The Publisher Podcast by Media Voices

Over the past few years, we've seen the renaissance of email as publishers and brands have rediscovered the benefits of a direct relationship with audiences. The power of email can be seen from sky-high valuations of newsletter platforms, in addition to the amount of time that has been spent iterating on existing email strategies. But at the same time, the format has yet to truly deliver on its potential. A lack of investment and understanding of the technology that underpins the most sophisticated strategies still holds it back. There is also a delicate balance to be struck between monetising inventory and protecting user data that presents ongoing challenges to publishers. In this special Conversations episode, Chris Sutcliffe is joined by Passendo CEO and co-founder Andreas Jürgensen, CCO and co-founder Anders Rantzau Rasmussen, and Access Intelligence's VP of Digital for the Media and Marketing division Michael Ring. They discuss how publishers are growing their bottom line by optimising and automating in-email ad serving, and the growing importance of maintaining audience trust and protecting data privacy. Learn more about Passendo on their website.

The winner of the Publisher Podcast Hero of the Year award in 2021's Publisher Podcast Awards was Theodora Louloudis, Podcast Editor at The Telegraph. She was praised for the exceptional work produced with limited resources, including spearheading the launch of five new podcasts over a particularly challenging year, as well as her leadership in shaping strategy at the publisher. We caught up with her to explore how Covid changed The Telegraph's audio strategy, what it's like working with columnists and journalists, and how they decide which podcasts to make. Theo also tells us what attributes she'd look for in a podcasting hero.

This week we hear from Stephanie Mehta, CEO & Chief Content Officer of Manseuto Ventures, parent of Inc. and Fast Company. She talked about going from an editorial career to the CEO role, the changes in leadership attitudes to publishing over the last decade, and what the revenue models for Inc. and Fast Company look like post-pandemic. She also explains why print is still important in bringing prestige to the titles. In the news roundup the team discuss Reach Plc's latest results and ask why, since it delivered solid profits, did its share price fall by 25%? In the NIBs we ask whether Twitter's community-focused moderation rollout will be successful, note the hypocrisy of the British government lauding a service it is undercutting at every turn, and ask why we weren't that impressed with The Financial Times' 1m paying subscribers. Please do get in touch if you can solve the Reach question!

In this week's episode we hear from founder of local newsletter network 6AM City Ryan Heafy. He tells us why the network is very close to having a million subscribers across its 24 daily newsletters, about his unconventional route into media - he used to fix Black Hawk helicopters - and how it helped 6AM launch in 16 cities in a year (spoiler: it's all about operations and scale). If you care about the nuts and bolts of hyper-local newsletter economics this is the interview for you. In the news roundup the team discuss the bizarre saga of Hollywood Unlocked's "exclusive" on the death of HRM Queen Elizabeth II (and what that means for online disinformation), Global's push for European radio pre-eminence, and why LinkedIn is launching its own podcast network.

This week we hear from Abbianca Makoni, a 22-year old journalist who, after completing a four-year apprenticeship at the the Evening Standard, decided to go it alone with own online publication Awallprintss. It shares the voices and stories of under-reported communities around the world, as well as platforming the creative work of different groups across culture, news, arts, music and more.  In the news roundup we discuss whether publishers need an exit strategy from social media as a whole, Nick Clegg's appointment to the inner circle of Meta, and Condé Nast posting its first profit in years.

On this week's episode we hear from Jakub Parusinski, founding editor at The Fix, a trade magazine for media professionals. He and Peter spoke about Jakub’s background across journalism and management consulting, and how that has informed the nuts and bolts approach the Fix takes to ‘cracking the media management puzzle’. In the news roundup the team discuss crypto's incursions into legacy media. We talk about the BBC pulling a documentary hours before it aired after the Guardian raised some concerns about the validity of its subject's claims, and Forbes' bizarre association with both a crypto scammer named Razzlekhan and its subsequent receipt of a $200m investment from crypto exchange Binance. In the news in brief we discuss Twitter's results, the closure of Entertainment Weekly as a print title, and the laudable success of Industry Dive's newsletter network. They said a sub-40 minute episode of Media Voices was impossible, but we dared to dream.

In this episode we hear from Sophia Waterfield, editor and founder of Paranting Magazine. It’s a magazine for parents, but for parents that don’t have time for some of the aspirational BS that a lot of lifestyle magazines cover. We spoke about the name, funding a start-up with the aim of actually paying freelancers - oh, and accents. In the news roundup the team discuss the collateral damage of the New York Times' success, a busy week for News Corp, and Facebook's first ever loss of active daily users. Peter and Esther mistakenly think they are arguing, are in fact loudly agreeing with one another. Wordle 232 3/6* ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬛⬛🟩⬛🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

This week's guest is Alastair Brian, fact-checking lead at The Ferret. He spoke about out the realities of modern fact-checking (it’s like Sisyphus on steroids), how to win over new readers who don’t have a pre-existing trusted relationship, and how community is at the heart of any sustainable revenue stream In the news roundup the team discusses the battle for Spotify's soul, Google's latest plan to replace the third-party cookie, a Tortoise, and local newspaper group Archant being back up for sale after only 18 months. As of the time this episode goes live, we have lost our bet about Taylor Swift.

This week’s guest is Rob John, MD of the Content Marketing Association. He discusses what the CMA does and who its members are, how content marketing might fit within a publisher’s revenue mix, and the panel they’re running at The Publishing Show in London in March. In the news roundup the team discusses the realities and unrealities of the metaverse for publishers, German publishers' latest attempt to curtail Google's powers, and paid subscriptions for creators on TikTok and Instagram.

The narrative that local news is dead is widely accepted in the media industry. The rise of digital advertising has cut off local news organisation's main source of revenue, leading to decades of cuts and managed decline at once-lucrative publications who have struggled to adapt. But over the last few years, there have been glimmers of hope. Although there are still vast news deserts with no coverage, start-ups are springing up to fill gaps in some areas. Publications like Axios get a lot of publicity for their pledges to save local news via their bullet-pointed newsletters. However, there are many smaller publishers which get far less attention, but which are well on the way to making the business side of local news work for them. In this special podumentary episode of Media Voices, Esther Thorpe talks to four of the participants of the most recent Google News Initiative Startups Lab: Borderless, Santa Cruz Local, the San Jose Spotlight, and The Mendocino Voice. They discuss what drove them to start their publication, what business models they're choosing to use, and some of the challenges they've faced launching a media business. For more on the start-ups, the transcript and more, see our website voices.media