The Publisher Podcast by Media Voices

Media Voices
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Sep 8, 2025 • 21min

The Publisher Summits: Why Reach turned to Substack for newsletter expansion and experimentation

This is the latest in a series of sessions from The Publisher Summits, which were held in June. The Summits covered four product areas across 2 days in London, from newsletters and print to apps and podcasts, featuring speakers from The Economist and the FT to Reach, National World, Grazia and more. Thanks to the sponsors of the Publisher Newsletter Summit - Passendo and Syno. Find out more about them and how they help publishers take their newsletters to the next level at publishersummits.com. This episode features a fantastic panel from the Publisher Newsletter Summit where Reach plc’s Audience and Content Director Jenna Thompson discussed why they looked to Substack for new newsletter launches, and what they’ve learned over the past two years of free and paid experiments. Get the learnings from this episode written up in article form straight into your inbox by signing up to The Publisher Newsletter at voices.media.   
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Sep 1, 2025 • 39min

The Publisher Summits: How The Economist and Financial Times manage personality-driven newsletters

Join Charlotte Tobitt as she hosts a lively discussion with guests Dominic Rech from The Economist, who shares insights on engaging newsletter strategies, and Andrew Palmer, a writer focused on management, who emphasizes the role of personality in content. Sarah Ebner from the Financial Times adds her perspective on subscriber engagement and how personal storytelling shapes their newsletters. They delve into balancing individual voices with brand identity, the importance of reader feedback, and overcoming challenges in the newsletter landscape.
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Aug 26, 2025 • 33min

The Publisher Summits: How Hearst UK and Stylist use app extra features to enhance reader relationships

This is the latest in a series of sessions from The Publisher Summits, which were held in June. The Summits covered four product areas across 2 days in London, from newsletters and print to apps and podcasts, featuring speakers from The Economist and the FT to Reach, National World, Grazia and more. Thanks to the sponsors of the Publisher App Summit - Pugpig, and Syno. Find out more about them and how they help publishers take their apps to the next level at publishersummits.com. This episode features a fantastic panel from the Publisher App Summit where Hearst UK’s Emma Peagam and Stylist’s Felicity Thistlethwaite joined Esther Thorpe on stage to talk about how games and added extras help enhance relationships with their subscribers, and boost those all-important retention rates.
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Aug 11, 2025 • 44min

The Publisher Summits: Pop-up and limited-run newsletter strategies from The Times and National World

This is the latest in a series of sessions from The Publisher Summits, which were held in June. The Summits covered four product areas across 2 days in London, from newsletters and print to apps and podcasts, featuring speakers from The Economist and the FT to Reach, National World, Grazia and more. Thanks to the sponsors of the Publisher Newsletter Summit - Passendo and Syno. Find out more about them and how they help publishers take their newsletters to the next level at publishersummits.com. This episode features two sessions from the Publisher Newsletter Summit exploring pop-up and limited run newsletters. Publishers are seeing success with pop-up and limited run newsletters, from educational courses to sporting events and elections. But what happens to subscribers to a pop-up newsletter after the newsletter has run its course? Katie Binns, Deputy editor at Times Money Mentor, a free personal finance section of the Times brand, explains in the first session how they nurture subscribers to two of their hugely successful pop-up newsletters, Couch to £5k and Pension Power Up, after the series has ended. The next session is from Neil Macdonald, Head of Newsletters at National World. In January, National World brand The Scotsman launched Scottish Golf Courses You Must Play, their first ever paid, limited-edition series newsletter. Neil shares the learnings from putting together and launching an evergreen newsletter series, and how it’s going six months in. Get the learnings from this episode written up in article form straight into your inbox by signing up to The Publisher Newsletter at voices.media. 
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Aug 4, 2025 • 25min

The Publisher Summits: Why the FT’s app is its most powerful retention tool

This is the latest in a series of sessions from The Publisher Summits, which were held in June. The Summits covered four product areas across 2 days in London, from newsletters and print to apps and podcasts, featuring speakers from The Economist and the FT to Reach, National World, Grazia and more. Thanks to the sponsors of the Publisher App Summit - Pugpig, and Syno. Find out more about them and how they help publishers take their apps to the next level at publishersummits.com. This episode features a session with Muj Ali, Group Product Manager of Acquisition, Retention and Apps at the Financial Times. He talks about where the app fits in at the FT in terms of the subscriber funnel, how they’ve adapted what they publish to people’s mobile browsing habits, and why the app is increasingly proving itself to be one of the FT’s most vital retention tools.
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Jul 21, 2025 • 27min

The Publisher Summits: How the Observer marries its audio and app strategies for audience retention

