The Publisher Podcast by Media Voices

Turning readers into subscribers: top tips for converting via newsletters

In the last episode of this season of The Publisher Podcast from Media Voices, we're bringing you a panel from our last Publisher Summit, all about strategies for converting newsletter readers into paying subscribers.

This panel featured Henry Seltzer, Director of Newsletter Operations at Bloomberg, Joshi Herrmann, Founder at Mill Media, and Rosie Percy, Newsletter Strategy Director at Hearst UK, moderated by Chris Sutcliffe.

Henry, Joshi and Rosie explored tips and tools used to convert free newsletter subscribers to a paying product, from testing and optimisation to campaigns and messaging.

Early Bird booking for this year’s Publisher Summit is now open. We’ll be holding the Summit on July 8th at a really cool venue near Paddington in London, with a single main stage focused on direct-to-audience product strategies.

If you’re specifically interested in newsletters or podcasts though, we’re shaping the agenda so you can sit on a relevant main stage session, then step out for dedicated workshops, so there will always be something valuable to get involved with.

The Summit will take place before the Publisher Podcast and Newsletter Awards in the evening, both of which are now open for entries. More details about tickets, entering the Awards, and all this at voices.media/events.

Informa's Alex Roth on their three-pronged approach to AI

Welcome to this special season of The Publisher Podcast, bringing you the best sessions from the Definitive AI Forum for Media, Information and Events, which we held with Flashes & Flames in London.

This week’s episode features Alex Roth, Strategy Director for Informa Plc the second biggest B2B company based in the UK, and the biggest B2B events business in the world.  Alex spoke about how Informa is focussing on how AI can improve ways of working, product development, especially around data insights, and how it supports discovery, helping Informa’s audiences find and access content.
   
He spoke about redesigning processes to incorporate AI has driven progress, the development of an internal app store and an app builder agent to avoid overloading the company’s central AI team, and how focus is the key to taking on AI. 

Read the key takeaways from this session, find our weekly newsletter and more on voices.media

Is AI a golden opportunity for exhibitions and events organisers?

Welcome back to our special season bringing you the best sessions from the Definitive AI Forum for Media, Information and Events, which we held with Flashes & Flames in London.

This week we’re featuring a panel looking at whether AI is a golden opportunity for exhibitions and events organisers. This featured Greg Hitchen, CEO of Terrapinn, Alison Jackson, Group MD at Nineteen Group, Robin Booth, Managing Director at EMAP, and Robin Tapp, CIO at RX, interviewed by Flashes & Flames’ Colin Morrison.

The panel discussed AI’s role in enhancing face-to-face interactions and improving efficiency, as well as its use in revenue generation, leveraging metadata, and matching buyers and sellers. 

Read the key takeaways from this session, find our weekly newsletter, AI Masterclasses and more on voices.media

Mumsnet's Sue Macmillan on how AI has changed everything

Welcome to this special season of The Publisher Podcast, bringing you the best sessions from the Definitive AI Forum for Media, Information and Events, which we held with Flashes & Flames in London.

This week features an interview with Mumsnet CEO Sue Macmillan speaking about how the 25-year old parenting forum is harnessing AI to power stronger pitches, deliver more actionable insights to brand partners and tighten internal management procedures.

Sue described how she has made her own custom GPTs, why she feels that for managers to understand AI they have to use it themselves, and how we need to see it more as an electric bike than a self-driving car. 

Read the key takeaways from this session, find our weekly newsletter and more on voices.media

DMG Media's Danny Groom on using AI to offer targeting and personalisation

Welcome back to this special season of The Publisher Podcast, bringing you the best sessions from the Definitive AI Forum for Media, Information and Events, which we held with Flashes & Flames in London.

This week features an interview with Danny Groom, CEO of DMG Media, talking to Flashes & Flames’ Colin Morrison. 

Danny talks about the opportunities he sees with AI and personalisation, the importance of codes and communication, and what they’ve learned with their AI innovation team when it comes to connecting their work and ideas up with the rest of the business.

Read the key takeaways from this session, find our weekly newsletter and more on voices.media

 

AI regulation, IP and copyright issues. What can be achieved – and what can’t? What are the risks and compromises?

Welcome back to our special season bringing you the best sessions from the Definitive AI Forum for Media, Information and Events, which we held with Flashes & Flames in London.

This week we’re featuring a panel discussion moderated by media consultant Paul Hood and featuring Tami Hoffman, Director of Public Policy at The Guardian; Amir Malik, AI & Digital transformation lead at consultants Alvarez & Marsal; and Sajeeda Merali, CEO, PPA.

