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.

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.

Themes from the Newsrewired conference include challenges in journalism, appealing to readers and generating revenue, building strong relationships with communities, diversifying revenue, adapting to emerging tech and platforms. Media Voices podcast offers insights from speakers and discusses their B2B publishing brand.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.