A weekly podcast and newsletter profiling the people and products powering publishing.
Episodes
4 days ago
4 days ago
On this week's episode of The Publisher Podcast by Media Voices, we speak to John Shields, Director of Podcasts at The Economist. They made the bold move last year to put almost all their podcasts behind a paywall, creating a separate Economist Podcasts+ subscription option.
A year on from the launch of Economist Podcasts+, John discusses what drove the decision, some of the risks and opportunities of charging for audio, and the lessons they've learned over the past 12 months.
This season is sponsored by BlueConic, the operating system that puts data into action for marketing and growth doers. The industry-first solution empowers doers with an unmatched range of capabilities to access relevant customer data, create resonant customer experiences, and drive maximum returns for their business.
More than 500 businesses worldwide rely on BlueConic to unlock their full customer data potential, including Forbes, Heineken, Mattel, Michelin, Telia Company, and VF Corp.
Monday Sep 30, 2024
Monday Sep 30, 2024
On this week's episode of The Publisher Podcast by Media Voices, we hear from Paul Ostwald, co-founder of Morningcrunch, a German-language media brand aimed at young professionals. Since launching in summer 2023, they've grown to the point that their newsletters now go out to over 50,000 young professionals every morning.
Morningcrunch is ad-funded, and Paul explains how he's working with a German media house to bring in bigger deals. He also talks about how he's taken inspiration from newsletter outfits that have far bigger budgets for A/B testing, why younger people still care about email, and the importance of building trust as a start-up.
This season is sponsored by BlueConic, the operating system that puts data into action for marketing and growth doers. The industry-first solution empowers doers with an unmatched range of capabilities to access relevant customer data, create resonant customer experiences, and drive maximum returns for their business.
More than 500 businesses worldwide rely on BlueConic to unlock their full customer data potential, including Forbes, Heineken, Mattel, Michelin, Telia Company, and VF Corp.
Monday Sep 23, 2024
Monday Sep 23, 2024
On this week's episode of The Publisher Podcast by Media Voices, we speak to Eric Ulken, Vice President of Product at The Baltimore Banner. The Baltimore Banner is a nonprofit news organisation launched in 2022 which serves the Baltimore region, and the larger Maryland state.
Eric talks about what makes the Banner's business model unique, why it was so important to get an app up and running early on, what marks success for them with their app audience, and why they're such a valuable tool for engaging premium audiences. He also explores why publishers should be looking to other apps for inspiration beyond just text-based news delivery.
This season is sponsored by BlueConic, the operating system that puts data into action for marketing and growth doers. The industry-first solution empowers doers with an unmatched range of capabilities to access relevant customer data, create resonant customer experiences, and drive maximum returns for their business.
More than 500 businesses worldwide rely on BlueConic to unlock their full customer data potential, including Forbes, Heineken, Mattel, Michelin, Telia Company, and VF Corp.
Thursday Sep 19, 2024
Thursday Sep 19, 2024
In the fast-paced world of digital publishing, a robust content management system (CMS) plays a pivotal role in shaping success. It can empower publishers not only to streamline workflows and distribute content effectively, but also to engage with and deliver on consumer needs.
With an intuitive interface, seamless integration with digital channels and robust analytics, the right CMS can become the backbone of modern digital publishing; the wrong one can mean disrupted or inefficient workflows, poor content management and missed opportunities for audience engagement.
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 we hear from John Rahim, Senior Consultant in Digital Publishing at digital publishing platform provider, Purple. John tells us how a flexible CMS can help today’s publishers tackle current challenges, and why it’s important to adapt platform to customer need.
He also discusses the role a capable CMS can play in making a smooth transition from print- to digital-first.
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.
Monday Sep 16, 2024
Monday Sep 16, 2024
On this week's episode of The Publisher Podcast by Media Voices, we hear from Rhiannon J Davies, Founder and Editor at Greater Govanhill, a community magazine and media project. Launched in 2020 in the middle of the pandemic, it now has a website, radio show, award-winning podcast and community newsroom space, as well as doing events, training, workshops and outreach with marginalised communities. Rhiannon also established the Scottish Beacon, which is a collaborative of independent, community-based publications all around Scotland.
Rhiannon goes behind the scenes on the logistics of producing a free bimonthly magazine, from local ad and membership revenue to grants for projects, as well as her dedication to maintaining quality, and the importance of offering a platform for voices not usually heard in the media. She also explains her ambition to support other local publications through collaboration and amplify stories which come out of local communities.
This season is sponsored by BlueConic, the operating system that puts data into action for marketing and growth doers. The industry-first solution empowers doers with an unmatched range of capabilities to access relevant customer data, create resonant customer experiences, and drive maximum returns for their business.
More than 500 businesses worldwide rely on BlueConic to unlock their full customer data potential, including Forbes, Heineken, Mattel, Michelin, Telia Company, and VF Corp.
Monday Sep 09, 2024
Monday Sep 09, 2024
On this week's episode - the first of The Publisher Podcast by Media Voices - we speak to Simon Kurs, Commercial Editor at the Evening Standard.
The publisher won Best Commercial Strategy at this year's Publisher Podcast Awards for The Standard's Sustainable Travel campaign with Iberostar, a podcast-led multimedia series exploring how to travel the world without wrecking it.
We discussed the Evening Standard's approach to podcast monetisation, from choosing clients that align with their values to having the podcast at the heart of a 360 degree media campaign. We also explore why publishers are at such an advantage when it comes to podcast campaigns, and why utilising multiple channels can help drive record-breaking podcast performance.
