The Publisher Podcast by Media Voices

This week we hear from Max Towey, Co-Founder and CEO at RocaNews. Roca is a start-up building a community around the news that lowers the blood pressure; they believe alarmist and partisan coverage has been responsible for much of the news avoidance we're seeing today. Towey tells us how Roca is aiming for balanced and informative coverage of just a few stories a day, and are hoping to rebuild the younger generation's trust in news. He also explains how they built up over 1 million followers on Instagram, why an email newsletter is one of their most successful products, and why it's so important to lower the temperature around political discourse. In the news roundup the team asks whether hyperpartisanship is making its way across the Atlantic, based on a (very scary) report about a universal drop in trust in US news media. In the news in brief, we look at whether Europe is working smarter not harder when it comes to the podcasting industry; why has the Guardian hopped into bed with Google for funding; and discuss the latest bid for attention from manchild Elon Musk around Twitter.

On this week's episode we hear from Lance Johnson, CEO of Recurrent Media. You might not have heard of them (yet), but you will have heard of their brands - Donut, Domino, Saveur, Popular Science, and most recently, MEL magazine. He tells us about the group’s acquisition strategy, how they’re different from the usual VC companies we encounter, and what you need to do to get bought by Recurrent. In the news roundup the team does some digging into the disappearing Times story about Boris Johnson offering his then-mistress a job. We take a look at the timeline, the 'legal issues' that might have caused the story to be pulled, and asked what The Times' strategy of silence is doing to its reputation and trust in the media. In the NIBs we discuss Substack cutting its headcount, say goodbye to the print edition of Time Out, and ask why Bonnier News and Amedia are launching a digital newspaper in Russia. Read our letter to find out about how you can help us during this make-or-break year.

This week, Media Voices co-host Peter Houston is at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in France. He catches up with attendees at the festival to find out what publishers and agencies are talking about this summer, and how optimistic they are about the next few years. This is the second of a two-part podcast from the Festival; the first centred on the publisher perspective. Media Voices at Cannes 2022 is sponsored by Sovrn, a leading publisher technology platform. Day 2: Cookies and clean rooms are front-of-mind Hear from James Prudhomme, CRO at Optable, Jessica Jacobs, Global Director of Partnerships & Growth at Incubeta, Barry Adams, EVP of AdTech at IPONWEB, Matthew Papa, SVP of Business and Corporate Development at Captify, and Jonnie Moyes, Director of Buyer Development at Sovrn. They all explain what the pressing challenges and opportunities everyone is talking about at Cannes. These episodes are made possible by the support of our sponsors Sovrn. Sovrn provides advertising tools, technologies and services to tens of thousands of content creators, helping them make money, grow their businesses, and access a massive data commons that provides extraordinary insights. Learn more on their website, Sovrn.com, or follow them on LinkedIn and Twitter for more updates.

This week, Media Voices co-host Peter Houston is at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in France. He catches up with attendees at the festival to find out what publishers and agencies are talking about this summer, and how optimistic they are about the next few years. This is a two-part podcast, with the second part going live tomorrow with fresh updates from Cannes. Media Voices at Cannes 2022 is sponsored by Sovrn, a leading publisher technology platform. Day 1: Data and diversity top the agenda Hear from James Florence, Head of Advertising Technology at Immediate Media, Brian Morrissey, Founder of The Rebooting newsletter and podcast, and Dominic Perkins, Managing Director of UK and Europe at Sovrn as they give their impressions of Cannes so far. These episodes are made possible by the support of our sponsors Sovrn. Sovrn provides advertising tools, technologies and services to tens of thousands of content creators, helping them make money, grow their businesses, and access a massive data commons that provides extraordinary insights. Learn more on their website, Sovrn.com, or follow them on LinkedIn and Twitter for more updates.

