit memberful.com/publisherpod and get started with a free trial.
Mon, December 02, 2024
Pod in a Pub: Publishing's pivotal moments this year, and predictions for 2025
This episode of The Publisher Podcast by Media Voices – our last for this season – was recorded at the White Swan in Aldgate, London on November 27th in front of a live audience. In the absence of our usual annual Media Moments report*, we took a fun look back at some of the pivotal publishing moments of the year, and what 2025 might have in store. The audience were invited to participate so we’re able to include contributions from wiser folks than us! The team’s top stories from 2024 The Onion announcing it had bought Infowars after Alex Jones’ bankruptcy. Google abandoned a plan it announced 4 years ago and has delayed and delayed since then to block third-party cookies from Chrome. A federal judge ruled that Google illegally maintains its monopoly in search and search advertising. The government are now proposing Google divest Chrome. Condé Nast decided to to fold iconic music-review website Pitchfork into men’s lifestyle magazine GQ Five former Pitchfork journalists are getting the band together to start a new online music publication, Hearing Things. Predictions for 2025 The print revival comes to news Esther is hopeful that next year will see a revival of news print. Not news papers , but news print ; weekly or monthly magazine-style editions. Newspapers are clearly in a long-term decline that is unlikely to reverse. But a look at what’s happening with the magazine print revival shows that there is hope for the format, albeit different to what it was a few decades ago. Caution on over-diversification At the PPA’s Independent Publisher Conference, Sift’s Chief Strategy Officer Louise White pointed out that the industry has got too absorbed with multiple revenue streams. “The obsession with diversifying revenues is dangerous,” she said on Linkedin. “That’s a bigger media play. Most independents don’t have the expertise or bandwidth and it leads to mediocrity at many rather than excellence in few.” So the ‘mix of six’ saying <a href='https://voices.media/publishing-ideas-to-steal-the-mix-of-six-ke
Mon, November 25, 2024
Dow Jones' Emma O'Brian on the backroom magic behind a specialised portfolio
In this week's episode of The Publisher Podcast, we hear from Emma O’Brian, SVP Strategy for Dow Jones. Everyone knows Dow Jones – or at least a few parts of its portfolio, even if they don’t know it as part of the greater organisation. But as the company moves from a portfolio-based business to a vertical-oriented publishing and information one, how is that impacting its back room strategy, and how it seeks new acquisitions? The company is more than simply the index that bears its name, as our guest this week makes clear right from the off. However, much of what underpins its success is the same focus on providing tangible insights to audiences, as and when they need it. Increasingly, its stable of publications under the Dow Jones Portfolio – including the Wall Street Journal, Barron's, MarketWatch, and many more – are just as integral to their audiences as the index is to stockbrokers and traders. It seeks to deliver relevant information to its audiences, no matter where they may be. In this episode, the final of this season, Emma sets out how a change in strategy that occurred when Almar Latour came into the role ultimately changed how those publications are aligned and operated behind the scenes. This season is sponsored by BlueConic , the customer data operating system that makes your data work harder, so you don’t have to. Whether it’s capturing valuable audience insights or activating them with precision, the possibilities are endless with BlueConic’s all-in-one platform. See how companies like yours are turning understanding into action and driving real business growth.
Mon, November 18, 2024
Will Hayward on relaunching a successful solo newsletter
This week on The Publisher Podcast by Media Voices, we're joined by Will Hayward, journalist, author and columnist specialising in Welsh politics. He also writes The Will Hayward Newsletter , which he relaunched in September after running it for nearly a year as one of Reach plc's Substack experiments, where it won Best Politics Newsletter at this year's Publisher Newsletter Awards . Since going it alone, he's built up more than 3,000 subscribers in just seven weeks, with revenues and subscriber numbers now exceeding its previous iteration. He talks about his journey into covering all things Wales, what he's learned working at the UK's largest regional publisher, and what opportunities he spotted in going solo, even if it meant having to restart his newsletter from scratch. This season is sponsored by BlueConic , the customer data operating system that makes your data work harder, so you don’t have to. Whether it’s capturing valuable audience insights or activating them with precision, the possibilities are endless with BlueConic’s all-in-one platform. See how companies like yours are turning understanding into action and driving real business growth.
Thu, November 14, 2024
Media Briefs: BlueConic’s Patrick Crane on managing data strategies in times of constant transformation
Third-party cookies aren’t going away any time soon, but many publishers have already reduced dependency on them as a revenue stream. As the landscape continues to shift, what should publishers looking towards the longer term be thinking of when it comes to their own data strategies, and how can various types of first-party data play a part? This is the latest in our Media Briefs series of short, sharp sponsored episodes with a senior executive from a vendor working with publishers to make their businesses better. In this episode we hear from Patrick Crane, Director of the Core Sales Team at BlueConic , the customer data operating system that makes your data work harder, so you don’t have to. Patrick explains the current state of the market when it comes to third-party cookies, and where it still has a place in strategies, as well as how publishers can plan their audience data strategies around industry uncertainty. He also sets out exactly what first-party data means, and how publishers should approach it as a process rather than a project. This episode is sponsored by BlueConic , the customer data operating system that makes your data work harder, so you don’t have to. Whether it’s capturing valuable audience insights or activating them with precision, the possibilities are endless with BlueConic’s all-in-one platform.
Mon, November 11, 2024
Total Politics' Ludovica D'Angelo on the primacy of product in a shifting media landscape
This week on The Publisher Podcast, as part of the product-oriented remit we’ve set ourselves for the series, we hear from Ludovica D’Angelo, Director of Publishing Operations for the Total Politics Group. As we discuss in the episode, that’s a very specialised publishing business – and a commensurately specialised role. But for Ludovica, who has previously worked for publications as varied as news magazine The Week and luxury food and drink magazine Il luogo ideale, it has been another opportunity to discover best practice around managing product teams, launching timely new newsletters and titles, and finding new revenue opportunities. Ultimately, her work - and that of all product teams within media businesses - is about rediscovering the primary of product in a shifting media landscape. This season is sponsored by BlueConic , the customer data operating system that makes your data work harder, so you don’t have to. Whether it’s capturing valuable audience insights or activating them with precision, the possibilities are endless with BlueConic’s all-in-one platform. See how companies like yours are turning understanding into action and driving real business growth.
Mon, November 04, 2024
Saveur’s Kat Craddock on rebuilding a premium print presence on digital foundations
On this week’s episode of The Publisher Podcast by Media Voices, we hear from Kat Craddock Editor-in-Chief, CEO and owner of Saveur magazine, a 30-year old publishing brand that returned to print this year after a 4 year hiatus. Kat’s announcement that Saveur would be returning to print, is one of the best, most honest explanations I’ve seen of how print publishing has changed. She explains to readers that the magazine will cost more than it used to, frequency will drop to twice a year and supermarket distribution would be swapped out for sales direct-to-readers through Saveur’s own website. This season is sponsored by BlueConic , the customer data operating system that makes your data work harder, so you don’t have to. Whether it’s capturing valuable audience insights or activating them with precision, the possibilities are endless with BlueConic’s all-in-one platform. See how companies like yours are turning understanding into action and driving real business growth.
Mon, October 28, 2024
Farmers Weekly’s Daniel Smith on creating and monetising a podcast for farmers
On this week’s episode of The Publisher Podcast by Media Voices, we hear from Daniel Smith, Managing Director of the Mark Allen Group’s Agriculture division, which includes brands like Farmers Weekly, Pig World and Poultry Business. His team are behind the Farmers Weekly podcast, which was shortlisted in the Best B2B Podcast category at the Publisher Podcast Awards earlier this year. Farmers Weekly have been really smart about monetising a niche podcast topic and audience, so we discussed creating a podcast that would fit into a farmer’s lifestyle, where the podcast fits in terms of subscriber acquisition and engagement, and collaborating with sponsors to create a sale-able proposition. This season is sponsored by BlueConic , the customer data operating system that makes your data work harder, so you don’t have to. Whether it’s capturing valuable audience insights or activating them with precision, the possibilities are endless with BlueConic’s all-in-one platform. See how companies like yours are turning understanding into action and driving real business growth.
Mon, October 21, 2024
Torstar Corporation's Brandon Grosvenor on early micropayment experiments
On this week's episode of The Publisher Podcast by Media Voices, we speak to Brandon Grosvenor, Chief Revenue Officer at Torstar Corporation, home of The Toronto Star. Over the summer, The Toronto Star became one of the first large publishers in North America to announce they were rolling out micropayments. It's a feature audiences frequently request - especially with the rise of paywalls - but for a myriad of reasons, few publishers have experimented with. Brandon discusses why they decided to try micropayments out alongside their subscription offering, the thinking behind their pricing and day pass strategy, and the challenges of audience growth in Canada. He also explains why he doesn't think micropayments will be a significant revenue stream, but still has an important part to play in a publisher's acquisition strategy. This season is sponsored by BlueConic , the operating system that puts data into action for marketing and growth doers. The industry-first solution empowers doers with an unmatched range of capabilities to access relevant customer data, create resonant customer experiences, and drive maximum returns for their business. More than 500 businesses worldwide rely on BlueConic to unlock their full customer data potential, including Forbes, Heineken, Mattel, Michelin, Telia Company, and VF Corp. blueconic.com
Mon, October 14, 2024
The Knowledge's Jon Connell on why newsletters are aimed at mindsets, not demographics
On this week’s episode of Media Voices, we hear from The Knowledge’s founder Jon Connell. The Knowledge is a free-to-read newsletter aimed not at a particular demographic, but at a ‘mindset’. Connell and team’s aim is to provide an antidote to the outrage engine, instant gratification-baiting nature of social publishing. At the same time they seek to speak to people who are curious and wish to hear from a variety of perspectives; the challenge lies in squaring that circle. In the episode we also discuss the challenges of monetising newsletters, the growing popularity of the newsletter as a medium, and how legacy news brands are adapting to the rise of this new format. This season is sponsored by BlueConic , the operating system that puts data into action for marketing and growth doers. The industry-first solution empowers doers with an unmatched range of capabilities to access relevant customer data, create resonant customer experiences, and drive maximum returns for their business. More than 500 businesses worldwide rely on BlueConic to unlock their full customer data potential, including Forbes, Heineken, Mattel, Michelin, Telia Company, and VF Corp. blueconic.com
Mon, October 07, 2024
The Economist's John Shields on growing subscriber-only podcasts
On this week's episode of The Publisher Podcast by Media Voices, we speak to John Shields, Director of Podcasts at The Economist. They made the bold move last year to put almost all their podcasts behind a paywall, creating a separate Economist Podcasts+ subscription option. A year on from the launch of Economist Podcasts+, John discusses what drove the decision, some of the risks and opportunities of charging for audio, and the lessons they've learned over the past 12 months. This season is sponsored by BlueConic , the operating system that puts data into action for marketing and growth doers. The industry-first solution empowers doers with an unmatched range of capabilities to access relevant customer data, create resonant customer experiences, and drive maximum returns for their business. More than 500 businesses worldwide rely on BlueConic to unlock their full customer data potential, including Forbes, Heineken, Mattel, Michelin, Telia Company, and VF Corp.
Mon, September 30, 2024
Morningcrunch's Paul Ostwald on growing and monetising a German-language daily newsletter
On this week's episode of The Publisher Podcast by Media Voices, we hear from Paul Ostwald, co-founder of Morningcrunch , a German-language media brand aimed at young professionals. Since launching in summer 2023, they've grown to the point that their newsletters now go out to over 50,000 young professionals every morning. Morningcrunch is ad-funded, and Paul explains how he's working with a German media house to bring in bigger deals. He also talks about how he's taken inspiration from newsletter outfits that have far bigger budgets for A/B testing, why younger people still care about email, and the importance of building trust as a start-up. This season is sponsored by BlueConic , the operating system that puts data into action for marketing and growth doers. The industry-first solution empowers doers with an unmatched range of capabilities to access relevant customer data, create resonant customer experiences, and drive maximum returns for their business. More than 500 businesses worldwide rely on BlueConic to unlock their full customer data potential, including Forbes, Heineken, Mattel, Michelin, Telia Company, and VF Corp.