The panel was tasked with discussing how publishers should respond to AI models using copyrighted content and what regulatory, commercial, and strategic options exist. 

Paul began the session by laying out the topics under discussion - LLM’s taking content without permission or payment, whether content licensing marketplaces offer a solution, what action publishers should be taking to protect themselves and the impact of agentic AI  and bot traffic on publishers who need human audiences.

Read the key takeaways from this session, find our weekly newsletter, AI Masterclasses and more on voices.media

Financial Times' Jon Slade on using AI as a catalyst to evolve, with quality journalism as the foundation

Welcome back to this special season of The Publisher Podcast, bringing you the best sessions from the Definitive AI Forum for Media, Information and Events, which we held with Flashes & Flames in London.

This week features Jon Slade, CEO at the Financial Times,  speaking with Seedelta’s Chris Duncan, about how the business information publisher is taking on the AI challenge.

Jon  talked about how he sees AI as part of a larger disruption that will force publishers back to the fundamentals of strong journalism and strong brands along with the development of new products.

He spoke about the FT’s approach to licensing and the brands long-term focus on direct corporate deals rather than licensing to LLMs and the role of the FT’s archive in creating predictive intelligence products.

Read the key takeaways from this session, find our weekly newsletter and more on voices.media

 

How AI is changing newsrooms and media content

Welcome back to our special season bringing you the best sessions from the Definitive AI Forum for Media, Information and Events, which we held with Flashes & Flames in London at the end of last year.

This week we’re featuring a panel discussion on how AI is changing - and will change - newsrooms and media content.

On the panel - moderated by Esther Thorpe - was Tom Jackson, EVP/ CTO, News UK, Carola York, Managing Director, FT Specialist Europe, and Stuart Forrest, Global Audience Director, Bauer Media Group.

We discussed how each of these newsrooms is using AI, and how these tools are helping editorial teams solve their own pain points, both pre and post publishing, as well as in other departments like sales, subscriptions and marketing.

A common theme was that AI is being approached as a way to help journalists make the most of their talents and the content they produce, not replace it. We also explored what success looks like for newsroom AI projects, and how they’re feeling about the future.

Read the key takeaways from this session, find our weekly newsletter, AI Masterclasses and more on voices.media

Hearst UK’s Toby Wiseman on using AI to reconnect with communities

Welcome back to this special season of The Publisher Podcast, bringing you the best sessions from the Definitive AI Forum for Media, Information and Events, which we held with Flashes & Flames in London at the end of last year.

This week features Toby Wiseman, MF for  Content at Hearst UK,  speaking with Flashes & Flames’ Colin Morrison, about what AI means to the magazine publisher.

Toby talked about Hearst’s efforts to get staff on the same page with AI, making them more comfortable with the technology through an AI amnesty, regular training sessions and an AI policy. He said AI should be invisible and was clear that there was no place for publishing AI-generated content.

He did however see a powerful role for AI in optimising content discovery and audience engagement, restoring the link between content and communities.

Read the key takeaways from this session, find our weekly newsletter and more on voices.media

 

How AI is already a vital part of B2B data and information

Welcome back to our special season bringing you the best sessions from the Definitive AI Forum for Media, Information and Events, which we held with Flashes & Flames in London at the end of last year.

This week we’re featuring a panel discussion on how AI is reshaping B2B data and information companies.

On the panel - moderated by Chris Duncan of Seedelta - were Piers North, CEO at Reach Plc, Henry Faure Walker, CEO at Newsquest, Emily Shelley, CEO, PA Media Group and Joanna Levesque, Managing Director at FT Strategies.

On the panel - moderated by Natasha Christie-Miller - were Dean Curtis, CEO at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, Nicola Tillin, EVP of Lions Intelligence, Christopher Gasson, founder at Global Water Intelligence, and John Barnes, Chief Digital Officer at William Reed.

The panel discussed a variety of approaches to partnering and licensing content to AI companies, balancing this with protecting IP and value, and ways AI is being used to enhance products for both small and large B2B players. The panel also shared how they’re using AI internally, and where others can get started.

Read the key takeaways from this session, find our weekly newsletter and more on voices.media

The Independent’s CEO Christian Broughton on using AI to do more and be more human

Welcome back to this special season of The Publisher Podcast, bringing you the best sessions from the Definitive AI Forum for Media, Information and Events, which we held with Flashes & Flames in London at the end of last year.