In this special episode of Media Voices, Chris, Peter and Esther comb through the Reuters Institute’s Digital News Report 2022 to pick out the key findings for publishers. This year’s report reveals new insights about digital news consumption based on a YouGov survey of over 93,000 online news consumers in 46 markets covering half of the world’s population. Listen now to explore why news avoidance is up and trust is down; the relief we felt that climate coverage is on top of everyone's agenda; how the news habits of younger generations are growing more distinct; and what the report's first ever chapter dedicated to email newsletters had to say. See the full shownotes at https://voices.media/special-key-findings-from-the-reuters-institutes-digital-news-report-2022

Publishing is way behind other industries when it comes to technology consolidation. Compared with five or six key software platforms in most sectors, it is not uncommon to see publishers running their businesses on 50 or 60 separate set ups. There are clear advantages in leaving this ‘Tech Soup’ behind and migrating to a unified technology platform. For this special Conversations episode, we’re joined by Markus Karlsson, CEO of Affino, the Unified Business Platform for media, publishing and membership organisations, and Steve Hinds, Digital Editor and Product Manager at leading travel news industry site TTG Media. We discuss the benefits of systems consolidation, from improved operational efficiency to increased profitability, as well as exploring some of the challenges publishers face when looking to consolidate, and how they can get the process started. This Conversations episode is sponsored by Affino. Founded 2009, Affino is the leading Unified Business Platform for media, publishing, events, membership and professional services organisations. The Affino SaaS Platform provides a complete solution for engaging with and monetising audiences. It combines full-range Audience CRM with Sales and Marketing Automation, Ecommerce, Subscriptions and Memberships, Messaging, CMS, Events, Ad Serving, and Recruitment. Affino streamlines organisations for more efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and productivity, as well as delivering numerous new and unique revenue stream capabilities. The fully GDPR-compliant system is built on the principles of Actionable Intelligence – prompting and triggering intuitive rapid responses based on fully accurate and comprehensive first-hand real-time data. Learn more about Affino on their website, or contact Markus on [email protected].

This week we catch up with Neal Freyman, managing editor at Morning Brew. Since 2017 he’s been part of the team that’s proved the viability of newsletters as a source of both advertising and audience revenue - and which was ahead of the curve when it comes to the importance of newsletters to a publishers’ wider strategy. We hear about what’s changed in the newsletter ecosystem this time, what the rise of the individual journalist-led newsletter means for creators, and what new verticals he wants to launch newsletters in. In the news roundup the team discuss the Mail's latest (poorly-researched) salvo in its war against Google, and ask what the ramifications are for the wider public. In the NIBs we talk about the sad closure of a beloved newsletter, ask whether podcasts are a replacement for magazines, and talk about the future of events for publishers. Peter calls Brian Morrissey "a very handsome man".

Media Voices co-host Peter Houston has jetted off to Cascais, Portugal for the 2022 FIPP World Media Congress. He catches up with speakers and attendees at the event to find out what they're hoping to learn, what it's like being back in the room, and how optimistic they are for the future of publishing. In this episode we bring you highlights from FIPP CEO James Hewes' keynote speech, Professor Lucy Küng drawing out practical lessons from her research into digital transformation, Fortune's Jim Jacovides explaining how Covid made the publisher more flexible, Tortoise's Katie Vanneck-Smith outlining how they are doubling down on audience engagement, Pugpig's Jonny Kaldor sharing the optimism in the room, and Boom Saloon's Rachel Arthur setting out what the big and small publishers can learn from each other.

This week we talk to Sarah Vizard, Editor of Raconteur. She explained what Raconteur's unique angle on business stories is in a crowded field, how it uses its print publication to drive digital expansion, and what their recently launched New Voices programme hopes to do with giving writers from under-represented backgrounds a start in business journalism. In the news roundup the team asks if Dotdash Meredith's approach to cutting back on print is more honest than Condé Nast's - or whether it is just an attempt at massaging the truth around print decline. In the news in brief we talk about payment models for newspapers that allow people on lower incomes access to news; the impact of going online-only on broadcast channels; and the good news that podcast revenue is growing significantly! Become a Media Voices supporter over at voices.media/support.