Mon, September 23, 2024
The Baltimore Banner's Eric Ulken on the value of an app to a local news start-up
On this week's episode of The Publisher Podcast by Media Voices, we speak to Eric Ulken, Vice President of Product at The Baltimore Banner. The Baltimore Banner is a nonprofit news organisation launched in 2022 which serves the Baltimore region, and the larger Maryland state. Eric talks about what makes the Banner's business model unique, why it was so important to get an app up and running early on, what marks success for them with their app audience, and why they're such a valuable tool for engaging premium audiences. He also explores why publishers should be looking to other apps for inspiration beyond just text-based news delivery. This season is sponsored by BlueConic , the operating system that puts data into action for marketing and growth doers. The industry-first solution empowers doers with an unmatched range of capabilities to access relevant customer data, create resonant customer experiences, and drive maximum returns for their business. More than 500 businesses worldwide rely on BlueConic to unlock their full customer data potential, including Forbes, Heineken, Mattel, Michelin, Telia Company, and VF Corp. blueconic.com
Thu, September 19, 2024
Media Briefs: Purple’s John Rahim on why a scalable CMS is key to future-proofing your digital publishing strategy
In the fast-paced world of digital publishing, a robust content management system (CMS) plays a pivotal role in shaping success. It can empower publishers not only to streamline workflows and distribute content effectively, but also to engage with and deliver on consumer needs. With an intuitive interface, seamless integration with digital channels and robust analytics, the right CMS can become the backbone of modern digital publishing; the wrong one can mean disrupted or inefficient workflows, poor content management and missed opportunities for audience engagement. This is the latest in our Media Briefs series of short, sharp sponsored episodes – just 10 to 15 minutes – with a senior executive from a vendor working with publishers to make their businesses better. In this episode we hear from John Rahim, Senior Consultant in Digital Publishing at digital publishing platform provider, Purple. John tells us how a flexible CMS can help today’s publishers tackle current challenges, and why it’s important to adapt platform to customer need. He also discusses the role a capable CMS can play in making a smooth transition from print- to digital-first. Purple is a leading digital publishing platform for publishers, providing comprehensive solutions for modern publishing. Based in Berlin/Germany with an experienced team of 60 employees, Purple has been supporting publishers worldwide since 2007. Today, over 600 brands in 10 countries rely on Purple. The platform consists of three core modules: Purple Editorial: Purple Editorial is an AI-powered headless CMS and editorial system that enables highly efficient workflows and reliable content distribution across multiple channels. Purple Experience: Purple not only offers an advanced editorial system but also solutions for creating apps and websites. This module allows publishers to deliver a seamless and engaging user experience that is consistent across all digital channels. Purple Growth: To maximise reach and audience engagement, Purple provides various audience development features. These help publishers better understand and target their readers, fostering long-term growth. Purple offers Purple Essentials and Purple Pro, different products tailored to meet the diverse needs of publishers of all sizes. Purple is ideal for multichannel publishing and supports multibrand publishing, allowing publishers to manage multiple brands efficiently through a single platform. With these comprehensive and flexible solutions, Purple is the preferred choice for publishers aiming to succeed in the digital world.
Mon, September 16, 2024
Greater Govanhill's Rhiannon J Davies on the power of print to connect communities
On this week's episode of The Publisher Podcast by Media Voices, we hear from Rhiannon J Davies, Founder and Editor at Greater Govanhill, a community magazine and media project. Launched in 2020 in the middle of the pandemic, it now has a website, radio show, award-winning podcast and community newsroom space, as well as doing events, training, workshops and outreach with marginalised communities. Rhiannon also established the Scottish Beacon, which is a collaborative of independent, community-based publications all around Scotland. Rhiannon goes behind the scenes on the logistics of producing a free bimonthly magazine, from local ad and membership revenue to grants for projects, as well as her dedication to maintaining quality, and the importance of offering a platform for voices not usually heard in the media. She also explains her ambition to support other local publications through collaboration and amplify stories which come out of local communities. This season is sponsored by BlueConic , the operating system that puts data into action for marketing and growth doers. The industry-first solution empowers doers with an unmatched range of capabilities to access relevant customer data, create resonant customer experiences, and drive maximum returns for their business. More than 500 businesses worldwide rely on BlueConic to unlock their full customer data potential, including Forbes, Heineken, Mattel, Michelin, Telia Company, and VF Corp.
Mon, September 09, 2024
The Evening Standard's Simon Kurs on an award-winning commercial podcast strategy
On this week's episode - the first of The Publisher Podcast by Media Voices - we speak to Simon Kurs, Commercial Editor at the Evening Standard. The publisher won Best Commercial Strategy at this year's Publisher Podcast Awards for The Standard's Sustainable Travel campaign with Iberostar, a podcast-led multimedia series exploring how to travel the world without wrecking it. We discussed the Evening Standard's approach to podcast monetisation, from choosing clients that align with their values to having the podcast at the heart of a 360 degree media campaign. We also explore why publishers are at such an advantage when it comes to podcast campaigns, and why utilising multiple channels can help drive record-breaking podcast performance. This season is sponsored by BlueConic , the operating system that puts data into action for marketing and growth doers. The industry-first solution empowers doers with an unmatched range of capabilities to access relevant customer data, create resonant customer experiences, and drive maximum returns for their business. More than 500 businesses worldwide rely on BlueConic to unlock their full customer data potential, including Forbes, Heineken, Mattel, Michelin, Telia Company, and VF Corp. blueconic.com
Mon, July 22, 2024
5 podcast and newsletter lessons from leading publishers: Publisher Summit special with journalism.co.uk
Newsletters and podcasts have a lot in common. As well as being low-cost, they can be intimate and personal; perfect for building lasting relationships with readers and listeners. Neither format is new, but as it becomes increasingly more challenging to reach and engage people online, publishers are seeing the opportunities they offer for more sustainable audience-building. That's one of the reasons we put on a dual-stream Podcast and Newsletter Summit aimed at publishers in London last month. This special episode in collaboration with journalism.co.uk brings out some of the key lessons and learnings from the Publisher Podcast and Newsletter Summits. There are clips from some of the stage sessions, as well as exclusive interviews with Jon Young, Publisher at Reby Media, Sarah Ebner, Head of Newsletters at the Financial Times, and Rosalind Erskin, host of The Scotsman’s Scran podcast. Missed the Publisher Podcast and Newsletter Summits? You can access the session videos of each Summit on-demand here . Thanks to Jacob Granger at Journalism.co.uk for joining us at the Publisher Podcast & Newsletter Summits and putting together this episode with us. Check out the Journalism.co.uk podcast on Apple Podcasts , Soundcloud and Spotify.
Wed, July 17, 2024
How Hamburger Morgenpost has embraced AI and digital technologies to reengineer their business model: in conversation with Purple
Digital transformation is not a one-and-done process, as anyone who has ever worked in the publishing industry can attest. For Hamburger Morgenpost the digital journey has been made in a series of steps and investments - all with an eye on transforming a once print-centric newspaper business into a digital pioneer. Now, with AI on the horizon, it is set to take another leap into the future of digital publishing by integrating artificial intelligence throughout its newsroom and processes. In this special Conversations episode we hear from Arist von Harpe, Publisher of Hamburger Morgenpost and Peter Dyllick-Brenzinger Head of Product and Engineering at digital publishing platform provider Purple, about how the venerable newspaper is futureproofing itself and potentially providing a template for other media businesses taking their own first steps along that journey. Arist and Peter tell us how MoPo went from a daily to a weekly newspaper while also embracing AI and digital technologies to reengineer their entire business model, and become, as Arist explains, "bigger than they are". Purple is a leading digital publishing platform for publishers, providing comprehensive solutions for modern publishing. Based in Berlin/Germany with an experienced team of 60 employees, Purple has been supporting publishers worldwide since 2007. Today, over 600 brands in 10 countries rely on Purple. The platform consists of three core modules: Purple Editorial: Purple Editorial is an AI-powered headless CMS and editorial system that enables highly efficient workflows and reliable content distribution across multiple channels. Purple Experience: Purple not only offers an advanced editorial system but also solutions for creating apps and websites. This module allows publishers to deliver a seamless and engaging user experience that is consistent across all digital channels. Purple Growth: To maximise reach and audience engagement, Purple provides various audience development features. These help publishers better understand and target their readers, fostering long-term growth. Purple offers Purple Essentials and Purple Pro, different products tailored to meet the diverse needs of publishers of all sizes. Purple is ideal for multichannel publishing and supports multibrand publishing, allowing publishers to manage multiple brands efficiently through a single platform. With these comprehensive and flexible solutions, Purple is the preferred choice for publishers aiming to succeed in the digital world.
Wed, July 03, 2024
How broadcaster SPORT1 uses AI and automation to maximise social media impact: in conversation with Echobox
This summer sees a packed sports calendar with the Euros in Germany and the Olympics and Paralympics in France. Adding these global events to the regular sports schedule amps up the demands on social media teams and it’s hard to imagine how they would cope without the help of automation. For this special Conversations episode, we’re joined by Symran Cashyap, Vice President of Product at social media and email automation and optimisation specialists Echobox and Jan-Niklas Häuslein, head of social media at SPORT1, one of Germany’s leading free-to-air sports channels. We discussed the demands of adding worldwide sporting events to already packed sports calendars, improving efficiency and productivity in a time where platforms are shifting to video content, building communities across multiple sports and leagues and of course, the role of AI in planning and testing. Publishers of all sizes use Echobox to automate, optimize and customize the curation and distribution of their content. Today, over 2000 publishers in 100 countries rely on Echobox's artificial intelligence to increase performance while saving costs on social media, emails and newsletters. You can download Echobox's latest Publishing Trends Report 2024 here .
Wed, June 05, 2024
Media Briefs: How live blogging adds an audience-first dimension to election coverage
Time magazine has called 2024 the ultimate election year, with people going to the polls from India to the UK and America. Rolling election coverage gives publishers the opportunity to keep audiences updated, but also include their opinions in reporting. This is the latest in our Media Briefs series of short, sharp sponsored episodes – just 10 to 15 minutes – with a senior executive from a vendor working with publishers to make their businesses better. In this episode, Peter speaks with Naomi Owusu, Co-Founder and CEO at Tickaroo, a leading supplier of news and sports media solutions which enable publishing organisations to engage with their audiences in real-time. We spoke about how live blogging can be used to engage audiences with election coverage, but also how it can be used to bring community voices into regular local reporting. This Media Briefs episode is sponsored by Tickaroo , a leading supplier of news and sports media solutions. Tickaroo develops software and apps that enable organisations to engage with their audiences in real-time and reach their monetisation goals. Its live blogging software is used by media houses, event organisers, and professional sports clubs and associations. The live content software combines professional digital storytelling and live reporting, with over 72,000 journalists relying on its digital publishing software, available as a native app and web application. Learn more about Tickaroo’s media solutions on their website .
Mon, May 27, 2024
Preview: The Publisher Podcast & Newsletter Summit 2024
While the podcast is on a break we've been hard at work assembling the industry's best and brightest publishers to share the strategies and learnings behind their successful podcasts and newsletters, from top newsbrands launching paid podcasts to indie newsletters nailing their commercial strategies. The Publisher Podcast and Newsletter Summit - held on June 12th in London - will focus on sharing expertise and practical discussions that will help shape and refine your podcast and newsletter strategies, and set you up to take advantage of growing opportunities. The event is suitable for editorial staff with responsibility for newsletters and/or podcasts, dedicated executives or senior managers with a strategic overview. For those who can't join on the day, there's a video-on-demand package available on the ticketing page . Ahead of the final agenda reveal , Esther, Peter and Chris explain why Media Voices is running a dual-track Summit dedicated to podcasts and newsletters, and pick out which sessions they're most looking forward to.
Mon, April 29, 2024
The Atlantic's Nicholas Thompson on milestones, paywalls, and setting future goals
In this bonus episode of Media Voices, we hear from Nicholas Thompson, CEO at The Atlantic. We first had Nicholas as a guest on the podcast back in 2019 when he was WIRED's Editor in Chief, about what he'd learned a year after introducing a paywall to the brand. Nicholas has since been credited with being a driving force behind The Atlantic's recent return to profitability and subscriber strategy success. So we were keen to invite him back on for a wide-ranging conversation about how he achieved the turnaround, as well as what happened to their paid newsletter scheme , Apple News+, and his thoughts on wider industry trends like AI. Nicholas spoke about the experiments The Atlantic has run around its paywall strategy over the past few years, transforming the business holistically, and doing less but in much more depth. He also shares his outlook for the rest of 2024 - including the election effect - and how he's setting his next goals for the publication after meeting both the 1 million subscriber and profitability milestones earlier this month . Find out more here about tickets and the agendas of the Publisher Podcast and Newsletter Summits in London on 12th June.
Wed, April 24, 2024
Media Briefs: Setting new KPIs to rescue SMB display-ad revenues
Focusing on key digital advertising accounts makes sense for publishers, but there is huge revenue potential in the small and medium sized businesses that publishers once served as a matter of course in their print publications. This is the latest in our Media Briefs series of short, sharp sponsored episodes – just 10 to 15 minutes – with a senior executive from a vendor working with publishers to make their businesses better. In this episode, Peter speaks with Christian Scherbel, CEO of Smartico about what opportunities there are for publishers to service small-business accounts online, and restore local digital display advertising revenues. This Media Briefs episode is sponsored by Smartico, enabling more than 500 publishers worldwide to access the untapped revenue potential in digital display advertising for small and medium sized businesses. Combining the power of AI with human creativity, Smartico’s Smart Ads Solution builds high-impact ads from existing advertiser content. Using just a URL, print ad or social media post Smartico will create engaging ads including built-in instant landing pages for your advertisers. Learn more about how Smartico can help grow SMB advertising revenues on their website or email Christian to request a free demo.
