Journalism industry news site Press Gazette has seen recent expansion of its events and an overhaul of its newsletter and other digital products. Chief Commercial Officer Richard Jamieson outlines the opportunities he saw for commercialising the title, and how events have been a driver of that growth.
Press Gazette, one of Progressive Media Group’s B2B brands, started life 60 years ago as a weekly print title aimed at journalists. In 2013, it pivoted to digital-only and broadened the audience base to senior leaders working in modern-day publications, from product and tech leads to editorial, audience and data.
When Chief Commercial Officer Richard Jamieson joined Press Gazette in early 2020, he was tasked with taking the B2B industry title, which until then had no dedicated sales resource, and exploring potential monetisation options.
Jamieson started by looking at the subscriber base for the site and newsletter. “I looked at the contributors, and the lead base for it,” he told The Publisher Podcast this week, explaining that the list was a ‘Who’s Who’ of UK news and C-level executives. “I thought, ‘We’re sitting on an absolute gold mine here’.”
Within 12 months, Jamieson and the Press Gazette team had launched three different sets of events, successfully introduced monetisation options for the daily newsletter, started offering sponsored content and advertising, and even launched a podcast.
“It all snowballed pretty quickly actually, because we had a product that was really loved, and really well subscribed to from an audience of senior people,” he noted. “Then we identified the organisations that wanted to be in front of those people and sell their services and products.”
Supercharging growth with events
The timing was fortuitous for a renewed commercial focus on Press Gazette. Jamieson said that as the effects of the pandemic subsided, there was an eagerness for in-person meetings. “People were a bit fed up of virtual events and webinars, and wanted to have that connection with their peers, with their clients, with their colleagues in person,” he said.
Press Gazette now has three main types of events it runs throughout the year. The most frequent are the invite-only Media 100, where up to 50 of the publication’s Media 100 Network are invited to a two-hour breakfast at the top of the Gherkin. This includes a fireside chat with a well-known CEO, with previous events featuring CEOs from The Telegraph, the Guardian, Bloomberg, Sky News and Future.
Each Media 100 event is sponsored by two or three commercial partners who can come in and connect with attendees. “That’s the smallest event we do, but probably has the highest concentration of senior people,” Jamieson said, noting that they run around four of these annually.
The second is roundtable-style events, called the Future of Media Trends. This is where up to 80 senior executives are invited to come and sit on specific tables, which are ‘owned’ by a technology partner or sponsor. Previous roundtable topics have included revenue strategies, paywalls, subscription strategies and licensing opportunities.
The team have since replicated the event in New York, which will take place in March and November this year.
The final event is Press Gazette’s flagship conference, the Future of Media Technology Conference. Launched in 2021, it now takes place every September in London, attracting over 500 people in 2024. “Last year we had about 500 people attend,” Jamieson outlined. “It’s a typical conference format, with panels, roundtables, keynotes, and customer success stories. We have a sponsor lounge as well, and that’s growing year on year.”
Triple-digit revenue growth across the brand
Jamieson explained that the publication was only really monetising the British Journalism Awards as a brand prior to him joining. Since then, they have seen triple-digit growth in 2021 and 2022, two years in a row. That has continued, going from that base, to double-digit growth in 2023 and 2024.
Overall, this has resulted in Press Gazette’s revenue being very much skewed to events. “Giving ballpark numbers, we’re probably two-third events, and a third digital,” Jamieson shared. One of his remits this year is to try and monetise the digital assets more, while maintaining what they’re doing on the events side, although he noted resources would be a constraint.
Jamieson said the renewed appetite for in-person events has benefited them. “The timing was great for us to launch those, but they’ve only succeeded because we’ve continued to deliver really high-quality content,” he emphasised.
This in turn pays off when it comes to sponsor renewals. “We’re quite lucky that most of the clients we work with, probably over 90%, renew with us for the events,” he said.
For 2025, Jamieson’s focus is to grow the work they’re doing in the US. “We’re doing a couple of events over there, but we really want to grow the audience and get the recognition,” he said.
Those multiples of growth are unquestionably helped by a low starting point back in 2020. But the continued pace of growth, propelled by the events, highlights a demand for face to face contact that is unlikely to subside any time soon.
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