This episode we hear from Bhanupriya Rao, Founder at BehanBox, an Indian publication whose mission is to centre voices of women and gender diverse people through evidence and data-driven reporting. We spoke about the inequalities in access to media in India, how BehanBox hopes to make real changes for women and gender diverse people, and why data is so important in their reporting. In the news round-up, the team discuss a collection of stories about access and representation in the media, from the 'posh news for posh people' outlook at some publications to the absence of working class voices in news media. In the news in brief section, we look at what makes a company a magazine company, Playboy's push for influencers, and cost-cutting at the BBC.

This week we hear from Charlotte Cijffers, Digital Director at Rolling Stone UK & Attitude Magazine for Stream Publishing. We spoke about launching the iconic Rolling Stone title in the UK, her work on Attitude's digital transformation, and the benefits of developing more localised content for magazines. She also gives advice on what publishers should focus on when looking to grow their own audiences online. In the news roundup we discuss the various reactions to TalkTV's tumbling ratings, and ask whether the British public is rejecting hyper-partisan news in general... or just finding it elsewhere. In the news in brief we discuss whether newspapers are normalising climate change, highlight The Economist's exceptional success with its podcasts, and hear some heartening news that diversity and representation are no longer just buzzwords in publishing.

On this week's episode of Media Voices we hear from Jack Marshall, Co-Founder of Toolkits, a business information and consulting company focused on subscription publishing. We talked about his past life as a media reporter at Digiday and the WSJ, what opportunity he and co-founder Shareen Pathak spotted in the market, and what advice he would give to publishers with subscriptions. In the news roundup we discuss what lessons we learned from listening to 150+ podcasts, ask what the Twitter chaos means for publishers (and Peter's stock), and touch upon the Guardian's evolving newsletter strategy. Music and sound effects via Chris' home office.

This week we spoke to Snigdha Sur, Founder & CEO of The Juggernaut; a content and community platform for global South Asians. She talked about founding a media business with a business background rather than a journalism one, and how her knowledge of media VC and funding has influenced how she runs the publication. She also shares what she’s learned from a paywall, and bringing people in through free content like the newsletter and their new podcast, The Juggernaut Interviews: Founders. In the news roundup we discuss all the news that occurred while we were off on our hiatus. We ask whether Musk's mooted takeover of Twitter will have an impact (no in short-term, yes in long-term); examine the launch of TalkTV and its subsequent fail to register any viewers; and the rushing revival of the advertising market. In the NIBs we explore whether local news sites do local news any more, the end of Facebook's podcast support, and Le Monde stretching itself into the US.

Springer Nature's flagship Nature Podcast has been a strong competitor in our Awards. The podcast scooped the Best Science & Medical Podcast in 2020, and in 2021, also won the Best Coronavirus Podcast category with Coronapod. Judges described it as "like listening to smart, welcoming friends," praising its excellent content and truly global scale. Nature Podcast is in the race again this year, shortlisted both for Best Limited Series and Best Science & Medical Podcast. Peter spoke to Nature's Senior Multimedia Editor Benjamin Thompson about Coronapod. He talked about planning a dedicated Coronavirus podcast with a team all working from their homes, the importance of maintaining audience's trust, and keeping coverage of the pandemic going after Coronapod had been folded back into the main podcast. This year’s Publisher Podcast Award winners will be revealed on April 27th at a live event in London, as well as streamed online. See our tickets page for more details. Entries for next year’s Publisher Podcast Awards will open in September. Think you’ve got what it takes to win an award? Sign up to our mailing list at www.publisherpodcastawards.com

The winner of the Best Hobbies & Special Interest Podcast at 2021's Publisher Podcast Awards was The Week in Art from The Art Newspaper. Judges noted how the presenters made an in-depth topic very accessible, the passion of the interviewees, and strong commercial performance of the podcast, as well as the contribution it makes to the broader Art Newspaper brand. Peter spoke to Ben Luke, podcast host and review editor at The Art Newspaper. He talked about how the podcast and its format came about, why they chose a single sponsor per season revenue model, and what value The Week in Art brings to the publisher's wider audience. This year’s Publisher Podcast Award winners will be revealed on April 27th at a live event in London, as well as streamed online. See our tickets page for more details. Entries for next year’s Publisher Podcast Awards will open in September. Think you’ve got what it takes to win an award? Sign up to our mailing list at www.publisherpodcastawards.com

