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Condé Nast knows faded glory is not in style — www.nytimes.com

To kick off your week, may I present this fascinating interview with Anna Wintour and Roger Lynch, by Katie Robertson. It looks at how Condé is attempting to change to not just be more diverse and more relevant, but to ensure its own survival financially.

The struggle is adeptly summed up by media executive Janice Min, who described the balance Condé is trying to strike between having enough scale to compete with the platforms, but having the 'right' audience to attract advertisers:

“I think without the whiff of elitism, that sort of old-school top-down approach to telling the world what to wear and think, Condé Nast runs the risk of becoming just another white-label content farm on the web,” she said. “How do you stay special and distinct and in a world that demands equity?”

Powerful engagement and revenue drivers, newsletters are at the centre of the fight for publisher influence — voices.media

Email newsletters have taken a central role in the battle between upstart platforms, individual creators, and long-established media brands fighting to secure audience loyalty. Peter Houston takes a look at the key newsletter trends of the year as part of our Media Moments 2021 report.

Three skill sets needed for successful digital news media — thefix.media

This is an edited excerpt of a chapter of SembraMedia’s Inflection Point International study of 201 digital native media companies in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. It looks at what smaller digital publishers are doing to be successful, especially when it comes to team leadership and structure.

MrBeast is changing the economics of YouTube — simonowens.substack.com

The top echelons of YouTubers are now spending upwards of $3.5 million per video. That's pretty much what it costs to produce the average episode of a TV drama. Simon Owens draws out some examples of YouTubers who are spending insane money on these elaborate videos, and asks if we could soon be seeing the next Game of Thrones debut on the platform.

This week's podcast:

Special: Highlights from Media Moments 2021 — voices.media

This special episode of Media Voices includes the audio of our launch presentation for the Media Moments 2021 report. Chris, Peter and Esther each outline which media moment of the year they found interesting, before being joined by an expert panel of media analysts to dissect the year.

Just one week left to get your podcast entries in! — voices.media

Sheesh, it feels like we've only just opened! But December 10th is fast approaching, so make sure getting your entries submitted is top of your to-do list this week. If you've not got a podcast yourself, please do make sure industry friends and colleagues are aware - we love celebrating brilliant publisher podcasts.