Monday 20th May: Podcasts and newsletters - 5 similarities and 1 huge difference

Good morning! Today’s newsletter is brought to you by Peter.

Is it better to run multiple podcast feeds, or to publish all your episodes in one place? The New Statesman's Chris Stone and Tortoise's Alice Sandelson will be sharing what they've learned from consolidating some of their podcast shows into one feed at the Publisher Podcast & Newsletter Summit in just a few weeks.

We think podcasts and newsletters occupy very similar places in publisher portfolios. The formats have been around for a long time, but have only recently come to be seen as a valuable addition to the commercial mix. A fresh focus on sponsorship opportunities and the potential to deepen audience engagement and drive subscription revenue has bumped both up the priority list.

It is that commercial imperative that has led us to launch the dual-track Publisher Podcast and Newsletter Summit next month. Of course there are specialists in each area, but there are also publishing generalists trying to develop strategies that will work across their business’s podcast and newsletter efforts.

From audience intimacy to host voice, deep engagement to niche opportunities, this piece lists some of the key similarities that inspired us to bring podcast and newsletter experts together on the same day and in the same place so our audience can pick and choose the sessions that are most suited to their operations. There is of course one big difference, but you’ll need to read the piece to find out that that is.

Link rot is something Chris talks about regularly and these numbers will kind of show you why. Almost 40% of webpages that existed in 2013 are gone, with the links to them going absolutely nowhere. Many of those pages probably deserved to disappear, but among them are sure to be meaningful research, news stories, even just opinions that it would be good to be able to know about. Look after your links people, look after your links.

Positive results from Dotdash Meredith and MailOnline have been joined by a turnaround in Future’s fortunes. Revenue is down 3% year on year and adjusted operating profit down 19%, but the business returned to revenue growth in the second quarter - up 3% year on year - and management are confident for the rest of the year. Interestingly, the company has said it is taking its “first steps” in expanding email, social commerce and digital subscriptions.

If you’re looking to understand why staff are bailing on newsrooms, Isabelle Roughol has curated a list of 27 statements from journalists exiting the profession. She says, “Together they paint a picture of why we lose our best talent... and what we might do to keep them.” Burn-out, bullies and simply being skint all feature.

More from Media Voices