The winner of the Publisher Podcast Hero of the Year award at our first ever Publisher Podcast Awards in 2020 was Christopher Phin. We were constantly impressed by his efforts to not just transform DC Thomson's podcasting efforts, but also to help others in the industry improve through shared knowledge, resources and endless enthusiasm. Peter caught up with him later that year to find out how his role as Head of Podcasts had come about at DC Thomson, the value podcasts bring to a publishing company, and more. He also shares six essential reasons publishers should look at podcasting, and how to warm editorial staff up to being in front of a microphone. We're releasing it as a special bonus episode as part of our mini series looking at lessons publishers can learn from award-winning podcasts, showcasing best practice, hints and tips from the best in the industry. This year’s Publisher Podcast Award winners will be revealed on April 27th at a live event in London, as well as streamed online. See our tickets page for more details. Entries for next year’s Publisher Podcast Awards will open in September. Think you’ve got what it takes to win an award? Sign up to our mailing list at www.publisherpodcastawards.com

For two years running, The Week Unwrapped has scooped the ‘Best News Podcast’, fending off competition from some of the biggest names in publishing. Judges for 2021’s awards highlighted the superb audio quality, the skill with which the hosts presented a genuine and insightful conversation, and strong brand alignment. Peter spoke to The Week’s Digital Editor and podcast host Holden Frith. He discussed how their signature three story format had to evolve during the pandemic, the importance of varied points of view within the episodes, and why the podcast is addressing an audience in its own right rather than just being the magazine in audio form. Note: This episode was recorded prior to Future PLC’s acquisition of Dennis Publishing, owners of The Week. This year’s Publisher Podcast Award winners will be revealed on April 27th at a live event in London, as well as streamed online. See our tickets page for more details. Entries for next year’s Publisher Podcast Awards will open in September. Think you’ve got what it takes to win an award? Sign up to our mailing list at www.publisherpodcastawards.com

This week we hear from President and GM of Consumer at Yahoo Joanna Lambert. She talks about the changes at Yahoo over the last few years - including how Covid forced them to adapt - its 900 million users including a growing GenZ audience, and Yahoo's revenue strategies outside of advertising. In the news roundup we discuss the FT launching its new bite-size app, YouTube's plans for podcasting, and yet more bad behaviour from Facebook.

The winner of the incredibly competitive Best Limited Series award in 2021's Publisher Podcast Awards was Floodlines from The Atlantic. Judges praised the captivating characters, richly textured sound design and clever storytelling. Peter spoke to The Atlantic's Vann Newkirk, host of the series. He talked about how the idea for a podcast focused on Hurricane Katrina came about, what their process was for collecting the interviews and going deep into the topic, and the role of music in enhancing the narration. He also gave his advice for publishers looking to create their own narrative podcasts. This year’s Publisher Podcast Award winners will be revealed on April 27th at a live event in London, as well as streamed online. See our tickets page for more details. Entries for next year’s Publisher Podcast Awards will open in September. Think you’ve got what it takes to win an award? Sign up to our mailing list at www.publisherpodcastawards.com

This week we hear from The Hustle's Principle Reporter and Sunday Editor Zachary Crockett. He talks about his career path working across radio, newsletters, journalism and data, how he makes must-read long-form Sunday issues for The Hustle's business audience, and launching a daily podcast. He also discusses the skills young writers need today, and whether he thinks we've reached peak newsletter. In the news roundup the team discusses the news that BuzzFeed investors are pushing Jonah Peretti to shutter the award-winning but loss-making BuzzFeed News. We ask if the investors are missing the appeal to advertisers, lament the loss of longform investigative work, and ask if this is the nail in the coffin for digital news pureplays (no). In the news roundup we look at why journalists should aim to be their own brands, why Future PLC has acquired two social media companies, and discuss the news that Michael Grade is set to be the new chair of Ofcom. Peter couldn't get his mic to work for 20 minutes before we started recording, if you're wondering.

