Today's Media Roundup is brought to you by Esther. Have a great weekend!

The growing importance of product thinking for publishers — whatsnewinpublishing.com

The INMA have just released a new report, "How Product is Leading Media's New Growth Path". It looks at how product is changing news media companies, and what they need to do to innovate, create and deliver the best possible digital products for their audience.

It's a timely report, given that Reuters found that 93% of leaders said they believe that the product role is important, but less than half (43%) felt that it's well understood in their companies.

It's no coincidence that some of the most successful subscription businesses in the world today have product thinking front and centre of their businesses. WNIP have done a great job as usual of pulling out some of the key learnings if you haven't yet had chance to read it.

Businesses with more diverse boards came out on top during the pandemic — www.axios.com

A body of research shows that generally better business comes alongside boardrooms that are less old, male and white. "There isn't enough data yet to show causation, but there's strong correlation," said Deanna Oppenheimer, founder of nonprofit research group BoardReady.

What the Digital News Report 2021 means for your audio strategy — www.rjionline.org

Damian Radcliffe summaries the key takeaways from the Digital News Report through the lens of audio. Of particular interest is the gap in audio for local media: something that projects like Laudable have been trying to fill here in the UK.

There are 4 kinds of keyword research: Make sure you’re doing the right one(s) — whatsnewinpublishing.com

If you (or anyone in your team) are at all interested in keyword research, this is a comprehensive primer on where to get multi-platform keyword data, how to properly search for it, and how to apply it. I certainly learned a lot!

This week's episode:

Journalism.co.uk Editor Marcela Kunova on nurturing innovation in newsrooms — voices.media

This week we hear from Marcela Kunova, Editor at Journalism.co.uk. We talked about what she’s hoping to achieve with her new newsroom innovation mentorship programme, how she translated Newsrewired to a virtual event, and why it’s so important for the site to support freelancers.

Media Voices on Instagram — www.instagram.com

Are you a fan of the 'gram? We're looking to do a bit more from our account @mediavoices, so follow us for interview quotes, guest sneak peeks and occasional puppy/baby pictures.