Every Saturday morning, we invite a publishing pro to put together their top media links. This week's guest editor is Mary Hogarth.

Mary is a media specialist, educator and writer at The Magazine Expert.

You can find Mary on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Mary says:

"Sustainability has always been a critical issue for me, and I think this crisis has provided an opportunity for many businesses to explore what constitutes as a necessity and what doesn't. 

However, with so much uncertainty it may be hard to plan for the future right now, but if publishers are to thrive, strategic planning is essential.

As we move forward trust is going to become even more important, so the focus must be on quality editorial combined with the creative flair to produce a unique product. This means taking a risk and not following the tune of rival titles. With risk comes reward, so as we journey on it's time to examine our raison d’être. 

My advice? Lead well, don’t be afraid of evolution and prioritise seeking new ways of bringing inspirational editorial to your readers. In this vein, here are a few interesting stories that have gotten my attention – and even a contribution (Wired) recently."

Mapping the Magazine — mappingthemagazine.org

Founded by Tim Holmes at Cardiff University, this unique, biennial, international conference is where academia fuses with professional practice. But unlike previous years, Mapping the Magazine 6 (1-3 July) was virtual.

James Hewes, CEO of FIPP, opened the conference with an insightful keynote on media trends post Covid-19. Over the three days, 28 academics and industry practitioners from around the world, including America, Australia and Brazil, shared their research across a diverse range of themes. 

For me, the most important takeaway was being reminded about the impact of positive, inclusive leadership and the ability to create powerful teams.

HuffPost UK leads the way — www.thedrum.com

An insightful piece revealing how HuffPost has established its community-style reporting in the UK. Find out more about their strategy, which has enabled the brand's news hub to thrive at a time when most local news reporting is in jeopardy.  Huff’s approach has also resulted in achieving the highest score for trust in the 2019 Reuters Journalism Report. 

Know your audience — www.foliomag.com

Asking questions and regularly gathering audience intelligence is a must, and probably accounts for a high percentage of the publishing budget. But while the focus should always be on improving the audience experience, how many publishers act on the intelligence they are given?

Fixing the media’s cash crisis — www.wired.co.uk

WIRED’s Sophie Charara explores how disrupters Apple are trying to drive subscription-led news by employing the Netflix-style model of modest monthly subscriptions to generate income. Long term can it succeed where others have failed?

Dennis launches a new title — www.dennis.co.uk

At a time when many publishers are cutting back Dennis has launched a new bike magazine, Cycling Electric. As keen cyclists will know, the publisher has spotted a gap in the market, but is it sustainable?

Stack’s favourites — www.stackmagazines.com

This superb podcast series from Stack offers an insight into all aspects of magazine publishing from design, imagery and business aspects.

If you would like to guest edit a future edition of My Media Roundup, simply reply to this email.