Immediate Media have featured numerous times on the shortlists and as winners of categories both for 2020 and 2021's Publisher Podcast Awards. Olive magazine podcast was the winner of 2021's Best Sponsored Podcast. We spoke to Immediate Media's Head of Podcasts Ben Youatt. He works across the publisher's whole portfolio of podcasts, including the olive magazine podcast and 2020 winner History Extra. He talked about scaling up the podcast team, facilitating audio operations, and getting to be the 'engine' that enables editorial teams to implement their ideas. This year's Publisher Podcast Award winners will be revealed on April 27th at a live event in London, as well as streamed online. See our tickets page for more details. Entries for next year’s Publisher Podcast Awards will open in September. Think you’ve got what it takes to win an award? Sign up to our mailing list at www.publisherpodcastawards.com

In this week's episode we hear from Hannah Storm, founder and director of the Headlines network, an organisation working to improve the mental health of people working in the media. She tells us about why mental health can be bad among media professionals, what organisations and individuals can do to make things better and about Headlines’ new podcast and their incredible first episode featuring Lyse Doucet and Lyndsey Hilsum talking about mitigating the risks involved in frontline journalism. In the news roundup the team asks if The Times is right to keep its Ukraine war coverage paywalled and if we are in a constant state of Trump Bump. In the news in brief we discuss Australian indies being cut out of the news media bargaining code, Substack's anti-internet changes, and the FT's latest milestone. Donate to aid journalists at the Kyiv Independent here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/kyivindependent-launch

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

This week UK Editor of The Big Issue Paul McNamee tells us about the Big Issue’s Breakthrough scheme, paying disadvantaged young people to get into journalism. He also talks about why the magazine needed a redesign to make everything important and necessary, working with designer Matt Willey, their relationship with subscribers, digital-first news and balancing campaigning with making a properly entertaining magazine. Ahead of the interview the team discuss their outrageous predictions for 2022 in media, from the necessity for strike teams to shut down live audio, through the Pivot to the Metaverse, to the rise and rise of micropayments for news (finally). Merry Christmas, all, and a happy New Year!

This special episode of Media Voices includes the audio of our launch presentation for the Media Moments 2021 report. Chris, Peter and Esther each outline which media moment of the year they found interesting, before being joined by an expert panel of media analysts to dissect the year. The team are then joined by The Rebooting's Brian Morrissey, Press Gazette's Charlotte Tobitt, The Reuters Institute's Professor Lucy Kueng, and Sovrn's Dominic Perkins. The panel talks about some of the key media trends that have affected publishers this year, and what they're all keeping an eye on in 2022. Visit voices.media to learn more about our sponsors, partners and to download the report itself for free.

Noema is a magazine looking at some of the biggest issues of the 21st century - AI, the climate crisis, the future of democracy and capitalism. Its Executive Editor Kathleen Miles tells us about the challenges of publishing in what seems like a very high-brow niche, commissioning and editing writers like Yuval Harari and Francis Fukuyama - and how interests outside of publishing feed back into her work. In the news roundup Peter and Chris discuss whether taking fossil fuel ad money makes publications complicit in greenwashing, the BBC's audience figures ahead of its centenary, and whether US media companies should be enviously looking at UK publications.

This week we hear from Tara Lajumoke, Managing Director of FT Strategies, the Financial Times' consulting firm. We discussed how FT Strategies fits into the FT's wider goals, what her role involves as MD, and how they're building a robust playbook for other subscription businesses. We also talk about how publishers' subscription strategies are holding up after the pandemic. In the news round up, Peter and Esther discuss Spotify's paid podcast tools, Axios' early expansion of its local newsletters into 11 new locations, and why we still care about magazine covers.