This season is sponsored by BlueConic, the operating system that puts data into action for marketing and growth doers. The industry-first solution empowers doers with an unmatched range of capabilities to access relevant customer data, create resonant customer experiences, and drive maximum returns for their business.
More than 500 businesses worldwide rely on BlueConic to unlock their full customer data potential, including Forbes, Heineken, Mattel, Michelin, Telia Company, and VF Corp.
Monday Jul 22, 2024
Monday Jul 22, 2024
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.
Wednesday Jul 17, 2024
Wednesday Jul 17, 2024
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.
Wednesday Jul 03, 2024
Wednesday Jul 03, 2024
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.
Wednesday Jun 05, 2024
Wednesday Jun 05, 2024
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.
Monday May 27, 2024
Monday May 27, 2024
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.
Monday Apr 29, 2024
Monday Apr 29, 2024
In this bonus episode of Media Voices, we hear from Nicholas Thompson, CEO at The Atlantic. We first had Nicholas as a guest on the podcast back in 2019 when he was WIRED's Editor in Chief, about what he'd learned a year after introducing a paywall to the brand.
Nicholas has since been credited with being a driving force behind The Atlantic's recent return to profitability and subscriber strategy success. So we were keen to invite him back on for a wide-ranging conversation about how he achieved the turnaround, as well as what happened to their paid newsletter scheme, Apple News+, and his thoughts on wider industry trends like AI.
Nicholas spoke about the experiments The Atlantic has run around its paywall strategy over the past few years, transforming the business holistically, and doing less but in much more depth. He also shares his outlook for the rest of 2024 - including the election effect - and how he's setting his next goals for the publication after meeting both the 1 million subscriber and profitability milestones earlier this month.
Find out more here about tickets and the agendas of the Publisher Podcast and Newsletter Summits in London on 12th June.
Wednesday Apr 24, 2024
Wednesday Apr 24, 2024
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.
Monday Apr 22, 2024
Monday Apr 22, 2024
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.
Monday Apr 15, 2024
Monday Apr 15, 2024
On this week's episode Edward Hyatt, Director of Newsroom SEO at The Wall Street Journal takes us through staying abreast and ahead of changes to the SEO landscape. From personal experience he outlines the differences in SEO strategies between subscription and non-subscription publishers, the changes in the SEO landscape over the past decade, and the potential impact of AI on SEO for publishers.
In the news roundup the team discusses the news that Forbes has been using a made for advertising (MFA) subdomain to game the digital advertising ecosystem. Since 2017, Forbes was using tactics that have long been condemned by anyone who cares about quality media - and we discuss the likelihood that they are the only ones. According to a US Association of National Advertisers (ANA) survey conducted last year, MFA sites received 21% of all ad impressions and 15% of digital adspend, despite being widely considered as a low-quality medium for advertising. So, what (if anything) can be done?
Sign up to our daily newsletter and community forum at voices.media.
Monday Apr 08, 2024
Monday Apr 08, 2024
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...
Tuesday Apr 02, 2024
Tuesday Apr 02, 2024
This week we speak to The Telegraph’s Head of Newsletters Maire Bonheim, and Deputy Head of Newsletters David Alexander, about the publisher's newsletter portfolio. We talk about why The Telegraph and others are prioritising newsletters, how newsletters can be used at different stages of the subscriber funnel, and what they’ve learned from a community-focused approach to their Politics newsletter.
Marie and David also discuss building a live event from a newsletter brand, and the value of newsletters as a retention tool for the subscriptions-focused publisher.
In the news roundup we have a good chat about The Atlantic’s announcement that it is profitable and has hit the 1m subscriber milestone. We discuss the extent to which investing in high-quality content (longreads, mostly) creates a virtuous circle when it comes to growing subscriptions.
Sign up for our own daily newsletter and community forum at voices.media
Monday Mar 25, 2024
Monday Mar 25, 2024
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.
Monday Mar 18, 2024
Monday Mar 18, 2024
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.
Monday Mar 11, 2024
Monday Mar 11, 2024
On this week's episode of Media Voices we hear from Tshepo Tshabalala, project manager & team lead at the LSE’s JournalismAI project. Rather than focusing on the negative coverage and speculation we so often hear about AI replacing journalism jobs, Tshepo tells us about uses cases and the benefits of AI in smaller newsrooms and how collaboration is helping journalists get on board the AI rocket ship.
Tshepo joined the JournalismAI project just three months after ChatGPT went public. Some might call that perfect timing; for others it would be a nightmare, with the playing field changing week by week. He’s taken it all in his stride, however, telling us, “It was a rollercoaster… trying to learn the job, trying to understand the field and understand who the players are, also serving our audience and our users that need help. But growth doesn’t happen in a comfortable space.”
Knowledge-sharing is at the heart of everything the JournalismAI project does, from the JournalismAI Starter Pack, designed to help news organisations understand the opportunities offered by AI, to the 2023 JournalismAI report surveying 105 newsrooms in 46 countries. Tshepo says, “It's really just sharing knowledge, and then with the hope that they can decide thereafter, what they do with that knowledge.”
In the news roundup the team discusses Sydney Sweeney, at length. They also discuss the disparity between how much journalists and creators get paid versus the shareholders of media companies, the news that GB News made an enormous loss last year, and ask whether it's good or bad for TalkTV to be going digital-only on YouTube.
Sign up to our newsletter and community forum by going to voices.media.