Monday 5th July: Next slide, please.

July 05, 2021

Happy Monday! Today's Media Roundup is brought to you by Esther.

If you've been anywhere near Instagram lately, you may have noticed an increase in the number of creators using Powerpoint-style text slides and cards - albeit with nicer designs - in order to get points across. And possibly take advantage of the latest quirks in the Insta algorithm.

Although there can be issues with making content like this (misinformation and individual segments being shared out of context, for starters), if it's done carefully, it can be a great way of making complex stories more digestible and accessible.

Nieman Lab's Hanaa' Tameez takes a look at how the New York Times is using Instagram slides and Twitter cards to make stories more digestible. It's a good, practical overview, with some very steal-able ideas.

A few years ago, Alex Saelens and a few of his colleagues launched The Bristol Cable, an investigative news startup that boasts on its membership page that “there are no majority shareholders or commercial investors, and we do not accept corporate advertising.” It currently has 2,100 paying members.

Black Ballad, the leading digital lifestyle subscription for black women in Britain & beyond, is opening itself to the community to invest and become shareholders. They'll be using the money (if they raise it by the end of the week) to improve their tech, pay more black women, and work on new products that black women both want and need. Learn more in this editorial from founder Tobi Oredein.

Another great initiative that deserves your support, this time from our friends at journalism.co.uk. They've launched a pilot programme to help smaller news publishers experiment with new tools and strategies. It will pair experienced industry professionals with local and regional journalists in the UK who are passionate about innovation in their newsroom.

This week's episode:

This week, we hear from Chris Duncan, CEO of UK Publishing at Bauer Media Group. He joined the company just a few weeks after last year’s lockdown, so he talks about what it’s been like leading Bauer through such a turbulent year, their wins and losses throughout the pandemic, and which trends he’s seen accelerated in the business.

We don't just talk, we write too! We're aiming to bring you more regular written analysis exclusively from Media Voices, and you'll be able to find it (as well as links to content we write for other outlets) all here in our analysis archives.