Mon, April 22, 2024
Podnews' James Cridland on running a profitable newsletter-first publication
On this week's episode - the last of the season - we hear from James Cridland, Podnews editor and radio futurologist. Podnews is a daily email newsletter about everything podcasting, and is one of the smartest setups we’ve seen in terms of its supporter structure, monetisation and automations. James tells us how he’s found the sweet spot between his technical, editorial and audio skills, why classifieds were a surprising success story for him, and the balance between newsletter growth and revenue. In the news roundup the team discusses the launch of the Guardian's dedicated cooking app Feast, and asks what adjacent apps like cooking or games platforms offer to the parent brand. Sign up to our daily newsletter to stay in touch until we come back for the next season by heading to voices.media , or check out our Publisher Podcast and Newsletter Summit agenda and tickets at publisherpodcasts.com .
Mon, April 15, 2024
The Wall Street Journal's Edward Hyatt on the changing SEO landscape
On this week's episode Edward Hyatt, Director of Newsroom SEO at The Wall Street Journal takes us through staying abreast and ahead of changes to the SEO landscape. From personal experience he outlines the differences in SEO strategies between subscription and non-subscription publishers, the changes in the SEO landscape over the past decade, and the potential impact of AI on SEO for publishers. In the news roundup the team discusses the news that Forbes has been using a made for advertising (MFA) subdomain to game the digital advertising ecosystem. Since 2017, Forbes was using tactics that have long been condemned by anyone who cares about quality media - and we discuss the likelihood that they are the only ones. According to a US Association of National Advertisers (ANA) survey conducted last year, MFA sites received 21% of all ad impressions and 15% of digital adspend, despite being widely considered as a low-quality medium for advertising. So, what (if anything) can be done? Sign up to our daily newsletter and community forum at voices.media .
Mon, April 08, 2024
TotallyEV's Chris Minasians on building audience trust in product reviews
This week we hear from Chris Minasians, Director and Editor at TotallyEV , an independent site dedicated to articles, reviews and interviews about electric vehicles. TotallyEV has recently hit 5 million views on YouTube , so he discusses building an audience through video reviews, and what it takes to run your own reviews site - including getting access to vehicles - as a solo publisher. Minasians also explores the differences he's noticed between his electric vehicle coverage on TotallyEV, and his more consumer-focused tech reviews on his other YouTube channel TotallydubbedHD , from audience engagement to relative revenues. In the news round-up, Chris (Sutcliffe!) and Esther run through a busy week in audio and podcast news. We ask where people listen to podcasts - not Google Podcasts any more - and whether podcasters are seeing any benefit from Apple's promotion of paid shows. There's also the first agenda sneak preview for the Publisher Podcast Summit ...
Tue, April 02, 2024
The Telegraph's Maire Bonheim and David Alexander on newsletters for different business goals
This week we speak to The Telegraph’s Head of Newsletters Maire Bonheim, and Deputy Head of Newsletters David Alexander, about the publisher's newsletter portfolio. We talk about why The Telegraph and others are prioritising newsletters, how newsletters can be used at different stages of the subscriber funnel, and what they’ve learned from a community-focused approach to their Politics newsletter. Marie and David also discuss building a live event from a newsletter brand, and the value of newsletters as a retention tool for the subscriptions-focused publisher. In the news roundup we have a good chat about The Atlantic’s announcement that it is profitable and has hit the 1m subscriber milestone. We discuss the extent to which investing in high-quality content (longreads, mostly) creates a virtuous circle when it comes to growing subscriptions. Sign up for our own daily newsletter and community forum at voices.media
Mon, March 25, 2024
War correspondent Jane Ferguson on how tech is evolving conflict reporting
On this week's episode we hear from Jane Ferguson, an award-winning journalist with a huge amount of experience covering wars and conflicts the world over. She tells us about how wars often bring the issues around modern journalism – mistrust, disinformation, lack of resources – into the starkest focus, and how the democratisation of tech is making the job of journalists covering war both easier and more difficult. In the news roundup the team discusses the news that French authorities have levied a fine on Google for its unauthorised training of AI tools upon publisher content, and ask to what extent this is justified and its relationship to the ongoing acrimony between Google and publishers. Esther makes several excellent segues. Sign up to our newsletter and community forum by going to voices.media .
Mon, March 18, 2024
Immediate Media's Ridhi Radia on making inclusion a strategic priority
This week we hear from Ridhi Radia, Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at Immediate Media, about where media sits on the change spectrum for diversity and inclusion. She tells us why she is encouraged by the fact that she hears people from a wide range of backgrounds talking about ED&I, embedding values of inclusion in the workplace and within organisational leadership, and the work that she is doing inside Immediate helping networks of underrepresented groups come together to create change. In the news roundup the team discusses research from Toolkits and National Research Group into consumer attitudes to publishers’ digital subscription products. Of particular interest is its finding that aversion to advertising within subscription products appears to be growing, with 28% highlighting “too many advertisements” as a key reason for their dissatisfaction, up significantly from 19% in 2023. Sign up for our daily newsletter and community forum at voices.media .
Mon, March 11, 2024
JournalismAI's Tshepo Tshabalala on practical AI use cases for small newsrooms
On this week's episode of Media Voices we hear from Tshepo Tshabalala, project manager & team lead at the LSE’s JournalismAI project . Rather than focusing on the negative coverage and speculation we so often hear about AI replacing journalism jobs, Tshepo tells us about uses cases and the benefits of AI in smaller newsrooms and how collaboration is helping journalists get on board the AI rocket ship. Tshepo joined the JournalismAI project just three months after ChatGPT went public. Some might call that perfect timing; for others it would be a nightmare, with the playing field changing week by week. He’s taken it all in his stride, however, telling us, “It was a rollercoaster… trying to learn the job, trying to understand the field and understand who the players are, also serving our audience and our users that need help. But growth doesn’t happen in a comfortable space.” Knowledge-sharing is at the heart of everything the JournalismAI project does, from the JournalismAI Starter Pack , designed to help news organisations understand the opportunities offered by AI, to the 2023 JournalismAI report surveying 105 newsrooms in 46 countries. Tshepo says, “It's really just sharing knowledge, and then with the hope that they can decide thereafter, what they do with that knowledge.” In the news roundup the team discusses Sydney Sweeney, at length. They also discuss the disparity between how much journalists and creators get paid versus the shareholders of media companies, the news that GB News made an enormous loss last year, and ask whether it's good or bad for TalkTV to be going digital-only on YouTube. Sign up to our newsletter and community forum by going to voices.media .
Wed, March 06, 2024
Media Briefs: Democratising AI for publishers
For the 95% of publishers who haven't yet adopted AI, identifying a use case they can start with is usually the biggest roadblock. But the tools also need to be available for publishers to be able to support their unique revenue streams. This is the latest in our Media Briefs series of short, sharp sponsored episodes - just 10 to 15 minutes - with a senior executive from a vendor working with publishers to make their businesses better. In this episode, Peter speaks with Maanas Mediratta, CEO at Bridged Media, about how and why making AI tools more accessible to publishers will help the whole ecosystem. Much of the AI innovation is being driven by big tech companies and industries like eCommerce, fashion and finance. But publishers have such a diversity of business models, even tools designed for media companies often won't satisfy individual companies' goals and needs. Note: Media Voices are currently working with Bridged to advance our own goals of driving sign-ups to our daily newsletter, and resurfacing relevant content from our site . You may well see some of our engagement tests over the coming weeks, so if you're interested in trying Bridged for yourself, details are below. This Media Briefs episode is sponsored by Bridged Media , democratising AI for publishers. Through no-code AI solutions, Bridged lets publishers access the power of machine learning and Gen AI to meet their engagement and revenue objectives. Publisher-first AI tools detect where the audience is most likely to engage and through a single line of code, introduce action cards that prompt readers to register, subscribe, or read more, helping publishers establish richer relationships. Learn more about Bridged Media’s no-code AI tools on their website .
Mon, March 04, 2024
The Economist's Nada Arnot on why publishers should be running more brand campaigns
On this week's episode of Media Voices we hear from The Economist's Executive Vice President of Marketing Nada Arnot. Marketing isn't something we talk about a lot on the podcast, but as Arnot makes clear it's an integral part of media companies' ability to address, convert and retain audiences. The Economist has just launched its largest brand campaign since the early 2000s, so Arnot tells us about how the news-focused magazine is seeking to attract younger readers, why she believes long-term brand building is vital in today’s news ecosystem, and the future plans for marketing The Economist. In the news roundup the Media Voices team discuss the news that a group of 32 European media organizations, including notable names like publishing giant Axel Springer and media heavyweight Schibsted, have jointly filed a Є2.1bn ($2.3 billion) antitrust lawsuit against Alphabet-owned Google. We ask why no adults ever get round the table to discuss a realistic approach to solving these issues before they arise - and whether it will all matter in a few years given the rapid rise of Amazon's ad capabilities.
Mon, February 26, 2024
The Quality Edit's Lauren Kleinman & Lee Joselowitz on performance publishing
This week we hear from Lauren Kleinman and Lee Joselowitz, co-founders of The Quality Edit. The Quality Edit was founded in 2021 when Lauren, Lee and their co-founder Scott Silver felt there was no digital publisher providing high-quality recommendations around fashion, travel, and beauty products, so they decided to launch their own. They tell us about a technique they are terming ‘performance publishing’, about how they persevered through the early years, and how the digital publishing ecosystem rewards authenticity. In the news roundup Chris and Esther discuss the news that the Independent is in talks to take control of BuzzFeed and HuffPost in the UK, ask what the demise of Vice.com means for digital publishing, and ask if scale is well and truly dead. Sign up to our daily newsletter at voices.media .
Mon, February 19, 2024
The Paper's Oliver Gabe and Owen Davies on print, community, and eating competitions
This week we hear from two of the three editors of The Paper, an intimidatingly-sized Welsh indie magazine. Oliver Gabe and Owen Davies take us through the annual publishing plan, why they launched the title with a live variety show, and what makes the title feel truly distinctive in a saturated marketplace. In the news roundup Esther, Peter and Chris discuss some items of relatively good media news, before segueing into the bad. We ask whether generalist media titles are one end of a seesaw and bespoke local and specialist titles are the other, and discuss why 'distinctiveness' and 'community' are too often used to paper over cracks in media business models. Media Voices has a new look! Don't forget you can visit our refreshed and revamped site at voices.media , and sign up to our newsletter and community forum while you're there.
