The Publisher Podcast by Media Voices

This week, we hear from Julia Dennison, the Executive Editor of Meredith's parenting brand Parents.com. She talks about how they're supporting parents who are trying to juggle childcare and their own jobs during the pandemic, how they use SEO to anticipate their audience's needs, and their explanatory approach to polarising topics. She also highlights the recent launch of their podcast on diverse families. In the news roundup the team discusses why the Guardian is cutting its weekend edition, Twitter's no good very bad week, and pit Pink News and Cosmo against one another in the first ever Membership Smackdown.

In this episode, the BBC's Specialist Disinformation Reporter Marianna Spring takes us through the responsibilities of broadcasters to counter disinformation, whether it's a losing battle to engage with conspiracy theorists, and the role of platforms like Google and Facebook when it comes to the spread of lies, damn lies. In the news roundup the team debates whether the B2B events industry is about to have its print advertising moment, discusses the 550 jobs set to be lost at Reach, and ask if anyone will pay for a subscription to the Media Voices' Twitter feed. Special guests: dogs.

On this week's episode of Media Voices Cathy Olmedillas founder of independent children’s magazines Anorak and Dot, explains how she learned about the collectability of magazines from her time at The Face and turned that into a style of publishing that owes more to books than disposable magazines culture. In the news roundup the team discusses France's tax credits for news subscriptions scheme, the launch of Skift Pro and the NYT pulling out of Apple News. Yeezy 2020.

This week Ed Needham, founder, editor and sole staffer of book review magazine Strong Words, explains how tech is enabling him to do what he does, and how digital makes it a challenge to capture and keep people's attention. He also discusses his previous career at FHM, his current workload and what the future of magazines might look like. In the news roundup the team uncynically discuss Google paying publishers to license content, examine why advertisers are pulling spend from platforms,(without cynicism), and aren't cynical at all during news in brief.

Jim Bilton of Wessenden Marketing tells us about how the pandemic has impacted newspaper and magazine retail, about who might be left standing after the dust settles and how they will need to reboot their distribution strategies. In the news roundup the team does a deep dive into the latest Digital News Report, examine whether social media platforms are finally getting it right around hate speech, and overuse the term 'mushy middle'. This episode is dedicated to Dead Kennedys.

This week, we hear from Adriana Lacy, Audience Engagement Editor at the LA Times. She launched a dedicated Instagram account for the LA Times’ archival photos late last year, so we talked about where those images are sourced from, what the response has been, and how they’ve used historical images of protests to add context to the events of the past few weeks. She also discusses the LA Times’ wider social media and audience engagement strategy, as well as her own Journalism Internships project and the importance of mentoring. In the news roundup, the team tries desperately to stay cheery around some good news for publishers. We don’t succeed.

This week, we talk to the Wall Street Journal's Newsroom Innovation Chief Robin Kwong. He talks about how his team develops features to help the WSJ's wider goals, how he helps facilitate innovation across teams in the business, and how his background in reporting and data journalism has helped his approach to this role. He also explains some of the features and tools they have developed for the publication, and how they explore this on their WSJ DXS Medium blog. In the news roundup the team discusses coverage of Black Lives Matter at the Philadelphia Inquirer and New York Times at length, then rattle through some news in brief. Stay angry, everybody.

This week Will Gore, Head of Partnerships and Projects at the National Council for the Training of Journalists, tells us about the NCTJ’s role in the Facebook-backed Community News Project which has funded about 80 journalists in local news rooms across nine publishers. He also speaks about journalism education, trust, the future of local news and - of course - shorthand. In the news roundup the Media Voices team discusses a week of tests for social media platforms, layoffs and internship opportunities. This is the sweariest week since the 100th episode, I counted.

This week, we spoke to Ella Dolphin, CEO of the Stylist Group. She talked about the acceleration of the title's plans to adopt a reader revenue model as the free print magazine distribution was put on hold, how that has affected the team's workflow, and what the focus will look like for the group post-pandemic. She also talks about what her role as CEO has involved since closing Shortlist and driving the expansion of Stylist. In the news roundup, the team discuss the role of data in making decisions and immediately date the episode with mentions of current political events. #StayAlert

This week we spoke to John Burn-Murdoch, a Senior Data-Visualisation Journalist for the Financial Times who has been at the forefront of their famous coronavirus trajectory trackers. He talked about the challenges of working with data this complex, how the FT's approach to trajectory charts has evolved as the crisis has continued, and why data journalists are the new rock stars of journalism. [JOHN'S INTERVIEW BEGINS AT 16:40] In the news roundup the team takes a look at how publishers are adapting to evaporated ad spend due to Covid-19, a horrendous week of media layoffs, and Apple's plans to produce audio versions of Apple News Plus articles. For some reason.