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In today's job market, having your own brand is key to survival — niemanreports.org

The question about how much building a personal 'brand' matters in our industry has been the subject of much debate in recent years. Jobs at 'traditional' publishers are precarious at best, and with the rise of social media, journalists have found it's increasingly safer - both from a credibility and job security perspective - to build a following on their own platforms.

From a publisher's perspective, this can be incredibly unnerving. I've been part of some difficult conversations myself with employers who were twitchy about my own 'brand'. I get it - it's an issue that has only arisen recently, and we don't have the tools in place to properly deal with some of the complexities.

But I'd really encourage you to give this a read for another perspective. Building a personal brand allows writers from historically marginalised groups to stand out, and gives those a shot who might not otherwise have got a foot in the door had they been unknown.

The enormous media company you've never heard of — simonowens.substack.com

Complexly has 51 full-time employees across 22 separate verticals, 55 million social media subscribers and over 5 billion views on YouTube. Simon Owens does a good breakdown of why companies like Complexly don't get 'mainstream' media coverage, including general snobbery around creator-led businesses. We should definitely be more aware of brands like this and how they've (quietly) become so successful.

Lessons from award-winning podcasts: Immediate Media's Ben Youatt — voices.media

Immediate Media have featured numerous times on the shortlists and as winners of categories both for 2020 and 2021’s Publisher Podcast Awards. So it's worth paying close attention to their processes for podcasting. Peter spoke to Immediate Media’s Head of Podcasts Ben Youatt about scaling up the podcast team, facilitating audio operations, and getting to be the 'engine' that enables editorial to implement their ideas.

From EiC to CEO: Leadership lessons from FastCo’s Stephanie Mehta — whatsnewinpublishing.com

For many journalists, their natural career progression will see them rise through the ranks to the roles of Editor or Editor in Chief. Editorial leadership comes with its own unique set of challenges. But for those that might want to take on more senior roles on the business side, they may question whether they have the right skills to make the leap. I wrote up some lessons from our interview with Stephanie Mehta for WNIP.

This week's episode:

Headlines Network Founder Hannah Storm on improving the mental health of people working in the media — voices.media

In this week’s episode we hear from Hannah Storm, founder and director of Headlines network, an organisation working to improve the mental health of people working in the media. She tells us about why mental health can be bad among media professionals, and what organisations and individuals can do to make things better.

Conversations: Passendo talks monetising inventory and protecting privacy with Access Intelligence — voices.media

Building audience engagement with email is high on every publisher’s agenda. But building revenue with email doesn’t get nearly the same attention. In this special Conversations episode, Chris is joined by Passendo's Andreas Jürgensen, Anders Rantzau Rasmussen, and Access Intelligence’s Michael Ring to discuss how publishers are growing their bottom line by optimising and automating in-email ad serving.