Wed, February 14, 2024
Futureproofing local news: Tools and trends that will shape the next decade
As part of a special four-part podcast series, supported by the Google News Initiative , we’ve been talking to publishers and experts across Europe who are working to find resilient business models. We spoke to them about the state of the local news market in their regions, how they’ve evolved company culture and practice, and what tools and trends they’re working with to prepare for the next decade. What metrics should local news publishers be focusing on, and what new tech is out there to support growing businesses? Our fourth and final episode explores the tools, tech and trends – including AI – which organisations are using or looking to use in the future. Experts featured in this episode: Jayne Savva, Group Features Editor (news), DC Thomson Emily Hewett, Head of Audience Development, DC Thomson Cheryl Livingstone, Special Projects Editor, DC Thomson Doug Smith – Lead architect, Table Stakes Pierre France, Co-Founder, Rue89 Strasbourg David Floyd, Managing Director, Social Spider Jonathan Heawood, Executive Director, Public Interest News Foundation Benedicte Autret, Head of News Partnerships, UK/IE/Northern Europe, Google Prof. Dr. Wiebke Möhring, Professor of Journalism, TU Dortmund Institute for Journalism This series is supported by the Google News Initiative. They work with publishers and journalists to fight misinformation, share resources, and build a diverse and innovative local news system. Find out more about their programmes, tools and resources at newsinitiative.withgoogle.com
Wed, February 07, 2024
Futureproofing local news: Evolving company culture and practice
As part of a special four-part podcast series, supported by the Google News Initiative , we’ve been talking to publishers and experts across Europe who are working to find resilient business models. We spoke to them about the state of the local news market in their regions, how they’ve evolved company culture and practice, and what tools and trends they’re working with to prepare for the next decade. To build a sustainable – and successful – publishing business requires staff to be on board with changes, as well as a collaborative environment with good communication. For local news organisations, external relationships with audiences also need work. In this third episode, we speak to some local news organisations about getting company culture to the best possible place. Experts featured in this episode: Doug Smith – Lead architect, Table Stakes Cheryl Livingstone, Special Projects Editor, DC Thomson Emily Hewett, Head of Audience Development, DC Thomson Craig Walker, Editor, Press and Journal and Evening Express, DC Thomson David Floyd, Managing Director, Social Spider Jayne Savva, Group Features Editor (news), DC Thomson Nicola Negrin, Editor in Chief, Il Giornale Di Vicenza, Gruppo Editoriale Athesis Pierre France, Co-Founder, Rue89 Strasbourg Jonathan Heawood, Executive Director, Public Interest News Foundation Prof. Dr. Wiebke Möhring, Professor of Journalism, TU Dortmund Institute for Journalism Benedicte Autret, Head of News Partnerships, UK/IE/Northern Europe, Google This series is supported by the Google News Initiative. They work with publishers and journalists to fight misinformation, share resources, and build a diverse and innovative local news system. Find out more about their programmes, tools and resources at newsinitiative.withgoogle.com
Wed, January 31, 2024
Futureproofing local news: Finding resilient business models
As part of a special four-part podcast series, supported by the Google News Initiative , we’ve been talking to publishers and experts across Europe who are working to find resilient business models. We spoke to them about the state of the local news market in their regions, how they’ve evolved company culture and practice, and what tools and trends they’re working with to prepare for the next decade. In part two, we explore the challenges and opportunities that local news organisations are facing with finding sustainable revenue streams, as well as looking at some specific case studies of publications across Europe to find out what mix they’re using. Experts featured in this episode: Prof. Dr. Wiebke Möhring, Professor of Journalism, TU Dortmund Institute for Journalism Nicola Negrin, Editor in Chief, Il Giornale Di Vicenza, Gruppo Editoriale Athesis Benedicte Autret, Head of News Partnerships, UK/IE/Northern Europe, Google Jonathan Heawood, Executive Director, Public Interest News Foundation David Floyd, Managing Director, Social Spider Pierre France, Co-Founder, Rue89 Strasbourg Craig Walker, Editor, Press and Journal and Evening Express, DC Thomson Jayne Savva, Group Features Editor (news), DC Thomson Doug Smith – Lead architect, Table Stakes Emily Hewett, Head of Audience Development, DC Thomson This series is supported by the Google News Initiative. They work with publishers and journalists to fight misinformation, share resources, and build a diverse and innovative local news system. Find out more about their programmes, tools and resources at newsinitiative.withgoogle.com
Wed, January 24, 2024
Futureproofing local news: State of the market
As part of a special four-part podcast series, supported by the Google News Initiative , we’ve been talking to publishers and experts across Europe who are working to find resilient business models. We spoke to them about the state of the local news market in their regions, how they’ve evolved company culture and practice, and what tools and trends they’re working with to prepare for the next decade. In this first episode, we look at some of the historical context around the state of local news, shifts in the UK and European markets, and what ‘good’ local news might look like. We also do a deep dive into some of the issues facing the UK local news market, as well as the continuing value of local news to communities. Experts featured in this episode: Doug Smith – Lead architect, Table Stakes Pierre France, Co-Founder, Rue89 Strasbourg Craig Walker, Editor, Press and Journal and Evening Express, DC Thomson Jonathan Heawood, Executive Director, Public Interest News Foundation David Floyd, Managing Director, Social Spider Prof. Dr. Wiebke Möhring, Professor of Journalism, TU Dortmund Institute for Journalism Benedicte Autret, Head of News Partnerships, UK/IE/Northern Europe, Google This series is supported by the Google News Initiative. They work with publishers and journalists to fight misinformation, share resources, and build a diverse and innovative local news system. Find out more about their programmes, tools and resources at newsinitiative.withgoogle.com
Mon, January 08, 2024
Integrating AI into newsrooms: experiment, report, measure
In the second episode of this two-part series from Mx3 AI, a new pop-up conference we collaborated on with Media Makers Meet, we look at why, how and when publishers are integrating AI into their newsrooms. AI is not a pie-in-the-sky dream for media companies: it hasn’t been for years. For close to a decade questions about whether AI will replace or empower journalists have been raised at conferences and in newsrooms. Over the past few years the conversation has changed. It is now no longer a question of ‘if’ AI will be integrated throughout the newsroom, but ‘when’. In December, Media Voices collaborated with Media Makers Meet on their Mx3 AI conference in London. The speakers – drawn from across the media industry from recruitment to newsroom – confirmed that AI is already suffusing the industry. But where they offered invaluable insight was around ensuring it is used effectively and with consideration for the business goals and employees of publishers. As the official report from the event notes: “A key theme throughout… was the need for publishers to act immediately and start experimenting with AI, albeit with clear business goals at front of mind.” This episode is the second of a two-part series from Mx3 AI. The first, looking at opportunities, regulation and risks around AI, can be found below this episode in the feed. There is also a corresponding report from the event, written by Media Makers Meet, available to download here . Media Voices and Media Makers Meet would like to thank FT Strategies, InsurAds, Labrador CMS, Miso, Sub(x) and Zuora for sponsoring the conference.
Mon, December 18, 2023
AI in the newsroom: Opportunities, regulation and risk
In this last episode of Media Voices in 2023 we take a big picture look at AI, based off our recent collaboration with Media Makers Meet on their Mx3 AI conference. We hear from experts from Immediate Media, Ipsos, the News Media Association and more, about where they are placing their chips to take advantage of the fastest-moving area of media. This holistic look at AI in the newsroom has been split into two parts. In this first part we set the scene for AI and its use in publishing, as experts tell us how to prepare for internal and external changes to media businesses. The second part - coming in the new year - is comprised of case studies from publishers already getting their hands dirty with AI tech. Media Voices and Media Makers Meet would like to thank FT Strategies, InsurAds, Labrador CMS, Miso, Sub(x) and Zuora for sponsoring the conference.
Mon, December 11, 2023
Project 23’s Elaine dela Cruz on creating DE&I programmes in media
On this week's episode of the podcast Elaine dela Cruz, co-founder of DE&I consultancy firm Project 23, tells us about what is creating positive change for diversity and inclusion in the industry. We're also joined by guest co-host Joanna Cummings, Editorial Director of The Grub Street Journal and author of the DE&I chapter of this year's Media Moments report. Elaine takes us through why she co-founded the organisation, how the DE&I landscape has changed over the past five years, and why 'resilience' is such a dangerous word. We also discuss how the best media companies are measuring the success of their DE&I efforts. A round-up of publishers' DE&I initiatives and developments will be part of our upcoming Media Moments 2023 report. Find out more and pre-register for the report here .
Tue, December 05, 2023
The Addition’s Charlotte Henry on changing TV consumption habits
On this week’s podcast (which is also this week’s edition of The Addition ) we hear from author, journalist and broadcaster Charlotte Henry. She creates and runs The Addition newsletter and podcast; an award-winning publication looking at the crossover between media and technology . Charlotte has written the Broadcast chapter of our upcoming Media Moments 2023 report , so it was only right and proper that we got her on to discuss all the broadcast trends of the past year. It’s been a big old year for TV — both good and bad — so it was great to get an expert in to chat it all over. We discuss the role of exclusive content, the doldrums of advertising sales across linear broadcasts, the need to differentiate a streaming service from its competitors, and the longer term impact of the Hollywood actors' strike. We also explore how streaming platforms like Disney+ and Netflix are faring a year after introducing ad-supported tiers.
Mon, November 27, 2023
Reuters Institute’s Dr Amy Ross Arguedas on studying trust
This week, to help us dissect the year in trust, we're joined by Dr Amy Ross Arguedas, a Postdoctoral Researcher Fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Between 2020 and September 2023, she worked on the Trust in News Project, and she’s currently a part of the team working on the Reuters Institute's annual Digital News Report. Amy tells us about the work of the Trust in News Project, and how to go about measuring trust in a way which is useful. She explains how trust is affected by political divisions and whether the impact of publisher mistakes is long-lasting, as well as the opportunities for more traditional sources to engage younger people. We also explore the potential impacts of AI on trust; how transparent should publishers be with their use of it, as well as the risks and opportunities AI presents for the fight against misinformation. Trust, disinformation and how publishers have responded this year will be one of the chapters we explore as part of our upcoming Media Moments 2023 report. Find out more and pre-register for the report here .
Tue, November 21, 2023
Newsrewired special with Journalism.co.uk: leadership, AI and business models
What’s top of mind for today’s news leaders? Evolving at pace, finding your USP - but not burning out in the process. Last week, we were at the Newsrewired conference in London for a day of panels and workshops about the future of digital publishing. In a world of increasing possibilities and pressures, the central question of the day was this: how can we be selective and effective at innovating? How do you get readers to pay for news? Will AI take our jobs? Where are the new business model opportunities? These questions and more were pored over. In this special collaborative episode with our friends at Journalism.co.uk, we take a look at the key themes across the day, plus some backstage interviews with; independent media consultant Isabelle Roughol, media strategy expert Lucy Kueng, The News Movement managing editor Jonathan Paterson, post-doctoral researcher Dr Bartosz Wilczek and Explainable director Kevin Donnellan. Thanks to Jacob Granger and Marcela Kunova at Journalism.co.uk for inviting us to be a part of Newsrewired. Check out the Journalism.co.uk podcast on Apple Podcasts , Soundcloud and Spotify
Mon, November 13, 2023
WalesOnline’s Jillian MacMath on transforming a portfolio of newsletters
This week we hear from Jillian MacMath, Audience Editor at WalesOnline. She was chosen by the judges as the winner of the first ever Hero of the Year at the Publisher Newsletter Awards , so what better person to come and discuss everything newsletters with us. Jillian talks about the opportunities she saw to get more strategic about the newsletter portfolio when she joined WalesOnline, what metrics should matter to anyone with a newsletter, and what dedicated newsletters like football and food look like with a local focus. She also tells the story of their pop-up Covid newsletter, explains how to get other members of the newsroom invested in newsletters, and how they're using key names to build more personal relationships via the inbox. Newsletters and publishers innovating in the inbox this year will be one of the chapters we explore as part of our upcoming Media Moments 2023 report. Find out more and pre-register for the report here .
Wed, November 08, 2023
Media Briefs: Yes, you can use Apple News to build first-party data
No, Apple doesn’t share customer data directly. But there are some clear pathways for publishers to leverage and drive first-party data capture in the app. In a change from our regular weekly shows and our Conversations panel discussions, this is a short, sharp sponsored episode – just 10 minutes – with a senior executive from a vendor working with publishers to make their businesses better. This episode Peter speaks with with Kieran Delaney, CEO at Apple News specialists FlatPlan, about how publishers can make the most of the platform. Despite its rigid policies on sharing consumer data, there are ways publishers can funnel readers to their own properties to capture data there. Kieran also explains why Apple News is worth investing time into compared to social media, and how to get started. This Media Briefs episode is sponsored by FlatPlan . More than 145 million people read 5 billion articles on Apple News every month and FlatPlan empowers publishers to reach this huge audience in beautifully branded publications, on optimised articles built to maximise growth on the platform. With clients ranging from Bauer Media to ITV, FlatPlan handles all the heavy lifting including delivery, reporting and optimisation. Reduce months of development work to a no-code solution that works with any CMS and maximize the effectiveness of your content with tools built to scale audience growth quickly. Learn more about FlatPlan on their website , or book a demo .
Mon, November 06, 2023
Motor Sport Magazine’s Zamir Walimohamed on making subscriptions work
On this week’s episode of the podcast we take a deep dive into the subscription trends of the past year. To get insight from someone who’s had experience in subscription management, we spoke to Zamir Walimohamed, Head of Digital, Marketing & Subscriptions at Motor Sport Magazine. Zamir has been playing a pivotal role in driving Motor Sport Magazine's digital expansion and marketing initiatives for 12 years now, during which time he’s seen trends come, go, and stay. Zamir tells us about how the magazine has managed bringing print subscribers into its digital ecosystem, and why a growing propensity to pay for digital subscriptions is benefitting magazines across the industry. He also discusses the extent to which off-the-shelf subscription management tools are fit for purpose, and where the smart money is being spent on improving retention. Peter and Chris get very excited about Scalextric.
Mon, October 30, 2023
LADbible Group’s Jake Strong-Jones on the best use of social platforms
In this week's episode we hear from LADbible Group's Operations Lead Jake Strong-Jones on how the group's verticals make best use of social platforms. He works with teams across the business on new launches, distribution strategy and operations, as well as the content strategy and insights on LADbible Group's social platforms. He takes us through everything from how they go about making discerning use of platforms to find new audiences, how its use of TikTok allows it to reach two-thirds of adults in the UK, and what trends the group is keeping an eye on over the next 12 months. How publishers have approached social media platforms over the past year will be one of the chapters we explore as part of our upcoming Media Moments 2023 report. Find out more and pre-register for the report here .
