The Publisher Podcast by Media Voices

The winner of the 2020 Publisher Podcast Awards B2B category was the Digiday Podcast. Digiday President, editor-in-chief and podcast host Brian Morrissey says build your podcast around what you do best, but be adaptable. Be clear on the job your podcast does for your business; think of it as a feature of your brand, not as a separate product.

In this first episode back following an... eventful summer for media, the team discusses six topics you might have missed over the past month: • Facebook goes to war with Australian publishers • Amid many magazine closures, some green shoots emerge • Vulture attempts to create a vertical around podcast criticism • Which global megacorp deserves your support, Apple or Epic? • Vogue business and the unstoppable rise of reader revenue plays (at least until they stop working) • Ecommerce booms - but can publishers take advantage of it? Guest starring the planes that flew an inch over Chris' flat.

The winner of the 2020 Publisher Podcast Awards Entertainment category was the Pilot TV Podcast from Bauer Media. Editor-in-chief Terri White says podcasts are integral to a publishing brand and need a clear, easy to understand proposition. But, don’t be scared to evolve and don’t forget the long term goal of making money.

This week Chris Waiting, chief executive of The Conversation UK, tells us about the lessons his team is taking forward from its record-breaking corona coverage, why newsletters and live events are its focus for the near future, and what other news publishers can learn from its policy of marrying journalistic flair with scholarly insight. In the news roundup the team discusses magazine closures and launches, whether the Taboola/Outbrain merger will improve the internet, and ask whether a punk fanzine by a 10 year old is the beginning of the end for newsstand magazines. See you after the summer break!

This week, we hear from Julia Dennison, the Executive Editor of Meredith's parenting brand Parents.com. She talks about how they're supporting parents who are trying to juggle childcare and their own jobs during the pandemic, how they use SEO to anticipate their audience's needs, and their explanatory approach to polarising topics. She also highlights the recent launch of their podcast on diverse families. In the news roundup the team discusses why the Guardian is cutting its weekend edition, Twitter's no good very bad week, and pit Pink News and Cosmo against one another in the first ever Membership Smackdown.

In this episode, the BBC's Specialist Disinformation Reporter Marianna Spring takes us through the responsibilities of broadcasters to counter disinformation, whether it's a losing battle to engage with conspiracy theorists, and the role of platforms like Google and Facebook when it comes to the spread of lies, damn lies. In the news roundup the team debates whether the B2B events industry is about to have its print advertising moment, discusses the 550 jobs set to be lost at Reach, and ask if anyone will pay for a subscription to the Media Voices' Twitter feed. Special guests: dogs.

On this week's episode of Media Voices Cathy Olmedillas founder of independent children’s magazines Anorak and Dot, explains how she learned about the collectability of magazines from her time at The Face and turned that into a style of publishing that owes more to books than disposable magazines culture. In the news roundup the team discusses France's tax credits for news subscriptions scheme, the launch of Skift Pro and the NYT pulling out of Apple News. Yeezy 2020.

This week Ed Needham, founder, editor and sole staffer of book review magazine Strong Words, explains how tech is enabling him to do what he does, and how digital makes it a challenge to capture and keep people's attention. He also discusses his previous career at FHM, his current workload and what the future of magazines might look like. In the news roundup the team uncynically discuss Google paying publishers to license content, examine why advertisers are pulling spend from platforms,(without cynicism), and aren't cynical at all during news in brief.

Jim Bilton of Wessenden Marketing tells us about how the pandemic has impacted newspaper and magazine retail, about who might be left standing after the dust settles and how they will need to reboot their distribution strategies. In the news roundup the team does a deep dive into the latest Digital News Report, examine whether social media platforms are finally getting it right around hate speech, and overuse the term 'mushy middle'. This episode is dedicated to Dead Kennedys.

This week, we hear from Adriana Lacy, Audience Engagement Editor at the LA Times. She launched a dedicated Instagram account for the LA Times’ archival photos late last year, so we talked about where those images are sourced from, what the response has been, and how they’ve used historical images of protests to add context to the events of the past few weeks. She also discusses the LA Times’ wider social media and audience engagement strategy, as well as her own Journalism Internships project and the importance of mentoring. In the news roundup, the team tries desperately to stay cheery around some good news for publishers. We don’t succeed.