This week features Christian Broughton, CEO at the Independent, speaking with Flashes & Flames’ Colin Morrison, about what AI means to the digital-only newsbrand.

The Independent left behind its 30-year print history almost 10 years ago and seeing growth in revenue and profitability for the last eight years of its digital-only decade. Christian spoke about The Independent’s enthusiastic embrace of AI, and how it has used the development of its AI-powered news summary service Bulletin as a sandbox to experiment and ultimately bring AI into other areas of the business.

Christian  spoke about how more AI was allowing The Independent to be more human, do more with a relatively small team, free up reporters to extend its mission as a dogma-free platform for trusted information, and drive talent-led audience engagement.

Read the key takeaways from this session, find our weekly newsletter and more on voices.media

 

AI and the future of trusted media

Welcome back to the Publisher Podcast, and the first in our special season bringing you the best sessions from the Definitive AI Forum for Media, Information and Events, which we held with Flashes & Flames in London at the end of last year.

This week we’re featuring a panel discussion on AI and the future of trusted media; how to balance the efficiencies offered by AI with much needed editorial integrity.

On the panel - moderated by Chris Duncan of Seedelta - were Piers North, CEO at Reach Plc, Henry Faure Walker, CEO at Newsquest, Emily Shelley, CEO, PA Media Group and Joanna Levesque, Managing Director at FT Strategies.

The panel discussed how the tension between efficiency and trust is not a zero sum game, citing the opportunities to do more things quicker with AI from new product development to journalistic research and content distribution, but also how to mitigate potential risks to publisher trust by always placing accuracy ahead of speed and firmly fixing the ‘human in the loop’.

Read the key takeaways from this session, find our weekly newsletter and more on voices.media

 

2025 highlights from media leaders, and our outlook for 2026

In our end-of-year episode, we talk through a busy year at MediaVoices, and outline what our favourite interviews from the year have been and why.

Peter highlights chats with DC Thomson's Rebecca Miskin and Immediate Media's Sean Cornwell, who shared their strategies for managing disruption and transformation. "You control what you can control. You experiment as much as you can," said Miskin. "You learn from the experiments, and then you place bold bets."

Esther chose a recent interview with Liesbeth Nizet, Head of Future Audiences Monetization at Mediahuis. Nizet is focused on finding the answers to questions about engaging not just the next generation, but currently disengaged audiences too, which is something more publishers should have as a priority.

Younger audiences will pay for games, entertainment and travel, from the latest Fortnite skin to an Instagrammable holiday. "So how can we make our news so interesting, or so relevant, or so representative for them that they want to pay for it?” Nizet asks.

We also share our outlook for 2026, and why we think it's going to get worse for the industry before it gets better.

Media Briefs: WoodWing’s Jeroen Goemans on using AI for measurable workflow upgrade

Most publishers know they should be doing more with AI, but the gap between strategy decks and the reality of nightly, weekly or even monthly publishing deadlines is huge.

This is the latest in our Media Briefs series of short, sharp sponsored episodes with a senior executive from a vendor working with publishers to make their businesses better.

In this episode, we hear from Jeroen Goemans, MD for EMEA at content management solutions provider WoodWing. After 25 years working with content-heavy brands, Woodwing’s publishing clients have already automated huge chunks of their production process, but they are already seeing real ROI from AI integrations in its established content and asset management platforms.

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This Media Briefs episode is sponsored by WoodWing.

WoodWing empowers publishing ecosystems by uniting technology with deep industry expertise. For 25+ years, we’ve helped teams create, manage, and deliver content across print and digital channels with greater efficiency and consistency. Our portfolio spans multi-channel production, digital assets, quality, knowledge, and information management. Founded in 2000, we operate globally from our headquarters in the Netherlands.  

Learn more about WoodWing’s AI innovations on their website: https://www.woodwing.com/solutions/content-orchestration

DC Thomson's Rebecca Miskin on the secrets of successful business transformation

This week's guest is Rebecca Miskin, CEO of family-owned Scottish publisher DC Thomson. Peter caught up with Rebecca at FIPP Congress in October ahead of her presentation, titled The Gnarly Reality of Transformation.

One of DC Thomson's iconic brands is The Beano, a children's comic-magazine that's been published since the 1930's. Gnarly is very much a Beano word, so Peter asked Rebecca why she describes transformation the way Dennis the Menace might, and maybe more ominously as a cross between chess and Russian Roulette.

