Welcome to the latest season of Media Voices: Big Noises! This season, sponsored by Glide Publishing Platform, we’ll be talking to publishing people with something to say. Media Voices co-host Peter Houston is tired of hearing the same old industry buzzwords. The publishing platitudes are starting to wear a bit thin, and he’s decided to see if he can shake the conversation up a bit by speaking to some of the biggest characters in the business.
On this week’s episode of Media Voices’ Big Noises series we hear from Ricky Sutton, a man who has straddled both the journalistic and tech industries.
Ricky tells us about the media militancy, why we need media plurality and why he thinks publisher cohesion is vital for ensuring that, and his own eclectic and unusual path through the industry. He explains why the AI could be fatal for the publishing industry – and what we need to do to prevent that inevitability.
A selected highlight:
On the ‘frenemy’ nature of the publisher/platform relationship
I don’t think [the platforms] set themselves up to be an enemy. But if they see that the path they’re taking is take them to a trillion dollars, they’re not going to stop are they? And if they mow us down as they go, ‘Right, that’s okay.’
Somebody at Google said to me once, we were having a friendly chat, and I knew them well. And they said, “Ricky, look, the thing you have to realize about Google is is that the way we see ourselves is that we’re like a big friendly bear. And we’re in bed together, right? So you’re lying on one side, and I’m lying on the other…
“I think you’re terrific, I really liked you. But during the night, unbeknownst to me, I accidentally rolled over and smothered you and killed you. That’s how we feel.”
Thanks to Glide Publishing Platform who have sponsored this season of Media Voices: Big Noises. Glide exists to make publishers more successful by removing any need to get bogged down building Content Management Systems, providing an industry-leading SaaS tailored to let publishers do more and spend less. Publishers using Glide direct more resources at their audiences and products, and focus on building things that make them money. You do the content, Glide does the management.
Glide have created 3 expert guides to getting much more from a new or headless CMS, created for editorial, technology, and product teams. You can get the whitepapers here.