Mon, October 23, 2023
MyLocal’s Daniel Ionescu on platforms for sustainable local news
This week we're joined by Daniel Ionescu, founder of The Lincolnite, an independent local news publisher in Lincolnshire. He is also the founder and editor of new local news platform MyLocal, which is setting out to create a sustainable ecosystem where local journalism, communities and businesses can thrive. Daniel talks us through why he got into local news in 2010 and the opportunity he spotted to make local news much more up-to-date when compared to the digital efforts of local news organisations still tied to the print cycle. He explains how MyLocal came about, and how they anticipated some of the problems publishers are facing today with the decline in social media traffic and challenges around sustainable revenue streams. We also discuss the importance of building human, direct relationships to build trust in local news titles, whether collaboration between large and small outlets is realistic, and if local news can ever truly be sustainable. The past 12 months in local news developments will be one of the chapters we explore as part of our upcoming Media Moments 2023 report. Find out more and pre-register for the report here .
Mon, October 16, 2023
The New Statesman’s Chris Stone on podcast and platform experiments
This week we're joined by Chris Stone, Executive Producer at the New Statesman. Chris is in charge of the podcast and video strategy at the publication, and his experimental approach has seen monthly podcast downloads double, video views reach 8 million a month, and huge growth on their YouTube channel. More recently, he has been leaning into video podcasts on YouTube, figuring out what works for the New Statesman as the platform doubles down on its support for podcasts. Chris takes us through some of his boldest experiments with podcasts at the New Statesman, from consolidating them into one feed to publishing audio and video versions to YouTube. He also talks about how they're adapting to wider trends in the podcasting market, the potential use cases for AI in podcasts, and whether others will follow in the footsteps of The Economist and move all their podcasts behind a paywall. As economic conditions continue to put publishers under pressure, he gives some advice to publisher podcast teams facing budget cuts. 2023's podcasting trends and their relevance to publishers will be one of the chapters we explore as part of our upcoming Media Moments 2023 report. Find out more and pre-register for the report here .
Mon, October 09, 2023
The Happy Journalist’s Jacqui Merrington on why she’s optimistic about AI and journalism
This week we’re joined by Jacqui Merrington, who has her own Substack The Happy Journalist focused on showcasing how new tech can be used positively in journalism. Most recently she led one of the first generative AI experiments at Reach as well as devising and leading a project aimed at developing new business models for their smallest local sites using AI, interactive content formats and newsletters. Jacqui takes us through the reasons she's optimistic about journalists using AI, how newsrooms can go about implementing it sustainably, and what best (and worst) practice looks like in 2023. And remember - we don't have a catchphrase. AI and how publishers have experimented with new generative tools will be one of the chapters we explore as part of our upcoming Media Moments 2023 report. Find out more and pre-register for the report here .
Mon, October 02, 2023
Grub Street’s Jo Cummings and Peter Houston: What kind of idiots still make magazines?
On this first episode of the last season for 2023, we feature a passion project from one of our own. The Grub Street Journal is a B2B title made by and for people who love print magazines. Its co-founders and editors Joanna Cummings and Peter Houston take us through the project from inception to monetisation, and give us a sneak peek at the third issue of the magazine. The team also discuss whether a flurry of print magazine stories is a sign of a wider resurgence, or a blip. With NME coming back into print , Elle Australia hitting newsstands again next year following rising demand, and Immediate's Radio Times reaching 100 years and still going strong, what does a print resurgence look like? If print is making a comeback, it's looking more niche, less frequent, and more expensive to make or buy. Print and its place in publisher portfolios this year will be one of the chapters we explore as part of our upcoming Media Moments 2023 report. Find out more and pre-register for the report here .
Mon, July 31, 2023
Big Noises: Stuart Forrest on clickability vs clickbait
Welcome to the latest season of Media Voices: Big Noises! This season, sponsored by Glide Publishing Platform , we’ll be talking to publishing people with something to say. Media Voices co-host Peter Houston is tired of hearing the same old industry buzzwords. The publishing platitudes are starting to wear a bit thin, and he’s decided to see if he can shake the conversation up a bit by speaking to some of the biggest characters in the business. On this week's episode of Media Voices - the final edition of our Big Noises series - we hear from Stuart Forrest. As Peter makes clear in his intro, Stuart has worked at most of the major publishers in the UK in a variety of different roles, which has granted him a unique insight into the good and bad practices of the industry. He tells us about all the changes he's seen over his career to date, why the publisher-platform tug-of-war is inevitable but subject to change, and how 'clickability' differs from 'clickbait'. We'll be back later in the year with our autumn season of Media Voices. Until then, have a fantastic summer! Thanks to Glide Publishing Platform who have sponsored this season of Media Voices: Big Noises . Glide exists to make publishers more successful by removing any need to get bogged down building Content Management Systems, providing an industry-leading SaaS tailored to let publishers do more and spend less. Publishers using Glide direct more resources at their audiences and products, and focus on building things that make them money. You do the content, Glide does the management. Glide have created 3 expert guides to getting much more from a new or headless CMS, created for editorial, technology, and product teams. You can get the whitepapers here.
Mon, July 24, 2023
Big Noises: Rafat Ali on choosing the slow path to growth
Welcome to the latest season of Media Voices: Big Noises! This season, sponsored by Glide Publishing Platform , we’ll be talking to publishing people with something to say. Media Voices co-host Peter Houston is tired of hearing the same old industry buzzwords. The publishing platitudes are starting to wear a bit thin, and he’s decided to see if he can shake the conversation up a bit by speaking to some of the biggest characters in the business. On this week’s episode of Big Noises we hear from Skift founder Rafat Ali. He tells us about why he decided on eschewing the rush for VC funding in favour of more sustainable growth, how the travel information site is using AI in a practical way, and where so much of the media industry goes wrong when choosing priorities. He tells us about his lateral moves from tech expert to paid content specialist into founder of a premium B2B travel site. Thanks to Glide Publishing Platform who have sponsored this season of Media Voices: Big Noises . Glide exists to make publishers more successful by removing any need to get bogged down building Content Management Systems, providing an industry-leading SaaS tailored to let publishers do more and spend less. Publishers using Glide direct more resources at their audiences and products, and focus on building things that make them money. You do the content, Glide does the management. Glide have created 3 expert guides to getting much more from a new or headless CMS, created for editorial, technology, and product teams. You can get the whitepapers here.
Mon, July 17, 2023
Big Noises: Ricky Sutton on publisher valuations, AI, and platform frenemies
Welcome to the latest season of Media Voices: Big Noises! This season, sponsored by Glide Publishing Platform , we’ll be talking to publishing people with something to say. Media Voices co-host Peter Houston is tired of hearing the same old industry buzzwords. The publishing platitudes are starting to wear a bit thin, and he’s decided to see if he can shake the conversation up a bit by speaking to some of the biggest characters in the business. On this week's episode of Media Voices' Big Noises series we hear from Ricky Sutton, a man who has straddled both the journalistic and tech industries. Ricky tells us about the media militancy, why we need media plurality and why he thinks publisher cohesion is vital for ensuring that, and his own eclectic and unusual path through the industry. He explains why the AI could be fatal for the publishing industry - and what we need to do to prevent that inevitability. Thanks to Glide Publishing Platform who have sponsored this season of Media Voices: Big Noises . Glide exists to make publishers more successful by removing any need to get bogged down building Content Management Systems, providing an industry-leading SaaS tailored to let publishers do more and spend less. Publishers using Glide direct more resources at their audiences and products, and focus on building things that make them money. You do the content, Glide does the management. Glide have created 3 expert guides to getting much more from a new or headless CMS, created for editorial, technology, and product teams. You can get the whitepapers here.
Mon, July 10, 2023
Big Noises: Mpho Raborife on keeping Gen Z engaged
Welcome to the latest season of Media Voices: Big Noises! This season, sponsored by Glide Publishing Platform , we’ll be talking to publishing people with something to say. Media Voices co-host Peter Houston is tired of hearing the same old industry buzzwords. The publishing platitudes are starting to wear a bit thin, and he’s decided to see if he can shake the conversation up a bit by speaking to some of the biggest characters in the business. On this week's episode of Big Noises we hear from Mpho Raborife. Mpho is Managing Editor at news24, a South African-based news outlet with a primarily Millennial staff and audience. Mpho tells us about how she caught the journalism bug while doing work experience, why news organisations that don't listen to their younger staff members aren't effectively serving their audiences, and why young people in newsrooms need to know they have a future in the business to remain invested and engaged. Peter also asked her about her ongoing research project for the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, and how she hopes younger people will be more nurtured by newsrooms in the future. She echoes what Lucy Keung has said about the need to listen to the younger members of staff - and how those who don't are leaving societal and commercial opportunities on the table. Thanks to Glide Publishing Platform who have sponsored this season of Media Voices: Big Noises . Glide exists to make publishers more successful by removing any need to get bogged down building Content Management Systems, providing an industry-leading SaaS tailored to let publishers do more and spend less. Publishers using Glide direct more resources at their audiences and products, and focus on building things that make them money. You do the content, Glide does the management. Glide have created 3 expert guides to getting much more from a new or headless CMS, created for editorial, technology, and product teams. You can get the whitepapers here.
Mon, July 03, 2023
Big Noises: Michelle Manafy on the media’s universal problems
On this week’s episode of Big Noises from Media Voices we hear from Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director at Digital Content Next ( DCN ), the trade organisation for premium publishers. Michelle started out as a journalist. The rise of digital media saw her embrace the changes and after working for a range of publications, from alt weeklies to B2B titles, she joined what was then the AOP to help premium publishers on their digital transition. She now manages online content and events for the group. More than a decade in, Michelle still has hope for the media, but is frustrated by many of the publishing practices she sees. “Now we’re in a world where two thirds of our job is to rise above the noise. ‘Listen to me. Look at me’ right? Are we providing a value exchange? When people give us that gift of their attention, do we provide them with value… was it worth their time?"
Mon, June 26, 2023
Big Noises: Shirish Kulkarni on why there are no quick fixes in media
Welcome to the latest season of Media Voices: Big Noises! This season, sponsored by Glide Publishing Platform , we’ll be talking to publishing people with something to say. Media Voices co-host Peter Houston is tired of hearing the same old industry buzzwords. The publishing platitudes are starting to wear a bit thin, and he’s decided to see if he can shake the conversation up a bit by speaking to some of the biggest characters in the business. On this week's episode of Big Noises from Media Voices we hear from media analyst Shirish Kulkarni. He takes us through news innovation and inclusion projects, from journalism AI to community journalism, focusing really on how these can be used together to serve people who currently don’t see any value in journalism. He explains why news avoidance is a rational response to the current news ecosystem, and how news outlets that say 'we need people to trust us tomorrow' need to have a good long look at themselves. Kulkarni argues that DE&I cannot be fixed quickly, that there is a failure of management to address the issues substantively, and that media organisations' resistance to change is ultimately holding them back. Thanks to Glide Publishing Platform who have sponsored this season of Media Voices: Big Noises . Glide exists to make publishers more successful by removing any need to get bogged down building Content Management Systems, providing an industry-leading SaaS tailored to let publishers do more and spend less. Publishers using Glide direct more resources at their audiences and products, and focus on building things that make them money. You do the content, Glide does the management. Glide have created 3 expert guides to getting much more from a new or headless CMS, created for editorial, technology, and product teams. You can get the whitepapers here.
Wed, June 21, 2023
Media Voices at FIPP Congress 2023: Resilience in the face of disruption
Media Voices co-host Peter Houston has been in Portugal again. He headed back to the beautiful coastal town of Cascais for the 2023 FIPP World Media Congress. He caught up with speakers and attendees at the event to find out how they are facing up to the full range of challenges the media industry is facing - from AI and difficult economic conditions to Ukrainian media operators fighting to keep working in the middle of a war. In the episode we hear from FIPP Chair Yulia Boyle; Andrii Vdovychenko, CEO of Burda Ukraine; Anastasiya Ravva of Ukraine's Espresso TV; media consultant Juan Senor; Agustino Fontevecchia, digital director at Editorial Perfil in Argentina; Catalina Morales of independent literary magazine Polyglot; Colin Morrison, publisher of the Flashes & Flames newsletter; and John Schlaefli of event organisers and sponsors of this special episode, Di5rupt. Thanks to FIPP World Media congress organisers Di5rupt for sponsoring this episode. As well as powering the FIPP World Media Congress, Di5rupt is the organiser and host of Media Makers Meet ( Mx3 Berlin ), an event dedicated to specialist media. The next Mx3 Berlin will be in February 2024, with tentative dates of 7 and 8 February, to be confirmed soon. Di5rupt recently acquired the media industry website What's New in Publishing (WNIP) to wrap around its events, and also produces specialist, in-depth reports, including ' Strategies for Media for Navigating an Economic Downturn ' and ' AI and the Media '. For more information visit di5ru.pt .
