The Future of Media, Explained - from Press Gazette

Dominic Ponsford speaks to CEO of Agate Dominic Young about the threat posed to the news business by generative AI and reveals what publishers can do about it.Young was closely involved in licensing and digital development at News International in the early years of online publishing.He feels news publishers and regulators must learn from the mistakes of the past when tech platforms were given the legislative opt-outs which allowed them to build their current huge empires.

In seven years at US sports and lifestyle digital media powerhouse Barstool Sports, chief executive Erika Ayers has helped grow revenues from around $2m to above $250m.Ayers told the latest episode of Press Gazette's Future of Media Explained podcast about the diverse revenue mix that has made this possible - and why the company has continued to grow when other digital-first and social media-heavy media outlets have begun to fall.

On the 48th episode of Press Gazette's Future of Media explained podcast we speak with Malcolm Moore, the editor of the Financial Times' low-price product FT Edit.When Press Gazette last interviewed Moore in March 2022, when FT Edit had just launched, he shared his hopes that the new app would entice a group of new paying readers toward the FT - without cannibalising its existing audience.More than a year on, we check in with Moore to hear (some very promising things) about how the experiment has progressed.

Paul Deegan is the president and chief executive of News Media Canada, which represents 560 news publishers across Canada. Since starting in his role around two years ago, Deegan has been at the forefront of Canada’s battle to force Google and Facebook to pay for news. With the nation’s Online News Act approaching passage into law, Press Gazette’s William Turvill interviewed Deegan to learn more about the story behind this legislation – and how big tech has fought back with threats and news-blocking experiments. Canada's bill seeks to build on Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code and will help inform UK legislators as similar rules are drawn up in Westminster.

This episode of Press Gazette’s Future of Media Explained podcast features an interview with Christian Broughton, Managing Director of The Independent. The Independent runs one of the best-known affiliate marketing operations among news publishers through its Indy Best product reviews and recommendations section. As advertising revenue has declined, publishers are increasingly turning to other ways to make news pay and e-commerce, which includes affiliate marketing, is a key income stream for the Independent which went online only in 2016.  

Former New Yorker editor Tina Brown talks to Press Gazette about the future of investigative journalism and the legacy of her late husband Sir Harry Evans.She shares her concerns about quality journalism and shares some solutions about what can be done to save it.Brown also has some forthright views about Prince Harry and his fight against the UK tabloids over allegations of phone-hacking and illegal information gathering.

David Aaronovitch left The Times in March after 18 years as a columnist with the paper. But he quickly got underway with his solo venture: Notes from the Underground, hosted on Substack.In this week's Future of Media Explained podcast, Aaronovitch discusses his departure from The Times, why he decided to write for Substack, and shared his views on how newspaper comment sections have changed in recent years.

Andrew Harrison, the co-founder and group editor of Podmasters, was one of the early pioneers of British current affairs podcasting. He and his team launched Remainiacs (since rebranded as Oh God, What Now?) in 2017 using Harrison's PPI compensation payout. Today Podmasters produces several other shows, including The Bunker, Hello Girls and Mugshots with Michael Crick. In this week's Future of Media Explained, Harrison speaks to Press Gazette's William Turvill about the growth of Podmasters and the future of the British podcasting sector. (PwC last year forecast that the UK's podcast ad market would be worth £64m by 2025. Harrison says that figure appears "really low".) Harrison also makes the case for why the BBC's podcast platform, Sounds, should be opened up to boost the independent sector.Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

NME was founded as a newspaper devoted to rock music back in 1952. More than 70 years on, and NME is no longer in print and covers a broad range of music, as well as film, TV and gaming. In this week's podcast, Holly Bishop, the chief operating officer of NME Networks, which also includes Uncut, Musictech and Guitar.com, speaks to Press Gazette's William Turvill about the future of music journalism and the challenges of keeping NME relevant as a brand in 2023.