The Publisher Podcast by Media Voices

This week, we hear from Tobi Oredein, Co-Founder and CEO of Black Ballad, a UK-based lifestyle platform for Black British women. She talked about what drove her to found the site, why they decided to launch memberships ahead of the curve in 2016, and the impact of their recent HuffPost takeover. She also outlines how their Future News Funding will help them better serve and grow their audience out...

The winner of the 2020 Publisher Podcast Awards Technology category and our Publisher Podcast of the Year 2020 was Crazy/Genius from The Atlantic. Executive producer Katherine Wells says talk to writers and editors for new podcast ideas and train your writers to be talkers. Remember your listeners aren’t necessarily your readers, make your brand values clear and consistent.

This episode Josh Schollmeyer, co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief of online men’s magazine MEL, takes us through working at the legacy print behemoth Playboy, why that convinced him men’s magazines needed to change and the branded media business model that is at the heart of MEL’s success. In the news roundup, we discuss growth and success at The Atlantic, The Athletic, El Pais and Future plc, and come...

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...

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...

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...

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 abou...

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, th...

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 pay...

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,...

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...

This week, we talk to the Wall Street Journal's Newsroom Innovation Chief Robin Kwong. He talks about how his team develops features to help the WSJ's wider goals, how he helps facilitate innovation across teams in the business, and how his background in reporting and data journalism has helped his approach to this role. He also explains some of the features and tools they have developed for the p...

This week Will Gore, Head of Partnerships and Projects at the National Council for the Training of Journalists, tells us about the NCTJ’s role in the Facebook-backed Community News Project which has funded about 80 journalists in local news rooms across nine publishers. He also speaks about journalism education, trust, the future of local news and - of course - shorthand. In the news roundup the M...

This week, we spoke to Ella Dolphin, CEO of the Stylist Group. She talked about the acceleration of the title's plans to adopt a reader revenue model as the free print magazine distribution was put on hold, how that has affected the team's workflow, and what the focus will look like for the group post-pandemic. She also talks about what her role as CEO has involved since closing Shortlist and driv...

This week we spoke to John Burn-Murdoch, a Senior Data-Visualisation Journalist for the Financial Times who has been at the forefront of their famous coronavirus trajectory trackers. He talked about the challenges of working with data this complex, how the FT's approach to trajectory charts has evolved as the crisis has continued, and why data journalists are the new rock stars of journalism. [JOH...

This week Colin Morrison - founder of Flashes & Flames - takes us through his path into the industry, what makes for smart media analysis, and who will be the big winners and losers from the coronavirus crisis. In the news roundup the team takes an in-depth look at what COVID-19 means for our relationship with tech giants

This week we spoke to The Atlantic's International Editor Prashant Rao about taking The Atlantic's voice to an international audience, the importance of diversity in writing stories for that audience, and what the global Atlantic angle on coronavirus looks like. He also talks about The Atlantic's surge in subscriptions following its decision to take its paywall down on COVID-19 coverage, and why h...

The media industry has had a turbulent decade when it comes to technology, transformation, and changing consumer habits causing disruption to businesses. But for many of us, these challenges seem trivial compared to what we are now all up against with the coronavirus crisis. Publishers and media organisations of all shapes and sizes have had events and shows that they depend on for their revenue c...

This week, we hear from Sherri Smith, Editor in Chief of Laptop Mag, one of Future plc’s tech titles. She talks about her role working across Future’s sister titles, why Laptop mag is broadening its reach to gaming and audio, maintaining editorial integrity with reviews, and how the title will future-proof itself as technology evolves. She also explains how testing, product launches and reviews ar...

This week we hear from Theodora Louloudis, podcast editor for the Telegraph. With a growing podcast portfolio, we spoke about her job in an expanding team, growth in the Telegraph’s podcast offering and how she commissions shows with the paper’s journalists. In the news roundup we discuss Firefox's new subscription tool with Scroll, Slate launching a metered paywall, and Esquire trimming its print...

This week Kate Day, Executive Editor of POLITICO in the UK takes us through the publishers' expansion into and growth in the UK market. She discusses everything from the advantages of being a start-up publisher in a world of legacy giants, how the team chooses what goes behind the paywall, and what sets UK politics coverage apart from the rest of Europe. In the news roundup, we take a look at Prin...

This week, Owen Meredith, Managing Director at the Professional Publisher's Association, talks to us about how the lobbying work the association has done on behalf of UK publishers to axe VAT on digital publications has paid off. During the Budget last week, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced that the current 20% tax on ebooks, online newspapers and digital editions would be abolished, bringing them...

This week, we talk to Mark Alker, Publisher of Singletrackworld.com; Europe's biggest mountain biking website, and Singletrack Magazine; a bi-monthly print publication. As well as divulging the secrets of specialist media success, Mark discusses community, coffee, and his love-hate relationship with programmatic. In the news round-up, Esther and Peter battle good old British colds to talk about di...