The Publisher Podcast by Media Voices

Available Episodes

5 of 388

2025 highlights from media leaders, and our outlook for 2026
In our end-of-year episode, we talk through a busy year at MediaVoices, and outline what our favourite interviews from the year have been and why. Peter highlights chats with DC Thomson's Rebecca Miskin and Immediate Media's Sean Cornwell, who shared their strategies for managing disruption and transformation. "You control what you can control. You experiment as much as you can," said Miskin. "You learn from the experiments, and then you place bold bets." Esther chose a recent interview with Liesbeth Nizet, Head of Future Audiences Monetization at Mediahuis. Nizet is focused on finding the answers to questions about engaging not just the next generation, but currently disengaged audiences too, which is something more publishers should have as a priority. Younger audiences will pay for games, entertainment and travel, from the latest Fortnite skin to an Instagrammable holiday. "So how can we make our news so interesting, or so relevant, or so representative for them that they want to pay for it?” Nizet asks. We also share our outlook for 2026, and why we think it's going to get worse for the industry before it gets better.
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Media Briefs: WoodWing’s Jeroen Goemans on using AI for measurable workflow upgrade
Most publishers know they should be doing more with AI, but the gap between strategy decks and the reality of nightly, weekly or even monthly publishing deadlines is huge. This is the latest in our Media Briefs series of short, sharp sponsored episodes with a senior executive from a vendor working with publishers to make their businesses better. In this episode, we hear from Jeroen Goemans, MD for EMEA at content management solutions provider WoodWing. After 25 years working with content-heavy brands, Woodwing’s publishing clients have already automated huge chunks of their production process, but they are already seeing real ROI from AI integrations in its established content and asset management platforms. This Media Briefs episode is sponsored by WoodWing. WoodWing empowers publishing ecosystems by uniting technology with deep industry expertise. For 25+ years, we’ve helped teams create, manage, and deliver content across print and digital channels with greater efficiency and consistency. Our portfolio spans multi-channel production, digital assets, quality, knowledge, and information management. Founded in 2000, we operate globally from our headquarters in the Netherlands. Learn more about WoodWing’s AI innovations on their website: https://www.woodwing.com/solutions/content-orchestration
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DC Thomson's Rebecca Miskin on the secrets of successful business transformation
This week's guest is Rebecca Miskin, CEO of family-owned Scottish publisher DC Thomson. Peter caught up with Rebecca at FIPP Congress in October ahead of her presentation, titled The Gnarly Reality of Transformation. One of DC Thomson's iconic brands is The Beano, a children's comic-magazine that's been published since the 1930's. Gnarly is very much a Beano word, so Peter asked Rebecca why she describes transformation the way Dennis the Menace might, and maybe more ominously as a cross between chess and Russian Roulette. We spoke about the pressure and the privilege of working to transform a family-owned business that has a 200 year legacy, and the secrets of a successful transformation project (spoiler: it's all about people). Get the write-up of the key points of this interview in your inbox by subscribing to The Publisher Newsletter, over on voices.media
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Mediahuis' Liesbeth Nizet on engaging and monetising younger audiences
Our guest on The Publisher Podcast this week is Liesbeth Nizet, Head of Future Audiences Monetization at Mediahuis, a media group with a presence in Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland, Germany and Luxembourg. In her role, Liesbeth is focused on next-generation audiences, and helping build future-proof business models that bridge editorial purpose and commercial potential. We talked at FIPP Congress about stereotypes around young people paying for news, to what extent demographics are helpful when understanding behaviours, and what she’s doing at Mediahuis to encourage younger audiences to engage with news content. Get the write-up of the key points of this interview in your inbox by subscribing to The Publisher Newsletter, over on voices.media
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The Atlantic's Megha Garibaldi on growing subscribers in a challenging landscape
In this week's episode of The Publisher Podcast, we're joined by Megha Garibaldi, Chief Growth Officer at The Atlantic. Megha leads the consumer revenue vertical, including consumer marketing, and she helped lead The Atlantic to its milestone of 1 million paid subscribers and reaching profitability in 2024. She spoke to Esther at FIPP Congress about the changes she’s seen in audiences’ willingness to pay over the years, the differences and similarities of working on membership and subscriber-driven publications, and where she’s looking for audience growth in the current challenging landscape. Megha also discussed the differences and similarities of marketing free versus paywalled publications from her work previously at The Guardian, and their respective member and subscriber approaches. Get the write-up of the key points of this interview in your inbox by subscribing to The Publisher Newsletter, over on voices.media
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