The Publisher Podcast by Media Voices

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...

The Telegraph's Maire Bonheim and David Alexander discuss prioritizing newsletters, subscriber funnel stages, community-focused content, and live events. They also touch on newsletter retention as a tool for subscriptions. The news roundup covers The Atlantic's profitability and 1m subscriber milestone, emphasizing high-quality content for subscription growth.

On this week's episode we hear from Jane Ferguson, an award-winning journalist with a huge amount of experience covering wars and conflicts the world over. She tells us about how wars often bring the issues around modern journalism – mistrust, disinformation, lack of resources – into the starkest focus, and how the democratisation of tech is making the job of journalists covering war both easier and more difficult. In the news roundup the team discusses the news that French authorities have levied a fine on Google for its unauthorised training of AI tools upon publisher content, and ask to what extent this is justified and its relationship to the ongoing acrimony between Google and publishers. Esther makes several excellent segues. Sign up to our newsletter and community forum by going to voices.media.

This week we hear from Ridhi Radia, Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at Immediate Media, about where media sits on the change spectrum for diversity and inclusion. She tells us why she is encouraged by the fact that she hears people from a wide range of backgrounds talking about ED&I, embedding values of inclusion in the workplace and within organisational leadership, and the work that she is doing inside Immediate helping networks of underrepresented groups come together to create change. In the news roundup the team discusses research from Toolkits and National Research Group into consumer attitudes to publishers’ digital subscription products. Of particular interest is its finding that aversion to advertising within subscription products appears to be growing, with 28% highlighting “too many advertisements” as a key reason for their dissatisfaction, up significantly from 19% in 2023. Sign up for our daily newsletter and community forum at voices.media.

This podcast explores practical AI use cases for small newsrooms, focusing on collaboration and knowledge-sharing in journalism. It discusses the benefits of AI in enhancing user engagement and content summarization. Additionally, the team delves into the challenges faced by young writers and journalists in the media industry, highlighting disparities in earnings and financial stability. The conversation also touches on the financial struggles of news channels and the shift towards digital platforms.

For the 95% of publishers who haven't yet adopted AI, identifying a use case they can start with is usually the biggest roadblock. But the tools also need to be available for publishers to be able to support their unique revenue streams. 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 Maanas Mediratta, CEO at Bridged Media, about how and why making AI tools more accessible to publishers will help the whole ecosystem. Much of the AI innovation is being driven by big tech companies and industries like eCommerce, fashion and finance. But publishers have such a diversity of business models, even tools designed for media companies often won't satisfy individual companies' goals and needs. Note: Media Voices are currently working with Bridged to advance our own goals of driving sign-ups to our daily newsletter, and resurfacing relevant content from our site. You may well see some of our engagement tests over the coming weeks, so if you're interested in trying Bridged for yourself, details are below. This Media Briefs episode is sponsored by Bridged Media, democratising AI for publishers. Through no-code AI solutions, Bridged lets publishers access the power of machine learning and Gen AI to meet their engagement and revenue objectives. Publisher-first AI tools detect where the audience is most likely to engage and through a single line of code, introduce action cards that prompt readers to register, subscribe, or read more, helping publishers establish richer relationships. Learn more about Bridged Media’s no-code AI tools on their website.

On this week's episode of Media Voices we hear from The Economist's Executive Vice President of Marketing Nada Arnot. Marketing isn't something we talk about a lot on the podcast, but as Arnot makes clear it's an integral part of media companies' ability to address, convert and retain audiences. The Economist has just launched its largest brand campaign since the early 2000s, so Arnot tells us about how the news-focused magazine is seeking to attract younger readers, why she believes long-term brand building is vital in today’s news ecosystem, and the future plans for marketing The Economist. In the news roundup the Media Voices team discuss the news that a group of 32 European media organizations, including notable names like publishing giant Axel Springer and media heavyweight Schibsted, have jointly filed a Є2.1bn ($2.3 billion) antitrust lawsuit against Alphabet-owned Google. We ask why no adults ever get round the table to discuss a realistic approach to solving these issues before they arise - and whether it will all matter in a few years given the rapid rise of Amazon's ad capabilities.

Lauren Kleinman and Lee Joselowitz share insights on 'performance publishing' and the reward of authenticity in digital publishing. The news roundup discusses media company mergers and challenges in the digital media landscape. The podcast touches on strategies for growth, audience persona, and resilience in business.

This week we hear from two of the three editors of The Paper, an intimidatingly-sized Welsh indie magazine. Oliver Gabe and Owen Davies take us through the annual publishing plan, why they launched the title with a live variety show, and what makes the title feel truly distinctive in a saturated marketplace. In the news roundup Esther, Peter and Chris discuss some items of relatively good media news, before segueing into the bad. We ask whether generalist media titles are one end of a seesaw and bespoke local and specialist titles are the other, and discuss why 'distinctiveness' and 'community' are too often used to paper over cracks in media business models.  Media Voices has a new look! Don't forget you can visit our refreshed and revamped site at voices.media, and sign up to our newsletter and community forum while you're there.

As part of a special four-part podcast series, supported by the Google News Initiative, we’ve been talking to publishers and experts across Europe who are working to find resilient business models. We spoke to them about the state of the local news market in their regions, how they’ve evolved company culture and practice, and what tools and trends they’re working with to prepare for the next decade. What metrics should local news publishers be focusing on, and what new tech is out there to support growing businesses? Our fourth and final episode explores the tools, tech and trends – including AI – which organisations are using or looking to use in the future. Experts featured in this episode: Jayne Savva, Group Features Editor (news), DC Thomson Emily Hewett, Head of Audience Development, DC Thomson Cheryl Livingstone, Special Projects Editor, DC Thomson Doug Smith – Lead architect, Table Stakes Pierre France, Co-Founder, Rue89 Strasbourg David Floyd, Managing Director, Social Spider Jonathan Heawood, Executive Director, Public Interest News Foundation Benedicte Autret, Head of News Partnerships, UK/IE/Northern Europe, Google Prof. Dr. Wiebke Möhring, Professor of Journalism, TU Dortmund Institute for Journalism This series is supported by the Google News Initiative. They work with publishers and journalists to fight misinformation, share resources, and build a diverse and innovative local news system. Find out more about their programmes, tools and resources at newsinitiative.withgoogle.com