Welcome to The Publisher Newsletter, by Media Voices. The podcast will be back shortly, featuring sessions from The Publisher Summits, which took place in London last week. All episodes will have accompanying write-ups, which will land here, in your inbox.

Key themes from 2025’s Publisher Summits…as shared by you

Last week we were joined by over 450 guests for The Publisher Summits and Awards; bringing together four Summits and two Awards events across newsletters, print, podcasts and apps.

Our plan is to release selected sessions as podcasts and write-ups for The Publisher Podcast and Newsletter. We had some technical (and toothy) hitches on the day which means we’re sorting what we’ve captured and where the gaps are. As we work our way through these, we wanted to bring you some of the key themes and lessons as shared by our audience across many LinkedIn posts, newsletters, and other coverage. 

The human connection

Author and journalist Nika Talbot wrote about her top lessons from spending a day at the Publisher Newsletter Summit in her own newsletter The Shift. She said that many of the sessions touched on how putting a name on a newsletter could accelerate growth and loyalty - there was even a whole panel dedicated to the power of personalities.

Sarah Ebner, Executive Editor, Director of editorial growth and engagement at the Financial Times emphasised how staff-led newsletters were more successful when it came to retention. She highlighted Chris Giles on Central Banks - which later went on to win Best B2B Newsletter at the Publisher Newsletter Awards - where readers love the expert voice.

“Don’t worry about big personalities leaving,” she told the audience. “Build them up, they’ll probably stay. Or you’ll find new folks.”

Similarly, Henry Seltzer at Bloomberg said in a later session on converting newsletter readers to subscribers that they’re also seeing success with their personality-driven newsletters. He also pointed out that it’s not about getting massive numbers, and in fact they see more value in smaller, more engaged newsletter audiences.

Reach plc’s Rob Parsons, whose Northern Agenda newsletter and podcast has won multiple times across the Podcast and Newsletter Awards, said he had actively tried to make himself more of a feature in the newsletter. “Increasingly, audiences want to know who is behind the news, and this builds trust - especially if you’re a part of their inbox,” said Ed Walker, summarising key learnings from the day in his Substack newsletter.

The importance of the human connection came through the following day at the Publisher Podcast Summit. Kicking off the day with his keynote speech, The New Statesman’s Chris Stone emphasised that “podcasts can make people feel loved.” 

“They’re great at welcoming audiences into our world, then creating a sense of human connection, then fostering a sense of belonging,” he said. 

We’d like to theorise that all this emphasis on the human connection is the reason why newsletters and podcasts are booming in a world where everything else is awash with AI slop. But that’s a topic for another time…

Time well spent

Audiences are growing increasingly careful of where they spend their time. From time limits on social media apps to a brewing backlash against algorithmically-curated feeds, publishers have opportunities to re-take that time and attention with well-designed products. This was a key reason we put on the Publisher Print and App Summits alongside the Newsletter and Podcast Summits: it’s not just about going where the audiences are, it’s about creating products to deepen those relationships.

The power of apps to build these relationships came up time and time again at the App Summit. In his opening keynote, Jonny Kaldor of Pugpig presented a wealth of data to show that far from being in decline, news and magazine app downloads are actually continuing to grow, and are forecast to hit 1.81 billion downloads this year.

This doesn’t just present an opportunity for content-heavy news publications. Almost a third of time spent in apps is on edition content, according to Jonny, with audiences going deeper for longer in weekly or monthly editions.

The FT’s Muj Ali reiterated the value of their own app when it came to creating experiences for readers and subscribers to feel they have spent their time well. “Subscribers visit the app home page more frequently than our web page, and are four times more engaged,” he said. They see the website as a vehicle for getting users subscribed, as well as building awareness and consideration. The app is the next stage of the funnel, to build engagement and habit. 

The concept of value came up time and time again across the Summits. One panel on fixing the magazine retail experience at the Publisher Print Summit, featuring MagCulture’s Jeremy Leslie, Ra&Olly’s James Laffar, APL Media’s Maria Pieri and Warners Group Publication’s Natalie Smith highlighted that customers are still willing to pay for print.

“Stop the race to the bottom on price - put your price up!” Natalie summarised. “Readers will pay more for content they value.”

In his keynote Peter Houston hammered home the point that print is nowhere near dead and isn't likely to be as long as there is still money in it. Asked if there was anything he was surprised by in his research for Inside the Print Revival he said that while he knew print was not dead, it was a pleasant surprise to see that PwC projects 75% of 2026 revenues at global consumer magazine publishers will come from print.

Thinking about how long there will be a market for print, Prospect CEO Mark Beard said, "As long as readers want it." Echoing that sentiment, Alex White, MD of Immediate Media's knowledge portfolio highlighted the ongoing newsstand success of the Gardeners' World 2-for-1 Gardens issue. "It gives readers real value and has enormous appeal on the newsstand," she said.

However, Alex also saw huge utility in print publishers developing a complementary digital offering.  She explained that the introduction of a 2-for-1 Gardens app had been driven by the desire to add digital convenience to the 30-year old print proposition.

Evolution was the central theme throughout the day on the print stage. From Immediate's digital value-add to the new business models outlined by Black Business founder Justice Williams, strategies for engaging young readers off-screen from Louise Ioannou, Publisher of National Geographic kids, and the pop-up publications described by Grazia editor-in-chief Hattie Brett.

A team effort

This may seemingly contrast with the emphasis on putting individuals at the front of newsletters and podcasts, but the importance of teamwork popped up continually over both days, and especially at the Newsletter and Podcast Award ceremonies each evening.

In her opening keynote at the Newsletter Summit, Georgia Chambers, newsletter editor at The i Paper, said that investing in a team has made all the difference. “I’ll be frank: for the first four years I was at The i Paper it was me versus probably almost 18 newsletters,” she explained, as Press Gazette’s Charlotte Tobitt covered. “I managed it the best I could, burnout definitely became a familiar friend of mine, but it became difficult to think about the bigger picture and to be constantly evolving the strategy that I’d created.

“So now I’m pleased to say that The i Paper has invested a lot more in newsletters and it’s really great to see the energy behind newsletters in the newsroom from every department as well because it really does need to be a collaborative project.”

Ed Walker pulled this out as a key learning for publishers looking to implement successful limited series, from talks given by The Times and National World. “High quality, a huge collaborative team approach and picking topics which aligned with the strength of the brands and readerships with a propensity to subscribe and support,” he summarised.

Teamwork was consistently highlighted as the reason for success for winners at the Publisher Newsletter and Podcast Awards. “A successful newsletter depends on a great deal of work involving colleagues outside editorial: in product, design, marketing etc. So, if you’ll forgive the cliche, it really is a team effort,” said The Economist’s Head of Newsletters Aaron Coultate on LinkedIn.

“I am so proud of our team, often working above and beyond the day job, for pulling off these [podcasts],” said National World’s Nicola Adam on LinkedIn, before naming many individuals and teams involved in their multiple shortlisted and winning podcasts.

A huge congratulations from our own team to all those shortlisted and the winners at both Awards, and our thanks for the support of all the speakers and delegates at the Summits. Subscribe to our own newsletter to stay up to date with learnings from the Summits, and future events from us.

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