The Publisher Podcast by Media Voices

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The CEO of The Atlantic, Nicholas Thompson, shares insights on the brand's profitability and subscriber strategy success. He discusses paywall experiments, AI trends, and setting future goals after achieving milestones of 1 million subscribers and profitability. The podcast also covers retention strategies, Apple News+, and the importance of data-driven decision-making in the media industry.

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.

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.

Edward Hyatt, Director of Newsroom SEO at The Wall Street Journal, discusses the changing SEO landscape in the news industry. He highlights differences in strategies between subscription and non-subscription publishers, the evolution of SEO over the past decade, and the potential impact of AI on SEO. The episode also delves into Forbes' fraudulent ad practices and the detrimental effects on the digital advertising ecosystem.

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...