This is the latest in a series of sessions from The Publisher Summits, which were held in June. The Summits covered four product areas across 2 days in London, from newsletters and print to apps and podcasts, featuring speakers from The Economist and the FT to Reach, National World, Grazia and more. Thanks to the sponsors of the Publisher Podcast and App Summits - Crowdfindervideo, Pugpig, and Syno. Find out more about them and how they help publishers take their magazines and newsletters to the next level at publishersummits.com. This episode features insight from Aleena Augustine, who is Audience Growth Manager at The Observer. Now this is a bit special as The Observer brand was acquired by Tortoise Media in April of this year, so there was an awful lot to talk about there. Aleena spoke specifically about how the team is combining podcasts and apps for a powerful subscriber proposition – and what comes next for native audio within its app. Get the learnings from this episode written up in article form straight into your inbox by signing up to The Publisher Newsletter at voices.media. 
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Jul 14, 2025 • 17min

Inside the print revival: Publishers find success with premium magazines

This special episode of The Publisher Podcast is an audio teaser for our Inside the Print Revival report, published by Media Voices. If you haven't already got the report, you can download it from voices.media/printrevival. We at Media Voices had been wondering for some time about what is really going on in the print magazine market as we watched the number of stories shared about print launches and relaunches grow from a trickle to, if not quite a tidal wave, a fairly fast-flowing stream. Talk of a print comeback has been increasingly common in the magazine market. But at the same time, news about magazine circulations dropping, print operations being scaled back and regular closures have continued. With these two seemingly contradictory narratives competing for our attention, we decided to try and find out what is really going on. Inside the Print Revival is made possible with the support of our sponsors: Freeport Press, Warners Media Group, Atex, FIPP, Piano, and Manson Group.
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Jul 7, 2025 • 38min

The Publisher Summits: Newsletter marketing strategies from Metro.co.uk and The Spectator

This is the first of a series of sessions from The Publisher Summits, which were held in June. The Summits covered four product areas across 2 days in London, from newsletters and print to apps and podcasts, featuring speakers from The Economist and the FT to Reach, National World, Grazia and more. Thanks to the sponsors of the Publisher Newsletter and Print Summit - Passendo, Piano, Warners Group Publications, FIPP, and Syno. Find out more about them and how they help publishers take their magazines and newsletters to the next level at publishersummits.com. This episode brings together two sessions from the Publisher Newsletter Summit stage looking at newsletter marketing and discovery. The first talk is from Sophie Laughton, Newsletter Editor at Metro.co.uk, sharing how a site redesign helped their team drive newsletter sign-ups, and what other publishers can learn. Then you’ll hear from Hannah Tomes at the Spectator, interviewed on-stage by Esther Thorpe, discussing which marketing and growth strategies have and haven’t worked for them. Get the learnings from this episode written up in article form straight into your inbox by signing up to The Publisher Newsletter at voices.media.   
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Jun 30, 2025 • 41min

Highlights from Flashes & Flames' Monetising B2B Information & Events conference

It was standing room only at the inaugural Monetising B2B conference, organised by Flashes & Flames, at London's historic Stationers' Hall on 20th May. Peter and Esther went along to fly the flag for Media Voices. The conference was focused not on the difference between pureplay events and information companies, but on the data-fuelled intersection and growth potential between them. The breadth and depth of the day's content echoed the mission of Flashes & Flames and of the change underway in B2B companies in the era of AI and revenue diversification. Although there were a wide range of topics discussed during the day, this episode brings out highlights from three hot-topic areas:  AI's profit potential: How B2B's application of AI is moving to commercial reality; Data with purpose: Why proprietary data can define the future of B2B; Events re-imagined: From trade shows to festivalisation - why the future of events belongs to those who curate memorable (and valuable) experiences. For the full event report, see Flashes & Flames.
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Apr 24, 2025 • 20min

Media Briefs: Bridged Media's Maanas Mediratta on why ROI is increasingly important in AI

For publishers, the conversation around AI has moved on from how to incorporate it into the business. Now, 'Fear of missing out' has been replaced by 'Fear of not being able to measure'. 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 again from Bridged Media CEO Maanas Mediratta. Last time we spoke about how Bridged Media was making AI tools more accessible to a broader range of publishers. This time, our conversation was focused on how publisher conversations around AI have moved on, and why measuring ROI is becoming a key part of the discourse. It can be challenging to visualise "Operationalising AI" and what that means for your organisation in terms of people, process and tech. Bridged Media is currently running a survey to help establish an industry benchmark on how to future proof your business using AI enabled tech. Take the survey to help find out if your newsroom is AI ready. 

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