This week, we hear from Blair Tapper, Senior Vice President at The Independent US. She talks about what her priorities have been since the brand's US launch, what an Independent reader looks like across the pond, and why their new commercial offerings are more mission-based. She also explains why block lists create huge missed opportunities for advertisers as well as publishers. In the news roundup the team discuss whether altruism is the key driver of subscriptions (and which publishers can make the most of it), ask if micro news in audio is a losing bet for everyone, and chat about why women in publishing have been so poorly served during the pandemic.

In this special Conversations episode of Media Voices, sponsored by Permutive, we explore the ‘Great Privacy Reset’. The tension between advertising and privacy has hit a boiling point in recent years. Invasive tracking across the web and increasingly aggressive ways of building data profiles of consumers has been seen as standard in the industry, with companies racing to get more data than ever about people. But at the same time as awareness has grown about these methods, consumers are pushing back. We’ve recently seen initiatives both from regulators demanding better control and fairer use of data, and the platforms themselves putting measures in place to restrict and prevent certain types of tracking. This episode, we hear from Jana Meron, Senior VP of Programmatic and Data Strategy at Insider Inc, Nicholas Flood, Future plc’s Global Ad Product and Revenue Operations Director, and Joe Root, Founder of Permutive. They talk about where these issues arose from, some of the challenges they face implementing the changes, and how we can all work towards a sustainable advertising ecosystem for the future. Permutive are rebuilding data in programmatic advertising to protect privacy. As the only Audience Platform built on patented and privacy-preserving on-device technology, they enable premium advertisers and publishers to plan, build and activate cohorts — all while keeping everyone’s data safe. You can learn more about their work, case studies and resources at permutive.com.

This week’s interview is with James Fahn, Global Director of Internews’ Environmental Programs and its Earth Journalism Network. Internews trains journalists around the world in support of a free press - James spoke with us as he sets out with a group of journalists from the global south to cover COP26 from their own perspectives. In the news roundup the team discuss the return to the magazine fold for one of independent newsletters' first big stars - and whether that spells the end for the newsletter dream. In the NIBs we ask if Adobe can help fight disinformation through better image information, success for Bloomberg Media, and make endless football analogies.

This week we hear from David Adeleke, Founder of CMQ Media and creator of the Communiqué newsletter analysing the intersection of the media, content ecosystem, and the digital economy in Africa. He outlines the complexities of using African media as a catch-all term, how podcasts are growing across the continent, and why an acquisition last year by Stripe has provided a lightbulb moment for technology investors. In the news roundup, the team discuss yet more revelations about Facebook (now Meta), a stock market comeback for a number of publishers, and more publisher NFTs going for crazy amounts of money. Peter tells us about his crypto stocks.

This week we hear from Sean Conboy, Executive Editor at The Players' Tribune; a sports-focused site that publishes first-person stories from professional athletes. He talks about the process they use to get content from elite athletes, and why the site doesn't shy away from difficult stories and human rights issues, like the ones around the Qatar World Cup. In the news roundup Chris and Peter take a look at a grab bag of media stories from the Financial Times reporting a loss, through the reinvention of Rolling Stone, to the hypocritical hiring practices of the BBC's director general. Video podcasting killed the podcasting stars.

For our 200th episode, we hear from Duncan Tickell, Chief Revenue Officer at Immediate Media. He talks about why he rejoined Immediate and what his focus is now with diversification, how their podcasts are becoming a seven figure revenue business, and what he’s doing to help the publisher maintain the gains it made during the pandemic. He also explains why sourdough webinars have been such a hit, and why it’s so important to be in markets where consumers are passionate. In the news roundup the team goes all-in on the Alden Global Capital expose, compares it with the news that Axel Springer is investing heavily in Politico, and then compare that in turn with the Axios local newsletter membership launch. Chris spoils the end of a movie from 1974.

