Good morning! Here with the latest media news to end your week is Esther.

Could a Spotify-style model save the global newspaper and magazine industry? — pressgazette.co.uk

No. Nothing is going to 'save' the news industry except smart diversification.

Moving past the headline though, this piece is definitely worth a read for the deep-dive into some of the companies trying to solve the 'Spotify for news' problem, along with an analysis of the extent to which they're succeeding.

The question of whether a Spotify-style model for news would work in the UK is a somewhat unfair one. Our own attitude towards paying for news is somewhat skewed by having the BBC freely available.

But the question about whether it would work more widely is one we've looked at before. We published "The fatal flaw in subscription models" back in the days of theMediaBriefing, which looked at how a model like this could succeed. (Also of note: Thomas Baekdal wrote a smart rebuttal).

Since then, a number of outlets have doggedly persisted and are very slowly growing market share. Perhaps this is for the best, and instead of one dominating Spotify or Netflix-style platform, we'll end up with a number of more competitive providers. Of course, what that means for publisher revenues is another story...

Trust in news publishers extends to advertising brands, IAB survey finds — whatsnewinpublishing.com

This is a really interesting report from the IAB which looks at the 'News Trust Halo'. Forget all the worries about brand safety. It turns out audiences are actually likely to think more positively of advertisers who appear on news sites they trust, even if those sites are covering stories about Trump, terrorism, and coronavirus. Step away from the keyword blacklist...

Financial Times' three-step plan to drive subscriptions — www.journalism.co.uk

During the lockdown, the business news publisher relaxed its hard paywall. Instead of losing its paying readers, it hit its yearly subscriptions growth goal in just three months. A smart, succinct piece from Jacob Granger.

A stalwart and still one of the best ways to engage... but what’s new with newsletters? — www.fipp.com

Sunnie Huang, Newsletters Editor at The Economist UK, talks about what the publisher has learned about doing newsletters well, and how the role newsletters play for both prospective customers and subscribers has developed radically.

This week's podcast:

Man cannot live by newsletter alone: the realities of going solo as a journalist — voices.media

Hear from Platformer’s Casey Newton, Baekdal.com’s Thomas Baekdal, The Business of Content’s Simon Owens, Culture Study’s Anne Helen Petersen and The Media Nut’s Josh Sternberg as they talk about the realities of what it takes to go it alone with reader revenue as a journalist.

Transcripts Archives — voices.media

Did you know you can READ all our interviews! Our transcript archive is free to peruse, whether you want to search out a guest to listen to, or find a key quote. Transcripts of the guest's interview normally go up on Wednesday each week after we've released an episode.