I’m at The FIPP World Media Congress in Portugal… I know, I know. It’s a tough gig, but someone has to do it.
This...
Why the podcast industry cannot abandon its search for a new, diverse galaxy of stars
Our industry is overdue for its next breakout star – so why are there none on the horizon?
Podcasts live or die on the ability of their hosts to keep audiences...
“The risk of losing people in the newsletter world has declined:” What happened to The Atlantic’s newsletters for subscribers scheme
The pandemic years saw a number of high-profile journalists leave publications to launch their own newsletters. Although lockdowns were credited as a driving...
5 years of pain ahead for the industry: Why publishing needs to go old-school to survive AI threats
“What’s your competitive advantage as a publishing business? It’s not the ability to churn out more articles than anybody else,” says Ian Betteridge, as he reckons publishers have...
By pretending to be underdogs against Google and Meta, national news organisations do smaller publishers dirty
Big Tech companies like Google wield vast amounts of power in their respective fields. But by casting themselves as underdogs against monolithic but amorphous ‘Big Tech’, news...
Pitchfork was a corporate failure. There is still a future for independent publications with attitude
Pitchfork wrote the book on having an opinion. The site’s absorption into the mainstream lifestyle title GQ says more about Condé Nast’s focus on the bottom line than it does about...
The future of news is by people, for people
This is a write-up of a closing speech I was invited to give at journalism.co.uk's Newsrewired conference on 15th November. It draws on many of the themes and...
No, print magazines are not like vinyl
Vinyl is a quaint, but fundamentally flawed substrate for music. Print has never been a substandard magazine substrate. But that’s not the only way comparing print magazines with vinyl records...
Why John Ryley is dead wrong about ad boycotts threatening democracy
John Ryley, former head of Sky News, recently argued that brands boycotting GB News are "a threat to democracy". Let’s examine that claim.
This article won’t be about GB...
Newspaper ABCS: reinterpreting the purpose of print
The rate of print newspaper decline shows no signs of slowing. Chris Sutcliffe looks at whether titles would be better off focusing their efforts on going digital-only.
The UK...
Why diversity, equity and inclusion is an everyone issue
It’s time diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives were subject to the same rigour as any other business...
Nine things we learned making an indie print magazine
We just published the second issue of The Grub Street Journal, a magazine for people who make magazines. The path that led us to make a print magazine is fairly long and winding and we...
Finding the opportunity in AI depends on publishers building partnerships
AI could be the most ruthless disruptor the news business has ever faced, and it could also be the industry’s best hope to save and sustain itself. Tech entrepreneur Ricky Sutton believes that...
Want to differentiate your media business? Hire more ‘weirdos’, says Amy Kean
Amy Kean is a self-confessed weirdo. The former Head of Innovation for Publicis and now CEO and Creative Director of Good Shout, a company helping people communicate better, thinks the media...
Content is king? ‘Complete b*ll*cks;’ says media veteran Neil Thackray
With 40 years’ experience managing a wide range of publishing businesses, Neil Thackray has earned the right to his views on modern media. The Media Voices team worked for Neil back in...
Premium provenance: how AI could help publishers prove the value of their journalism
The issue with AI as a tool for creation is that it raises the question of how much human interaction is required for something to be considered 'human made'. Publishers should be looking...
To counter AI-generated disinformation, we need an army of internet culture correspondents
Tech journalists can tell us how AI generates disinformation. We need specialist internet culture reporters to tell us why.
The pope looks great in his big...
Platforms don’t owe publishers a living. But they do owe them compensation. Here’s why
There's been a great deal of discussion over the past few years about the pros and cons of various acts from countries like Australia, Canada and the UK designed to give publishers...
An ‘online attention recession’? Let’s be blunt about the state of Reach’s sites
Let’s not beat about the bush: Reach may produce some good, important journalism. But its push for pageviews at all costs and a garbage web experience are causing it immeasurable...
We need to talk about podcast listener numbers
If there’s one topic which makes podcasters awkward, it’s listener numbers. We all assume everyone else probably has more listens than us, and jealously guard...
Lend me your ears! The power of podcasts to connect and serve
Executive Producer Christopher Phin has worked with multiple teams across DC Thomson's portfolio over the past three years helping them to get podcasts started. Here, he tells us why...
What I’ve learned from listening to 150+ publisher podcasts
Christmas is almost certainly a distant memory by now. Whether it was the smell of mince pies and mulled wine or masks and hand sanitizer which stood out, the season is usually marked by everyone...
Condé’s comparison of magazine readers to web and social audiences makes no sense. One of these things is not like the others
I get it. I really do. It’s tough to do print profitably at scale. But a ‘print is dying’ narrative founded on the idea that online audiences are just...