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LinkedIn looks to premium publishers as a way to drive subscriber revenue — digiday.com

LinkedIn has quietly launched a pilot program called LinkedIn Premium News, which according to Digiday, gives LinkedIn Premium members access to content published by sites that use Piano's paywall technology.

The theory goes that LinkedIn Premium members have a number of credits they can use to unlock paywalled content. In exchange for this access, LinkedIn 'expects to send the participating publishers a stream of highly qualified leads for their own subscription products'.

On paper, this looks like a well-aligned proposition. But publishers have been burned numerous times by platforms, so will this be something they embrace, or keep at arm's length? And don't get me started on how abysmal LinkedIn's own algorithms are...

Editors discuss the future of comment sections — www.niemanlab.org

Comment sections are frequently a hot topic for publishers. On the one hand, they offer unique opportunities to build communities and engagement. On the other, they're a nightmare to moderate and keep healthy. This is an excellent piece from Nieman Lab with some ideas about how to improve comment sections and what their future might look like.

Spotify’s podcast ad revenue jumps 627% in Q2 — techcrunch.com

Given the number of podcast businesses Spotify has acquired in the past 18 months, substantial growth in their ad revenue was to be expected. 'The days of our ad business accounting for less than 10% of our total revenue are behind us,' CEO Daniel Ek said. If Spotify is helping drive discovery and ad revenue, that's a win for podcasters everywhere.

Younger readers are passing on mainstream news, but what can publishers do about it? — www.pressgazette.co.uk

We've discussed the lack of young people paying for news a number of times before on the podcast (can't pay for news if you don't have money!) but glossing over that for a second, this makes some interesting and practical points. It's no longer our job to 'tell people the news'. Young people want to know about LGBTQ+ rights, climate change, activism and the arts...oh, and they want entertaining as well.

This week's episode:

Editor and publisher of Freelancer Sophie Cross on the joys of launching an indie mag — voices.media

In this week’s episode we hear from Sophie Cross, the founder and editor of Freelancer magazine. She talked about her penchant for writing business plans, the freelance community that inspired the Freelancer magazine launch, and how she kept the spark going after the initial rush of the first issue.

Support us — voices.media

If you like this newsletter or our podcast, there are a number of ways you can support us. Kick us a virtual coffee via Ko-Fi, or if you're a vendor, find out more about our special Conversations episodes. You can also support us for free by sharing us with your colleagues and media friends. Every little helps and is really appreciated by us.