The Publisher Podcast by Media Voices

In our final episode of the season, we hear from Medium's VP of Content Scott Lamb. Scott leads the content and creator relations teams at the platform, so we talked about Medium's famous pivots, the importance of putting creators at the core, competing with Substack, and Ev Williams' departure. In the news round-up, Chris, Peter and Esther debate whether MEL magazine was closed (for the second time in a year) without being given enough of a chance, or whether it was always an awkward fit in Recurrent Ventures' portfolio. In the news in brief, we look at a good Medium post-mortem from Simon Owens, and bring in some good news with the Guardian Media Group recording its strongest financial result in 14 years. Esther scrabbles for a contribution after a week off and settles for the news that there's been a 300% increase in boob size on comic book cover art in the last few decades.

This week we hear from Sajeeda Merali, CEO of the Professional Publishers Association (PPA). We talked about what her publishing background brings to the organisation, what’s top-of-mind for the publishers the association represents as the effects of the pandemic rumble on, and what defines a magazine publisher today. In the news round-up we discuss The Atlantic making 165 years worth of its journalism available online, and which other publishers are making good use of their archives. For the news in brief, we explore a dubious business move from Google, Conde Nast's print magazine success, and The Information's new social network.

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 engage@affino.com.

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.