Mon, June 19, 2023
Big Noises: Jacob Donnelly on why publishers can’t resist the pursuit of scale
Welcome to the latest season of Media Voices: Big Noises! This season, sponsored by Glide Publishing Platform , we’ll be talking to publishing people with something to say. Media Voices co-host Peter Houston is tired of hearing the same old industry buzzwords. The publishing platitudes are starting to wear a bit thin, and he’s decided to see if he can shake the conversation up a bit by speaking to some of the biggest characters in the business. On this week's episode of Big Noises from Media Voices we hear from Jacob Donnelly, founder of A Media Operator and publisher at Morning Brew. His path from crypto reporter to owner and operator of a media newsletter has afforded him a wide-ranging view of the media industry, and in this episode he brings that insight to bear on the lure of scale for publishers, the role of VCs, and challenging bad media models. In the brief news roundup Chris and Peter discuss the interview, contrast Jacob's points around VCs with those of previous guests, and discover their recording platform has a suite of effects built in. Sound effects ensue. Thanks to Glide Publishing Platform who have sponsored this season of Media Voices: Big Noises . Glide exists to make publishers more successful by removing any need to get bogged down building Content Management Systems, providing an industry-leading SaaS tailored to let publishers do more and spend less. Publishers using Glide direct more resources at their audiences and products, and focus on building things that make them money. You do the content, Glide does the management. Glide have created 3 expert guides to getting much more from a new or headless CMS, created for editorial, technology, and product teams. You can get the whitepapers here.
Mon, June 12, 2023
Big Noises: Barry Adams on why AI will not kill SEO
Welcome to the latest season of Media Voices: Big Noises! This season, sponsored by Glide Publishing Platform , we’ll be talking to publishing people with something to say. Media Voices co-host Peter Houston is tired of hearing the same old industry buzzwords. The publishing platitudes are starting to wear a bit thin, and he’s decided to see if he can shake the conversation up a bit by speaking to some of the biggest characters in the business. In this latest episode of our Big Noises series, we hear from SEO Capo Barry Adams. Barry is a tech guy that moved into SEO more than 20 years ago, seeing it as the perfect hybrid of technology and marketing. He was at the Belfast Telegraph when it was known for punching way above its weight in search, taking advantage of Google's algorithms quirks. Since then he has worked for some of the world’s biggest media organisations, fixing their SEO and explaining that, these days, there are no quick fixes or silver bullets when it comes to search performance. We spoke about the mystery that is Reach’s consistently good search rankings despite its horrendous UX, the difference between journalism and SEO content and how getting it wrong can damage trust, and of course his thoughts on Google, AI and the future of publishers in the search ecosystem. Thanks to Glide Publishing Platform who have sponsored this season of Media Voices: Big Noises . Glide exists to make publishers more successful by removing any need to get bogged down building Content Management Systems, providing an industry-leading SaaS tailored to let publishers do more and spend less. Publishers using Glide direct more resources at their audiences and products, and focus on building things that make them money. You do the content, Glide does the management. Glide have created 3 expert guides to getting much more from a new or headless CMS, created for editorial, technology, and product teams. You can get the whitepapers here.
Mon, June 05, 2023
Big Noises: Amy Kean on why media needs more weirdos
Next up on our Big Noises season is Amy Kean, bestselling author, LinkedIn top voice, former head of innovation for Publicis and now CEO and Creative Director of Good Shout, a company that helps people communicate better. Amy is also a self-confessed weirdo and my big question for her was, could media do with more weirdos to stem the tide of painfully undifferentiated products that Neil spoke about last week? We also spoke about fear, ego, jargon and how to spot a good weirdo rather than someone that’s going to be an HR problem. Thanks to Glide Publishing Platform who have sponsored this season of Media Voices: Big Noises . Glide exists to make publishers more successful by removing any need to get bogged down building Content Management Systems, providing an industry-leading SaaS tailored to let publishers do more and spend less. Publishers using Glide direct more resources at their audiences and products, and focus on building things that make them money. You do the content, Glide does the management. Glide have created 3 expert guides to getting much more from a new or headless CMS, created for editorial, technology, and product teams. You can get the whitepapers here.
Mon, May 29, 2023
Big Noises: Neil Thackray on why content is not king
Welcome to the latest season of Media Voices: Big Noises! This season, sponsored by Glide Publishing Platform , we'll be talking to publishing people with something to say. Media Voices co-host Peter Houston is tired of hearing the same old industry buzzwords. The publishing platitudes are starting to wear a bit thin, and he's decided to see if he can shake the conversation up a bit by speaking to some of the biggest characters in the business. First up is Neil Thackray. Neil is a media executive with decades of experience leading media companies both large and small. As one of the co-founders of Briefing Media (home of theMediaBriefing and AgriBriefing), he gained a formidable reputation for calling out executive BS at conferences and in his columns, and being unafraid to point out some of the biggest industry issues. Neil spoke to Peter about the myth that content is king, the failures of publishing leadership, how media companies have lost the ability to differentiate, and how investors share some of the blame. Thanks to Glide Publishing Platform who have sponsored this season of Media Voices: Big Noises . Glide exists to make publishers more successful by removing any need to get bogged down building Content Management Systems, providing an industry-leading SaaS tailored to let publishers do more and spend less. Publishers using Glide direct more resources at their audiences and products, and focus on building things that make them money. You do the content, Glide does the management. Glide have created 3 expert guides to getting much more from a new or headless CMS, created for editorial, technology, and product teams. You can get the whitepapers here.
Wed, May 24, 2023
PPA Festival Special: How publishers are future-proofing audience relationships
The last few weeks has seen the Media Voices team head out and about to various industry events, from a Local News event with Google to the PPA Festival and Newsrewired, as well as running our own Publisher Podcast Forum and Awards. We were proud to be media partners for the PPA Festival, where Peter and Esther spent the day catching up with industry friends and listening in on all sorts of sessions to do with audience-building. In this special episode from the PPA Festival, we've focused on how publishers are future-proofing audience relationships. There are rising challenges from an economic recession, advertising slowdowns, uncertainty about subscriptions growth and the yet unknown impacts of AI advances which are pressuring publishers. The only way to ensure success is to deliver real value to your audience. The businesses that succeed will be those that prioritise reader relationships. We spoke to a range of publishers at the Festival and sat in on sessions on the Audience stage to find out how they plan to future-proof those audience connections. This episode features the following experts: Sajeeda Merali, CEO, PPA Amanda Wigginton, Customer strategy, data and insight specialist Sarah Ebner, Executive Editor & Head of Newsletters, Financial Times (session extract) Mark Alker, Founder, SingletrackWorld Ed Garcia, Head of Retention, Immediate Media (session extract) Clare Wain, Marketing Director, NEOM Organics (session extract) Seema Kumari, Senior Director of Consumer Marketing and CRM at Hearst UK (session extract) Tony Hill, Marketing & Events Director, Mark Allen Group (session extract) Alix Fox, Writer, broadcaster and sex educator (session extract)
Wed, April 12, 2023
Practical AI Podcast Special: Lessons from local media
Our special podcast documentary explores how local media organisations have got started with AI projects, the benefits they're seeing, the challenges they've faced and what advice they would give to other publishers looking to get into AI. This episode and our corresponding report have been made possible with the support of United Robots . There's one topic everyone is talking about right now: AI. Since ChatGPT burst onto the scene in November 2022, the potential of AI tools have become very clear to the otherwise uninitiated. Now, everyone from politicians to teachers, technologists, artists and writers are having to grapple with the explosion in use of generative AI and the very real impact it will have on our everyday lives. But away from the hype of ChatGPT, Bard and other headline-grabbing AI chatbots and generators, it’s important to remember that AI isn’t a new area for publishers. From simple tasks like social media posts to content recommendations right through to more complex tasks like distilling mass datasets in a way that reporters can make sense of, we’ve been using these tools for a number of years. For publishers of all shapes and sizes, artificial intelligence is still a largely untapped area. Some prominent brands like BuzzFeed have made industry headlines by announcing their plans to use AI to generate quizzes, while CNET won’t be the last publication to get in trouble for letting major errors slip through on articles written by robots. We’re buckling up for an absolute tsunami of AI-generated content - more than any of us will be able to consume in our lifetimes. The opportunity for publishers, then, as pointed out by Douglas McCabe of Enders Analysis, is to distinguish themselves from the rest of the internet. This doesn’t mean shunning AI. Instead, we should be looking at how we can use it to free writers, reporters and journalists up to do what they do best. Looking to local media Some of the best examples of how this can work in practice can be seen in local media. Often, such organisations have fewer resources than big names like the New York Times or Bloomberg, and certainly aren’t able to indulge in speculative development and testing of these tools. Instead, there has to be a clearly defined use case, straightforward implementation, and measurable return on investment. This has been the focus of a new report from Media Voices: Practical AI for Local Media . In this report, Peter Houston explores the myths and misconceptions surrounding AI, what it looks like in practice in local media organisations, the benefits it brings, and how to get started. The report also includes five case studies from local
Mon, March 20, 2023
Substack UK Head of Writer Partnerships Farrah Storr on why every magazine should embrace paid newsletters
This week we hear from Substack UK's Head of Writer Partnerships Farrah Storr. Over the past decade she's worked in leading editorial roles at some of the biggest lifestyle magazines in the UK before leaving ELLE to join the newsletter platform. She tells us about why more mainstream media brands should be investing in Substack, why she doesn't believe you need a huge profile to start out on the platform, and what problems with the wider internet ecosystem Substack is trying to solve. In the news round-up, the team dissect some unfortunately-timed stories about Reach plc, and why the national and regional publisher's woes are only likely to increase as the ad-stuffing strategy plays out. In the news in brief section, we explore increasingly troublesome links between the Conservative government and senior BBC executives, BuzzFeed's edict to staff to increase story output, and Meta's subtle de-emphasis of its metaverse project. Thus endeth the season. We'll be back in May for the next one!
Mon, March 13, 2023
Semafor Media Reporter Max Tani on joining a global media start-up
On this week's episode we hear from Max Tani, media reporter at news startup Semafor. He tells us how he came to Semafor; the Venn diagram between media, politics, Hollywood and pretty much everything else in life; about Semafor’s attempts to balance out news and opinion; and whether covering the White House was anything like The West Wing . In the news roundup the team looks at a bad week for broadcasters, from the BBC's war against Gary Lineker, through Fox News' risible defence in the Dominion lawsuit, to GB News' £31m loss in its first operating year. Here's to the next 250 episodes!
Mon, March 06, 2023
TIME Editor in Chief & CEO Edward Felsenthal on the secret to lasting 100 years
TIME was 100 last week, and we took the chance to speak to its Editor In Chief and CEO Edward Felsenthal about how the publication made it to its centenary. He tells us about the tradition of innovation at TIME, building trust with global audiences, and how legacy is not a bad word in magazines. In the news roundup the team discusses the fallout from The Telegraph publishing former health secretary Matt Hancock's WhatsApp messages, despite journalist Isabel Oakeshott having broken an NDA to do so. We ask what that does for trust in the media, where the responsibility for putting everything in context lies, and if this is an Alien vs. Predator situation for those of us in the middle of the row.
Mon, February 27, 2023
Trusted Media Brands CEO Bonnie Kintzer on future-proofing a legacy publisher
This week we hear from Bonnie Kintzer, CEO of Trusted Media Brands - which includes brands like FailArmy, Family Handyman, and Reader’s Digest. She tells us about the opportunities she saw to turn around the company when it was facing bankruptcy in 2013, how the business has weathered some of the storms of the past decade, and why she thinks it’s vital to focus on where the audiences are regardless of platform algorithms. She also explains why a 're-start-up' mentality helped TMB get ahead. In the news roundup the team debates why it's so difficult to find common ground on discussions of platforms paying publishers directly, and asks if Google not serving news to Canadian consumers will shift the dial on those arguments. Did you know Elon Musk has a Brummie accent?
Mon, February 20, 2023
The Ankler CEO Janice Min on turning a newsletter into a media business
On this week's episode we hear from Janice Min, co-owner and CEO of The Ankler, a newsletter-first media brand covering Hollywood and the world of entertainment. She tells us how The Ankler’s revenue streams have evolved over the last twelve months, the potential she sees in lean, newsletter-first businesses, and what lessons she’s applying from her time at big-name legacy publications like the Hollywood Reporter. In the news roundup we avoid AI entirely and do a Media Voices 101 episode, going through a wishlist for what we want to see from media companies in the next year. Please look out for our new 'Humanity is pathetic: How do we monetise them?" tshirts in the near future.
