Monday 30th November: Media's business model isn't to blame

November 30, 2020

Welcome to your week. Today's Media Roundup is brought to you by Esther.

Just a reminder that we're gearing up for our virtual event on Wednesday where we'll be launching our annual Media Moments 2020 report as well as hearing from a panel of publishing experts. It would be great to see you - register here!

This is a thought-provoking piece from Jacob Donnelly, GM of B2B at Morning Brew in collaboration with The Washington Post's Jarrod Dicker. The two debate the question of whether the business model of media is to blame for where we are today.

There's no way I can do a summary here that will do it justice, so I'd really recommend taking some time to read it. But here is a taster:

"When we continue to analyze why things are the way they are in this country, it’s going to be easy to point to the business model of media and say that it’s the problem. They’ll say that we need to revolutionize how the media makes money. “The business model must be rebuilt from the ground up.”

"That’s not true. The business model of media is fine...But there is a lot of work ahead of us on the operational side. We need to continuously deliver an amazing product to consumers worth paying for. No one balks at paying for a cell phone, gym membership, Netflix, BabyYoda+, Peloton and every other subscription. Why should they balk at paying for news if the product is actually important to them? "

This all ties in beautifully with Brian Morrissey's edition of The Rebooting this week, which looked at how publishers can build out successful verticals, including how they approached at Digiday. With two Substacks to start your Monday, now on to some other industry news...

The Digital Markets Unit is being set up to govern commercial relationships between platforms and publishers, ensuring that the platforms aren't imposing terms that limit the publishers' ability to monetise their content. Our (brief) thoughts on this are featured in this week's podcast news round-up.

Another comprehensive piece from Damian Radcliffe looking at what publishers of all shapes and sizes are doing to 'super serve' their most loyal audiences. This will be especially important going into next year as subscribers approach renewal periods.

News group Reach has boasted that it has “exceeded market expectations” on the back of rapid digital revenue growth of 16.2% in the second half of 2020. However this wasn't quite enough to offset a 19.2% collapse in print revenue, leading to overall group revenues slumping 13.9%.

This week's podcast:

This week, we talk to Prima's Editor Jo Checkley about what factors led to the decision to increase the frequency of the magazine, how their content has encouraged a community feel among their readers, and what lessons they'll be taking from producing magazines in lockdown.

We've already exceeded the total number of entries we had last year! But we know it's a really busy time of year, so we're giving you the rest of the week to get your entries in. Submissions will now close on Friday 4th December at 11.59pm GMT.