We spoke about the pressure and the privilege of working to transform a family-owned business that has a 200 year legacy, and the secrets of a successful transformation project (spoiler: it's all about people).

Get the write-up of the key points of this interview in your inbox by subscribing to The Publisher Newsletter, over on voices.media

Mediahuis' Liesbeth Nizet on engaging and monetising younger audiences

Our guest on The Publisher Podcast this week is Liesbeth Nizet, Head of Future Audiences Monetization at Mediahuis, a media group with a presence in Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland, Germany and Luxembourg.

In her role, Liesbeth is focused on next-generation audiences, and helping build future-proof business models that bridge editorial purpose and commercial potential.

We talked at FIPP Congress about stereotypes around young people paying for news, to what extent demographics are helpful when understanding behaviours, and what she’s doing at Mediahuis to encourage younger audiences to engage with news content.

Get the write-up of the key points of this interview in your inbox by subscribing to The Publisher Newsletter, over on voices.media

The Atlantic's Megha Garibaldi on growing subscribers in a challenging landscape

In this week's episode of The Publisher Podcast, we're joined by Megha Garibaldi, Chief Growth Officer at The Atlantic. Megha leads the consumer revenue vertical, including consumer marketing, and she helped lead The Atlantic to its milestone of 1 million paid subscribers and reaching profitability in 2024.

She spoke to Esther at FIPP Congress about the changes she’s seen in audiences’ willingness to pay over the years, the differences and similarities of working on membership and subscriber-driven publications, and where she’s looking for audience growth in the current challenging landscape.

Megha also discussed the differences and similarities of marketing free versus paywalled publications from her work previously at The Guardian, and their respective member and subscriber approaches.

Get the write-up of the key points of this interview in your inbox by subscribing to The Publisher Newsletter, over on voices.media

Kyiv Independent’s Zakhar Protsiuk on its campaign-led approach to audience growth

Launched on November 11th 2021, just three months before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Kyiv Independent (KI) is four years old. The award-winning English-language media outlet covers Ukraine and Eastern Europe for the rest of the world, and is celebrating its birthday with a campaign designed to boost its membership from 22,000 to 25,000 by the end of the year.

This week's guest is the Kyiv Independent's Chief Operations Officer Zakhar Protsiuk. KI has reporters on the frontline of the war and an investigations unit covering Russian war crimes, but also covers Ukrainian business, culture and even travel.

What struck Peter this week in speaking with Zakhar, is how focused he was on what we might consider the normal elements of building a media business. Of course we spoke about the war, but we spoke just as much about audience acquisition and retention, trust and churn. 

Listen now to hear Kyiv Independent's origin story, whether it's possible to separate everyday media operations from the impacts of Russia's invasion, revenue diversification, and the brand's shift from donations to a membership model.

Get the write-up of the key points of this interview in your inbox by subscribing to The Publisher Newsletter, over on voices.media

 

Communiqué's David Adeleke on turning a newsletter into a sustainable media business

In this week's episode of The Publisher Podcast, we're joined by David Adeleke, founder and CEO of Communiqué, a media business that analyses African media and its creative economy.

Communiqué started out as a newsletter, but now runs live events and publishes research about the scope of the creator economy across the continent.

We last spoke with David four years ago on the podcast, and a lot has changed since he set up his newsletter as a side project. He talks to Peter about how he always wanted Communiqué to be more than a newsletter, his vision for a 'proper' media business, and how he is hiring to build a culture that can be replicated elsewhere. He also talks about community and the importance of bringing what he does online into physical spaces.

Get the write-up of the key points of this interview in your inbox by subscribing to The Publisher Newsletter, over on voices.media

Highlights from FIPP Congress 2025: "An existential moment"

Over 500 media and publishing professionals gathered in the beautiful Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid to hear leading speakers discuss their strategies for thriving in today’s landscape.

ChatGPT, AI overviews and traffic challenges are certainly top of mind for many delegates, but the on-stage conversations haven’t been quite as dominated by AI as we’d expected. Rather, there seems to be a doubling down on good, ‘old fashioned’ publishing principles like investing in high-quality content and products in order to secure growth.

There were some really strong themes that came out across the two days - too many to include them all here - so we've focused on the top four. Hear speakers from TIME, The Economist, Hearst, Semafor, The Atlantic and more discussing transformation, new opportunities, brands vs personalities, and how they're using AI.

Get a write-up of the key learnings from this episode online at voices.media or straight to your inbox by signing up to The Publisher Newsletter.