A weekly podcast and newsletter profiling the people and products powering publishing.
Episodes
5 hours ago
5 hours ago
This week's guest on The Publisher Podcast is Gemma Ware, Head of Audio at The Conversation UK. She joined as the publication was launching in the UK as Education Editor, but soon spotted an opportunity to develop a podcast offering.
Over the years, The Conversation's podcasts have grown in sophistication, earning them two trophies at last year's Publisher Podcast Awards. Gemma takes us through their journey in audio, from early experiments in monthly shows to the full portfolio of limited series on a wide range of topics, as well as their weekly show.
She also explains what they've learned about podcast best practice, how they put together narrative shows, and what podcast success looks like for The Conversation as a nonprofit.
Read the key takeaways from this interview, find our weekly newsletter and more on voices.media
7 days ago
7 days ago
At Flashes & Flames' recent Monetising B2B Information and Events conference in London, leading B2B publishers shared their priorities, opportunities and concerns across the day.
Held at London’s historic Stationers’ Hall, the event featured more than 30 industry-leading speakers and 210 delegates from three continents. The speakers showed that the B2B industry is going through another transformation, moving away from passive information delivery towards becoming essential to the workflow of their customers.
This episode draws out the common points discussed from some of the main stage speakers. Three common themes emerged: building 'moats' to protect businesses against AI disruption, publishers building intelligence ecosystems, and becoming indispensable infrastructure to customers.
See more coverage from Monetising B2B at flashesandflames.com
Thursday May 28, 2026
Thursday May 28, 2026
What is zero-click search, and does it really pose an existential threat to the publishing business?
Our new report, The Zero-Click Content Shift, aims to answer exactly that question. Produced in association with Woodwing and authored by MediaVoices' Peter Houston, the report gauges the impact of Google's AI Overviews on publisher traffic, and tries to get a sense of how big the threat really is. We also take a closer look at the reality of zero-click search for the publishing business, from its effect on content discovery to brand visibility, referral traffic, and revenue.
This episode is a special accompaniment to the report, featuring interviews with Barry Adams, SEO & Audience Growth Consultant at Polemic Digital, Clara Soteras, SEO for News Publishers and Audience Growth Consultant, and John Fong, Managing Director of APAC and Digital Services at Woodwing.
The podcast explores:
- How AI Overviews are transforming how content is discovered, consumed and monetised;
- The notion of Google Zero as an industry bogeyman versus the current reality;
- Existential anxiety in publishing, and how the data shows a more nuanced picture;
- Google's continued dominance and changing search dynamics;
- Strategic responses for publishers;
- What AI overviews hurt, and where the opportunities lie.
Download The Zero Click Content Shift report for free at voices.media/zeroclick
This report and podcast 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 publishing solutions at woodwing.com
Monday May 25, 2026
Monday May 25, 2026
In this episode of The Publisher Podcast, we're joined by Lauren Holleyoake, Publisher of Bauer magazines Grazia, Empire and Mojo, and also the lead of Bauer's bookazine business.
Bauer has a strong portfolio of print specialist titles in areas like golf, classic cars and angling. They have made bookazines in the past, but part of Lauren's job has been to formalise the process, from coming up with standard ways of working to exploring the market opportunity for these titles.
Lauren talks about using bookazines as a chance for editorial teams to show off their passions, why high production values and premium content still matter for making content pay, and the surprising success of Bauer's bookazines abroad.
Read the key takeaways from this interview, find our weekly newsletter and more on voices.media
Monday May 18, 2026
Monday May 18, 2026
In this episode of The Publisher Podcast, we're joined by Liz Alesse, Vice President and General Manager of Axios Local. She is responsible for building and scaling Axios' local journalism business as a sustainable national platform.
Liz talks about how Axios Local has evolved since launching five years ago, and what they've learned about scaling with market-specific models rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. She emphasises the importance of their reporters as brand ambassadors and key anchors for areas, citing talent as one of the primary factors for expanding into a market.
Axios Local has yet to turn a profit, but Liz is bullish on their prospects for cracking sustainable local journalism at scale, discussing their revenue diversification strategy and how AI has become a force multiplier for them.