Mon, February 13, 2023
Financial Times’ Head of Newsletters Sarah Ebner on the varied role of newsletters
On this week's episode, we hear from Sarah Ebner, Executive Editor and Head of Newsletters at the Financial Times. She tells us about her role leading the newsletter team at the FT, and the value of newsletters in subscriber acquisition and retention but also as paid products in their own right. In the news roundup we take a thorough look at what the integration of ChatGPT and Bard into search results means for news and magazine publishers. In the news in brief, the Mastodon Bump has levelled out, DC Thomson announces 300 job cuts, and we ask why subscription revenue is outperforming expectations. Welcome to your first episode of Med.A.I Voices.
Mon, February 06, 2023
Word in Black COO Andrew Ramsammy on the opportunities of news collaboratives
This week we hear from Andrew Ramsammy, Chief Operating Officer of Word in Black . The publication was founded in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd, and brings together 10 of the nation's leading Black publishers in a news collaborative. He discusses how the collaborative came together, how they've tripled revenue since launching, and other areas of opportunity for publishers to come together. In the non-news roundup, the team examines whether publishers should worry about password sharing. We also look at whether podcasts are still a good bet for advertisers (yes), whether AI is being overhyped (also yes), and how LadBible became the biggest English-language publisher on TikTok (good at it). Peter shares his Netflix username.
Mon, January 30, 2023
Good Housekeeping Editor in Chief Gaby Huddart on using their centenary to be future-facing
This week we hear from Gaby Huddart, Group Editorial Director at Hearst UK and Editor in Chief of Good Housekeeping. We talk about celebrating the brand’s centenary last year with their first multi-day live event, what a Good Housekeeping reader looks like today, and why it’s so important for the title to be future-facing. She also discusses how readers' attitudes to their homes have changed over the pandemic, and the role the Good Housekeeping Institute plays in building trust. In the news round-up the team examines some of BuzzFeed's moves from the past week - including striking a partnership with Meta and embracing our new AI overlords. For the news in brief, we discuss the FT burning out trying to run a Mastodon server, the US government's latest moves in the war on Google hegemony, and the apparent dwindling of interest in the super-rich for funding newspapers and magazines. While Esther took a brief phone call, Peter and I sang Georgy Girl by The Seekers, but I had to cut it from the episode.
Mon, January 23, 2023
Dexerto CEO Josh Nino on standing out in the crowded market of gaming publishers
On this week's episode, Dexerto CEO Josh Nino tells us about how the esports-focused publication went about carving a foothold in a competitive market that is often unfriendly to newcomers. He also talks about where a publication like Dexerto looks to grow revenue and audience - and whether those opportunities are universal for all digital publications - and what he thinks is the future of sports and esports-related communities online. In the news roundup, human journalists are relegated to apologising for AI journalists' mistakes; Musk's Twitter bounces along the bottom; Future goes US-first; and Axios Pro reports a 100% retention rate. Head over to grubstreetjournal.com for updates on Peter's new magazine!
Mon, January 16, 2023
Association of Online Publishers CEO Richard Reeves on how publishers are addressing diversity and inclusion
On this week's episode of Media Voices Richard Reeves, CEO of the Association of Online Publishers (AOP) here in the UK, talks to us about the issues and roadblocks surrounding diversity and inclusion efforts in media. He discussed initiatives publishers are using to improve DE&I, problems of retention, and how ageism impacts women particularly. In the news round-up, the team takes a look at the Reuters Institute's latest Journalism, Media and Technology Trends and Predictions report, created after it surveyed 300+ media executives from around the world. We talk about where the smart money lies, which tech trends are non-starters, and ask to what extent AI is changing the landscape of journalism.
Mon, December 05, 2022
Special: Highlights from Media Moments 2022
This special episode of Media Voices features the audio of our launch presentation for the Media Moments 2022 report. Chris, Peter and Esther each outline which media moment of the year they found interesting, from the revolution in local news to audio advertising's rapid growth and the professionalisation of newsletters. The team are then joined by BuzzFeed’s Caroline Fenner, AdWeek’s Stephen Lepitak and Poool’s Ludivine Paquet to discuss what they’ve identified as the biggest shifts this year and how publishers can prepare for what is likely to be another challenging twelve months ahead. Media Moments 2022 is free to download and can be accessed here . Media Moments 2022 is sponsored by Poool, the all-in-one Membership and Subscription Suite for digital publishers to convert, manage and retain their members and subscribers. poool.tech | Linkedin | Twitter
Mon, November 28, 2022
Collectives and activists drive a year of change around climate reporting: Media Moments 2022
For our latest season of the Media Voices Podcast, kindly sponsored by Poool , we’ve published ten episodes exploring the biggest trends of 2022 and how they affect publishers; from podcasts and newsletters to advertising, subscriptions, trust and more. Our tenth and final episode looks at how climate coverage is coming to the forefront of publisher strategies, and how journalists are evolving the way they communicate climate issues with their audiences. Climate journalism is becoming an increasingly valuable part of a media company's portfolio. This speaks both to the growing concern and interest the public have in climate change, and also the willingness of advertisers to support reporting and initiatives. Despite that, 2022 has seen many of the big developments around climate journalism come from cross-industry organisations and collectives rather than solo newspapers. The biggest change has been the recognition that climate needs to be something that is covered by every department, not just by a single reporter or section. It now affects our daily lives in a very real way, and is something that should be brought into business, fashion, politics and more. We've seen a number of fellowships launched in previous years bearing fruit. One common point is that reporters covering climate change often share similar frustrations, wherever they are based. From editors that cling on to climate denialism or delayism to the inability to effect change in the face of lobbying efforts, it speaks to the global nature of not just climate change as a phenomenon, but of the shared challenges that come with having to report on it. Joining us on the final episode of this season is Meera Selva, CEO of Internews Europe; a global non-profit that supports journalists and media organisations worldwide. Last year, she designed and launched the Oxford Climate Journalism Network with Wolfgang Blau and the Reuters Institute to work with newsrooms worldwide to structurally change how climate is covered. This topic will be one of the chapters we explore in detail as part of our Media Moments 2022 report, launching on November 30th. Find out more and pre-register here to receive the report. This season of Media Voices is sponsored by Poool, the Membership and Subscription Suite used by over 120 publishers from around the world. The team behind Poool are industry experts who have put everything they know into the product, ready to respond to your ‘how’ of launching & developing a reader revenue strategy. poool.tech | @PooolTech
Mon, November 21, 2022
Publishers power through as hype around emerging tech comes crashing down: Media Moments 2022
For our latest season of the Media Voices Podcast, kindly sponsored by Poool , we’ll be publishing ten episodes exploring the biggest trends of 2022 and how they affect publishers; from podcasts and newsletters to advertising, subscriptions, trust and more. Our ninth episode looks at how the bubble has burst around many of the emerging technologies that had previously excited the industry, and where publishers are looking now for innovation. The 'crypto winter' has set back many of the projects we saw begin in last year's exploration of emerging technology. The crash began early in 2022 due to rising interest rates and macroeconomic factors, and as even supposedly 'stable' cryptocurrencies hit problems, confidence in the market plummeted. This in turn hit the NFT market, with trading volumes collapsing 97% in September from a peak in January 2022. Although many publishers aren't forthcoming with less positive updates about NFT and Web3 projects, the closure of CNN's Vault by CNN - a marketplace selling collectible NFT 'moments' tied to major news events - is likely a good indicator of how others are faring. Crucially, this has raised issues of trust with audiences who believed NFT projects from publishers to be a safer bet than those touted by so-called 'crypto bros'. Facebook's all-in bet on the metaverse certainly put AR and VR experiences at the top of the agenda for brands this year. Publishers have rightly been much more cautious, waiting to see a solid commercial proposition before jumping in. But some have taken the opportunity to experiment early, from Vogue's Business and Yahoo Metaverse Experience to B2B magazines like Management Today. However, user numbers for even the most well-known metaverse platforms are still far below what is needed to justify longer-term plans. It's not all doom and gloom for emerging technology though. AI imagery and video has taken great leaps forward this year, with projects like Dall-E showing early promise to transform visual content creation. This tech may not be as sexy as the metaverse and Web3, but is more likely to make a tangible difference to how publishers work in the next few years. Our guest expert this week is Simon Owens. Simon is a media industry journalist who edits an industry newsletter that covers everything from the Creator Economy to traditional media. He also hosts The Business of Content , a podcast about how publishers create, distribute, and monetise digital content. This topic will be one of the chapters we explor
Mon, November 14, 2022
Beyond the Twitter chaos, platforms and publishers re-evaluate their relationship: Media Moments 2022
For our latest season of the Media Voices Podcast, kindly sponsored by Poool , we’ll be publishing ten episodes exploring the biggest trends of 2022 and how they affect publishers; from podcasts and newsletters to advertising, subscriptions, emerging technology and more. Our eighth episode looks at the major social media platforms, and how their relationship with publishers has fared after yet another tumultuous year. The story which has dominated much of the latter half of the year has been Musk's botched takeover of Twitter. Following months of will-he-won't-he, the billionaire finally completed the $44 billion purchase of the platform in late October. Since then, he has unleashed an unprecedented amount of chaos at Twitter HQ, from mass layoffs to badly thought-through verification plans. Publishers who are reliant on Twitter - or other products like their newsletter platform Revue - are now having to face the very real prospect of there being no Twitter left by the end of 2022. Twitter aren't the only ones to be struggling with layoffs and mismanagement this year. Meta - the umbrella company for Facebook and Instagram - suffered the biggest one-day loss in history for a US company in February, wiping $230 billion off the value of the company. In a number of firsts, Facebook reported a drop in daily user numbers, and their first-ever drop in revenue in July. By the end of October, Meta's shares had tumbled 24% to their lowest level in nearly four years following a 'train wreck' earnings report. Its bet that the metaverse will be the future is proving costly; Meta lost $9.4 billion on its metaverse unit Reality Labs, and expects to have significantly wider operating losses next year. Meta's rocky relationship with publishers is categorically over. As well as ending support for Instant Articles and pulling its new newsletter platform Bulletin, the company began telling news partners in the US that they no longer had plans to pay publishers for their content to run on the News Tab. Legislation looks unlikely to force any further movement on this. In response to Canada saying it would introduce an Australia-style bill to force payments to publishers, Facebook said it would simply block
Mon, November 07, 2022
Can we stop the endless decline of trust? Media Moments 2022
For our latest season of the Media Voices Podcast, kindly sponsored by Poool , we’ll be publishing ten episodes exploring the biggest trends of 2022 and how they affect publishers; from podcasts and newsletters to advertising, subscriptions, emerging technology and more. Our seventh episode looks at trust in the media, the growth of news fatigue and avoidance, and the opportunities and dangers in the future, from AI to platforms. The year didn’t get off to a good start. The results of the latest Edelman trust survey showed that almost seven in 10 people worry that they are being lied to by journalists. Edelman’s Annual Trust Barometer for 2022 also found that trust in media had once again fallen across the world, with concern over fake news at an all-time high. The release of Reuters’ Digital News Report 2022 in June only served to highlight how severe an issue this has become over the past five years. Its headline findings were that news fatigue and consequently avoidance were at an all-time high, with almost half of British people actively avoiding reading the news. This is feeding into a general distrust of news and the media, with just 1 in 4 people in the US trusting the news. Is this a problem of publishers’ own making? Recent analysis published in PLoS ONE charted how negative headlines have grown over the past two decades. Emotionally-arousing and anger-inducing headlines attract more clicks and attention than positive and neutral headlines, creating a perverse incentive for news media to spread gloomy content. So how can we break this cycle of negativity and declining trust? Will transparency in reporting help bring round reluctant or sceptical readers, or do we need to do more? Joining us this week to discuss the year in trust is Martha Williams, CEO of World Newsmedia Network. This topic will be one of the chapters we explore in detail as part of our Media Moments 2022 report, launching on November 30th. Find out more and pre-register here to receive the report. This season of Media Voices is sponsored by Poool, the Membership and Subscription Suite used by over 120 publishers from around the world. The team behind Poool are industry experts who have put everything they know into the product, ready to respond to your ‘how’ of launching & developing a reader revenue strategy. poool.tech | @PooolTech
Wed, November 02, 2022
The importance of data in building trust: in conversation with Reuters’ Scott Malone, Stephanie Burnett and Rob Schack
With just days to go until the US midterms, there has never been so much at stake in terms of misinformation and polarisation. We can all think of examples of the consequences of some of those issues, which are playing out around us in real-time. The Reuters team have been hard at work producing election data, maps, infographics and more to help publishers cover the midterms accurately . This episode Chris Sutcliffe is joined by Reuters News Agency's Politics Editor Scott Malone, Digital Verification Editor Stephanie Burnett and Director of Emerging Products and Special Events Rob Schack. They discuss how data and trends can help cut through some of the noise, how this work will feed into future elections and other reporting, and ultimately, how it affects the trust audiences have in the news they consume. This Conversations episode is sponsored by Reuters . With unmatched coverage in over 16 languages, and reaching billions of people worldwide every day, Reuters provides trusted intelligence that powers humans and machines to make smart decisions. Founded in 1851, Reuters has remained true to the Trust Principles of independence, integrity and freedom from bias, working relentlessly to bring news from the source and from every corner of the world. Reuters on Linkedin
