Media Voices Podcast

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 th

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.

This week we hear from Marcela Kunova, Editor at Journalism.co.uk. She’s recently launched a newsroom innovation mentorship programme which will pair experienced industry professionals with local and regional journalists in the UK, with the aim of nurturing innovation in audience engagement, AI, editorial strategy and more. We talked about what she’s hoping to achieve with the programme, how she translated Newsrewired to a virtual event, and why it’s so important to support freelancers. In the news roundup the team discuss a report on the broken link between reach and revenue, and ask if we can ever get past the 'publishers vs. Duopoly' industry mindset. We also discuss the closure of Knewz, how privacy is driving advertisers to Android, and genuinely horrifying behaviour from a BBC non-exec director. Chris lives under a busy flightpath now, apparently.

This week, we hear from Chris Duncan, CEO of UK Publishing at Bauer Media Group. He joined the company just a few weeks after last year's lockdown, so he talks about what it's been like leading Bauer through such a turbulent year, their wins and losses throughout the pandemic, and which trends he's seen accelerated in the business. He also discusses how Bauer's business priorities have changed post-Covid, and what it's like heading a magazine company after over a decade working at a news publisher. In the news roundup we discuss the data behind the end of the Trump Bump (and where we can gin up some controversy next), then ask if the BBC needs to be objective about climate change and ask if Microsoft is the unlikely saviour of micropayments. A joke sails over Esther's head.

This week, we hear from Jo Holdaway, Chief Data and Marketing Officer at Independent Digital News & Media - home of The Independent and The Evening Standard. She talks about what sort of data is important to publishers, especially when it comes to subscription strategies, why it's important to have a diverse team working with data, and how she's preparing the business for the sunsetting of third-party cookies. In the news round up, Peter and Esther are joined by guest host Adam Tinworth to dissect the findings of the latest Reuters Digital News Report 2021. We look at how people prefer to access news, which existing trends have been accelerated by the pandemic, and whether a brief bounceback in trust can be sustained.

This week we hear from Jasper Wang, VP of Revenue & Operations for Defector Media. Defector was formed after a mass staff exodus from former GO Media property Deadspin after an internal dispute about who knew its audience best. Defector is now an employee-owned and operated news site that has introduced measures specifically to ensure its staff have a say in the business, even as they write for its audience. Now, on the first anniversary of its founding, we hear about the site's ambitions, how it keeps its staff safe and happy, and what other media businesses can learn from an employee-owned outlet. In the news roundup Chris and Peter take a look at GB News' launch one week on, ask if there's a future for The Athletic now that talks with the New York Times have broken down, and suggest that perhaps privatising Channel 4 in the current climate isn't such a great idea. Special appearance from a bird directly outside Chris' window.

This week, we hear from Mohamed Nanabhay, Deputy CEO of the Media Development Investment Fund. He talks about his work in the early days of online publishing bringing 'new media' to Al Jazeera, how the MDIF decides which businesses to invest in, and why he thinks the pandemic has provided an opportunity for independent media to thrive. Their latest initiative, MDIF Ventures is accepting applications now for media companies located in countries where access to free and independent news and information is under threat. In the news roundup the team discuss whether Apple's changes to privacy will impact publishers who depend on newsletters, ask what led to The Sun being classed by Rupert Murdoch as a WORTHLESS ASSET, and ask if now is the time to slip half-human half-animal hybrids into the public.

In this week's episode we hear from Decanter's Editor in Chief Chris Maillard about the challenge of refreshing Future's newly-acquired wine brand - without alienating its incredibly loyal readership. In the news roundup we discuss whether local news has reached a turning point, ask if we'd pay for Twitter Blue, and laugh at Trump closing his blog due to low readership. Chris fills in for Peter in the outro, to mixed success.