Read the key takeaways from this interview, find our weekly newsletter and more on voices.media
Monday May 11, 2026
Monday May 11, 2026
In this episode of The Publisher Podcast, we're joined by Charlotte Owen, Executive Vice President at BDG and Editor-in-Chief of Bustle.
Bustle is a female-focused media brand aimed at 20-30 year olds who want to live a big life. Charlotte talks about the importance of niche targeting over broad appeal, how the generalist era being over has helped editors hone in on points of view, and how they leverage social media.
She also discusses why Bustle and BDG more widely are seeing revenue growth of 40% and 25% respectively, in a market that other women's brands are finding tough.
Read the key takeaways from this interview, find our weekly newsletter and more on voices.media
Monday May 04, 2026
Monday May 04, 2026
In the latest episode of our spring 2026 season of The Publisher Podcast, we're joined by Ismail Akwei, Editor of Global South World.
Global South World is a news brand with a mission to build a more informed and nuanced understanding of the Global South, counteracting parachute journalism and condescension with news and opinion from a network of journalists and creators that actually live across Asia, Africa and South America.
Akwei talks about commentary from Western leaders about countries in the Global South, and the issues with minimising whole continents to one negative news story. He also discussed what works well for content distribution, data visualisation, and building active communities, as well as how their creator-led news network approach works in practice.
Read the key takeaways from this interview, find our weekly newsletter and more on voices.media
Monday Apr 27, 2026
Monday Apr 27, 2026
In the latest episode of our spring 2026 season of The Publisher Podcast, we're joined by Dea Lawrence, Publisher and Co-President of Variety.
Variety has transformed from a B2B pure play to a hybrid business and consumer publication. It still does 70,000 copies a week in print for the industry people who are super keen to see themselves on the cover, but online it reaches millions of passionate entertainment fans.
Dea talks about how Variety has weathered the disruption in the entertainment industry itself, the increasing importance of international creators and audiences, and why everything is a content and sponsorship opportunity. She also explains to Peter why microdramas are the next big thing.
Read the key takeaways from this interview, find our weekly newsletter and more on voices.media
Monday Apr 20, 2026
Monday Apr 20, 2026
In this episode of our spring 2026 season of The Publisher Podcast, we're joined by Ben Smith, Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Semafor.
Ben has previously worked at publications like the New York Times and Buzzfeed, before joining Justin Smith to co-found Semafor in 2022. The publication, which distills the news for global audiences, has launched industry-leading events, pioneered their own article format, and reached profitability in its third year.
Ben spoke to us about how their audience and approach has evolved since launch, where they see opportunities and red lines for AI, where he sees paid content fitting into their business model, and how their exclusive CEO newsletter is going.
He also shares his advice for anyone looking at launching a news start-up today.
Read the key takeaways from this interview, find our weekly newsletter and more on voices.media
Monday Apr 13, 2026
Monday Apr 13, 2026
Welcome back to the spring 2026 season of The Publisher Podcast! This week's guest is Faversham House CEO Amanda Barnes.
Faversham House is an independent UK B2B media, information and events company with brands across two main sectors: utilities and sustainability. Amanda led a management buyout of the family-owned publisher in 2010. Since then, the organisation has moved away from traditional ad-funded, print-led titles to online information, marketing solutions, subscriptions and events.
Amanda joined us on The Publisher Podcast to talk through how she led the business through those early stages of transformation, how Covid accelerated some of their more recent changes, and why the idea of brand ecosystems is vital for the next stages.
Amanda Barnes will be speaking at Monetising B2B Information & Events 2026 on a panel about events and information strategies. Join us at Stationers’ Hall, London on 13th May but hurry - there are only a few tickets remaining.
Monday Mar 23, 2026
Monday Mar 23, 2026
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.
Sunday Mar 15, 2026
Sunday Mar 15, 2026
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
Monday Mar 09, 2026
Monday Mar 09, 2026
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
Monday Mar 02, 2026
Monday Mar 02, 2026
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
Monday Feb 23, 2026
Monday Feb 23, 2026
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
Monday Feb 16, 2026
Monday Feb 16, 2026
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
Monday Feb 09, 2026
Monday Feb 09, 2026
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
Monday Feb 02, 2026
Monday Feb 02, 2026
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
Monday Jan 26, 2026
Monday Jan 26, 2026
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
Monday Jan 19, 2026
Monday Jan 19, 2026
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