Mon, October 31, 2022
A reality check for podcast hype, but publishers seeing solid ROI: Media Moments 2022
For our latest season of the Media Voices Podcast, kindly sponsored by Poool , we’ll be publishing ten episodes exploring the biggest trends of 2022 and how they affect publishers; from subscriptions and membership to advertising, platforms, emerging technology and more. Our sixth episode looks at the world of podcasting, from how publishers are refocusing strategies on engaging superfans to the growing popularity of video podcasts. Many publishers were enticed into podcasting by the promise of high listener numbers and the opportunity to grow their audience outside of the usual channels. While the latter proved true, the year has proved to be something of a reality check for those seeking millions of avid listeners and subsequent ad revenue riches. That's no bad thing. What it has led to is a realisation that podcasts are best used to serve the superfans. Monetisation and growth strategies have evolved to match these new aims, whether that be high-value sponsorship packages for small B2B podcasts, or shows used as a member-only benefit. Another surprising trend this year has been the rise in popularity of podcast consumption via YouTube. From simple audio exports with just a logo on to full studio filming of podcasts being recorded, the platform is used by 58% of people in the US to consume podcasts. This has put pressure on publishers to look at video options for their shows, which can be a complex and potentially costly endeavour. Although the podcast format is an old one, there is still room for change and improvement, most notably in discovery. Despite the best efforts of the big platforms like Spotify and Apple, and smaller apps like GoodPods, it is still difficult for listeners to connect with shows that they might potentially enjoy. This is an area still ripe for innovation over the next few years. To discuss 2022's biggest podcast trends we're joined this week by Naomi Mellor, producer and host of multiple podcasts including Smashing The Ceiling, and founder of The Skylark Collective and the International Women’s Podcast Awards . This topic will be one of the chapters we explore in detail as part of our Media Moments 2022 report, launching on November 30th. Find out more and pre-register here to receive the report. This season of Media Voices is sponsored by Poool, the Membership and Subscription Suite used by over 120 publishers from around the world. The team behind Poool are industry experts who have put everything they know into the product, ready to respond to your ‘how’ of launching & developing a reader revenue strategy. poool.tech | <a href='h
Mon, October 24, 2022
Newsletters are finally growing up: Media Moments 2022
For our latest season of the Media Voices Podcast, kindly sponsored by Poool , we’re be publishing ten episodes exploring the biggest trends of 2022 and how they affect publishers; from subscriptions and membership to advertising, platforms, emerging technology and more. Our fifth episode explores the year in newsletter trends, from worldwide readership to how creators are driving publisher strategies. One of the oldest digital delivery systems of all has continued to dominate industry headlines in 2022 as publishers rethink the way they work with email newsletters. Email-first news publishers have continued to go from strength to strength, with Axios and Industry Dive both acquired this year for significant sums. As overwhelm and news avoidance has grown, email newsletters have been seen as a solution to the firehose of content available online, as Reuters noted in this year's Digital News Report. The trend of journalists leaving outlets to go solo has definitely peaked, with fewer making the move than anticipated. Stability, and the realities of making a living from just a newsletter have stemmed the tide of people taking it from a side hustle to a career. But publishers have responded by finding ways to support talented staff, with Forbes and The Atlantic both having made notable efforts to bring on board dedicated newsletter writers. That's not to say it's been all plain sailing. Facebook (Meta) has binned Bulletin - its Substack competitor - after just over a year. The industry has also been struggling with Apple's Mail Privacy Protection Update, which has made measuring email open rates particularly challenging. This in turn is forcing innovation, and we're likely to see a substantial evolution of both metrics and email advertising over the coming years as publishers seek to bring the premium ad experiences of their sites and apps to their newsletters. Overall, there seems to be an acknowledgement that newsletters have been a long-underserved medium that can actually be incredibly effective for publishers. As the hype has faded, there's a 'more realistic attitude' in place about the format and the business that can be built around it. Joining us this episode to discuss the biggest newsletter trends of 2022 is Mark Stenberg, Senior Media Reporter at AdWeek in New York. He's reported on some of the biggest newsletter-related media stories of the year, and also has his own newsletter Medialyte. This topic will be one of the chapters we explore in detail as part of our Media Moments 20
Mon, October 17, 2022
The year retention became paramount for subscription and membership publishers: Media Moments 2022
For our latest season of the Media Voices Podcast, kindly sponsored by Poool , we’re be publishing ten episodes exploring the biggest trends of 2022 and how they affect publishers; from subscriptions and membership to advertising, platforms, emerging technology and more. Our fourth episode looks at how publishers with subscription and membership schemes are handling increasing pressure on consumer budgets, and subscription trends going into 2023 and beyond. There has been a great deal of talk this year about reaching 'peak subscription' . Subscriber numbers at Netflix, Amazon and Disney+ fell in the first quarter of 2022 as increasing economic pressures forced difficult choices on households. Publishers are beginning to see the effects of this too. The International News Media Association's Subscription Benchmarking Service of 125 international news brands has noticed a recent spike in subscription cancellations, with the past few quarters seeing cancellations go up 34% compared to Q1 of 2021. However, the year has not been all doom and gloom for those with reader revenue streams. The Times signed up an average of 1,000 new digital subscribers every day over the first two weeks of Russia's attack on Ukraine, demonstrating the demand is still strong for authoritative news and analysis. Similarly, members of the AOP have collectively reported 14.9% growth in subscriptions revenue this year. Crucially, the pressure is helping publishers innovate. Some are looking to mixed revenue models, using registration data to both better convert readers as well as serve more valuable ads . Others are looking to more inclusive schemes to build relationships with those who aren't ready or willing to pay for a subscription. If the past two years has seen a rush to subscriptions, 2022 has seen the start of a shake-out, but one which we are confident the best publishers will emerge from with stronger, more resilient strategies. To discuss this year's subscription trends, we're joined by Anthony Ribeiro , Audience Conversion Consultant at Po
Mon, October 10, 2022
Has local news justified its own survival? Media Moments 2022
For our latest season of the Media Voices Podcast, kindly sponsored by Poool , we’re be publishing ten episodes exploring the biggest trends of 2022 and how they affect publishers; from subscriptions and membership to advertising, platforms, emerging technology and more. Our third episode explores how the local news market has evolved over the past 12 months, from start-ups showing early signs of sustainability, to the struggles of more established publishers. After decades of managed decline, the past few years has seen a sea of local news start-ups rising to fill the gaps left by the once-dominant legacy publishers. In the US, publishers like Axios and 6AM City are using lean, MVP models to launch local news outlets with just a few reporters and a newsletter. Many others are using increasingly-available digital tools to set up websites, podcasts, membership schemes and newsletters to support a local news operation with minimal investment. In Europe, established news organisations are launching new online local services, hiring journalists to fill the gaps in their own 'news deserts'. In the UK, start-ups like The Manchester Mill have established a blueprint that works for them and are expanding into other areas, without needing tens of thousands of subscribers. Meanwhile in Finland, 39% of those who pay for news say they are paying for regional or local news online - higher than in many other markets. However, that doesn't mean the route to becoming a sustainable local news organisation is straightforward. To discuss the state of local news, we're joined this episode by Chris Jansen, Head of Local News, Global Partnerships at Google. Chris started his career in local radio news, and learned some lessons early on about how hard it is to do original reporting on a local level, especially for small businesses. Now, he leads the Google News Initiative's local news efforts, helping publishers with best practices and business tools to succeed in the digital world. This topic will be one of the chapters we explore in detail as part of our Media Moments 2022 report, launching on November 30th. Find out more and pre-register here to receive the report. This season of Media Voices is sponsored by Poool, the Membership and Subscription Suite used by over 120 publishers from a
Mon, October 03, 2022
A rollercoaster year for advertising, but some resilience amidst uncertain forecasts: Media Moments 2022
For our latest season of the Media Voices Podcast, kindly sponsored by Poool , we’re be publishing ten episodes exploring the biggest trends of 2022 and how they affect publishers; from subscriptions and membership to local news, platforms, emerging technology and more. Our second episode explores how the advertising market has had its post-pandemic recovery dented by economic uncertainty, and how publishers, platforms and brands are adapting. The advertising market has been on a rollercoaster ride over the past 12 months. Initial hopes of a more stable year to continue rebuilding from the pandemic were dashed as Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, exacerbating global economic pressures. Digital advertising growth this year has slowed – unsurprising given its unsustainable growth during Covid – but has still been growing at a much faster pace than other platforms across most segments. It is expected to account for 67% of global ad spend by the end of 2022. The outlook is mixed. The cost of living crisis is likely to force households to drastically cut back on spending. However, the World Cup is forecast to keep growth at 8.4% this year, and although the 6.4% global forecast for 2023 is lower, it is still nonetheless positive. To discuss this year’s advertising trends and what they mean for publishers going into 2023, we’re joined by Lara O’Reilly , senior correspondent at Insider (formerly known as Business Insider). Lara has covered the media and advertising industries at publications including the Wall Street Journal, Digiday, and Marketing Week for more than a decade. This topic will be one of the chapters we explore in detail as part of our Media Moments 2022 report, launching on November 30th. Find out more and pre-register here to receive the report. This season of Media Voices is sponsored by Poool, the Membership and Subscription Suite used by over 120 publishers from around the world. The team behind Poool are industry experts who have put everything they know into the product, ready to respond to your ‘how’ of launching & developing a reader revenue strategy.
Mon, September 26, 2022
As the streaming wars heat up, a reckoning is coming for traditional TV: Media Moments 2022
For this next season of the Media Voices Podcast, kindly sponsored by Poool , we’ll be publishing ten episodes exploring the biggest trends of 2022 and how they affect publishers; from subscriptions and membership to local news, platforms, emerging technology and more. This first episode explores how key moments in broadcast, streaming and TV have shaped the media landscape this year. 2022 saw streaming overtake cable in the US, key talent leaving established media brands like CNN and the BBC , and subscription services come under pressure as consumer budgets begin to tighten. Some studios are launching ad-supported tiers to offer a cheaper option, while others consider ‘rundles’ – recurring revenue bundles. The year has also seen big potential changes on the horizon for UK broadcasters. Channel 4 and the BBC have been through the wringer this year, with endless back-and-forth on the future of the licence fee and potential privatisation. New News UK station TalkTV has struggled to establish itself alongside rival GB News, despite heavy investment in production and talent. To discuss these trends and what they mean for publishers, we’re joined by Charlotte Henry , a British journalist covering media, technology, culture and politics. She’s behind The Addition newsletter and podcast, which publishes investigations, news and opinion on everything from Web3 explainers to broadcast trends. She was previously the UK Associate Editor of The MacObserver, and has written a book – Not Buying It – on the facts behind fake news. This season of Media Voices is sponsored by Poool, the Membership and Subscription Suite used by leading publishers like Future, Euronews, Elle Magazine France, Harvard Business Review and others from around the world. Their all-in-one platform helps publishers convert, manage and retain their members and subscribers. poool.tech | @PooolTech
Wed, August 31, 2022
Preview: The Publisher Podcast Summit 2022
While we’ve been on our summer break from the podcast, we’ve been hard at work putting together the Publisher Podcast Summit ; the first ever conference dedicated to supporting publishers on their podcasting journey. It’s being held at Proud Cabaret City in London – the same venue as the Publisher Podcast Awards – on October 5th 2022. The Summit will cover four key themes: editorial, marketing, sound & production, and monetisation. There will also be a series of expert-led roundtables in the afternoon covering a variety of topics, from how to get started with subscriber-only podcasts, to advanced microphone and equipment techniques. The Publisher Podcast Summit is designed for publishers of all shapes and sizes, whether you’re contemplating launching your first podcast, or have a whole stable and want to know how to take your strategy to the next level. We’ve also got team tickets to make it affordable to bring more people – this isn’t one of those stuffy conferences reserved for just senior executives. We believe change happens when people at all levels feel empowered to learn, so we want you to bring along the people who will be driving podcasts. In this teaser episode, Chris, Peter and Esther discuss their plans for the day, and which sessions they’re most looking forward to. If you’d like to join us at the Publisher Podcast Summit, you can use the code POD20 for 20% off all ticket types . A big thanks to the Summit’s sponsors: Bababam, Megaphone by Spotify, and Shure for their support. The Media Voices podcast will be back on September 26th with a new season featuring deep dives into some of the year’s biggest media moments.
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