On this week's episode we hear from The New Republic's Literary Editor Laura Marsh. She tells us about what makes working in an audio format especially rewarding, best practice for evolving your audio product, and why non-news content is such a good touchpoint for audiences. In the news roundup the team discuss why Facebook's outage isn't necessarily the best news for publishers, the needless and futile rollercoaster of Ozy Media, and why The Daily Mail thought it could use a lawyer's tweets as a column. We somehow forgot that next week is our 200th episode.

This week we hear from Kaya Yurieff, The Information's Creator Economy Reporter. We talked about how she covers an industry that is so new and sprawling, some of the challenges of being a creator, and how it fits with The Information's other coverage. She also explains why businesses should take creators seriously, and why she expects to see more Creator Economy reporters at other outlets in the future. In the news round-up, Chris, Esther and a freshly holiday-ed Peter discuss the closure of Ozy Media; the Theranos of publishing that none of us had heard of until this week. Facebook ends up in hot water yet again and will probably be dealing with fresh scandal as soon as this episode is released.

The Manchester Mill is a subscription-based newsletter for the modern age. In this interview its founder Joshi Herrmann tells us why good local journalism demands having boots on the ground, how the sins of the past are impacting the journalism of today, and how he plans to expand into new cities and new revenue streams. In the news roundup we're joined by founder of The Business of Content Simon Owens to discuss what we've learned about newsletters from one year of Casey Newton's Substack. We take a look at everything from newsletter discovery, to price anchoring, to whether the wave of new launches has already crested. It's an unexpected Newsletters Special!

On this week's episode of Media Voices we hear from David Floyd, MD of Social Spider, a community interest company that publishes five community newspapers in London. He tells us about finding a new model for local news - one that's maybe commercially viable enough - and about why local news matters. In the news roundup the team discusses the revelations from the Wall Street Journal's ongoing publication of The Facebook Files, the launch of News UK's talkTV, and ask if anyone still uses Clubhouse. Chris and Peter have a Fleetwood Mac singalong.

In this special Conversations episode we hear about the past, future and most importantly present of robot journalism. Automated journalism has been around for many years now, delivering value back to the parent newsrooms that use it effectively. AI tools allow newsrooms to tailor the output of the robots to fit their house style, to interview people for inclusion in the created article - and to allow the newsrooms’ human writers to spread their wings. In this episode Cecilia Campbell of United Robots helps myth-bust some of the common fallacies about what robot journalism can - and can’t - do. From the integration of video or interactive features to what it allows the newsroom to concentrate on beyond rote data work. To help illustrate what is possible we’re also joined by Ard Boer, Product Manager for Sport at NDC Mediagroep, who tells us how their sports team is making the most of robot journalism. For more information on United Robots or its work with publishers, you can visit https://unitedrobots.ai/

On this special episode of Media Voices, former Editor in Chief of EMPIRE Terri White takes us through the changes she made during her time at the magazine, from opening up the brand to a wider audience of both readers and contributors, to inspiring staff and cultivating the passionate community of new and longer-term subscribers. She also expounds her reasons for resigning from EMPIRE - a role that she still today calls the best job in the world - and the realities of juggling family life with a top job in media.

In this week's episode we hear from Sophie Cross, the founder and editor of Freelancer magazine. She tells Peter about her penchant for writing business plans, the freelance community that inspired the Freelancer magazine launch, and how she kept the spark going after the initial rush of the first issue. In the news roundup the team discusses the remarkable e-commerce based turnaround of Future plc, Twitter's revenue results, and ask if Facebook is launching its independent publishing platform Bulletin in a smart way. See you later in summer!

In this episode Future's Chief Audience and Ecommerce Officer Aaron Asadi tells us about where the ecommerce function sits within Future, how it is developing in relation to audience development, and creating content for affiliate ecommerce revenues across a huge range of brands. In the news roundup the team discusses whether climate change needs to become a part of every journalist's beat, the internal wars going on at GB News and Twitter sunsetting its Fleets feature. Put in the spotlight, Chris struggles to find the audio tweet function within 30 seconds.