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E-replica editions, the ugly ducklings of digital news, have suddenly become strategic — www.poynter.org

Digital editions, e-replicas, whatever you call them...the 'digital version' of newspapers and magazines have had a rocky ride over the past decade. From designers attempting to replicate the print layout in a pixel-perfect iPad version to responsive battles with an infinite array of screen sizes, many publishers have sidelined their digital editions over the past few years.

This piece from Poynter focuses on some US newspaper publishers who have seen e-replica editions become a more central part of their publishing strategies again, particularly during the pandemic.

Shameless but related plug: I wrote a piece on this back in November following a flurry of digital edition launches from The Atlantic, The Guardian and others.

“It blew us away. The initial growth was madness”: publishers supercharge engagement and generate revenue with subscription boxes — whatsnewinpublishing.com

A great write-up from WNIP on the key learnings from FIPP's new report on subscription boxes. Many publishers who already had subscription box programmes in place saw a surge in sign-ups as a result of worldwide lockdowns. But it's not just physical subscription boxes on offer; events, masterclasses and digital goodies can be packaged up as well.

Google's ad revenue to fall in 2020 as Amazon, Facebook continue to grow — adage.com

Google's net US digital ad revenue is set to fall just over 5% to $39.6 billion (yes, with a b) this year, according to eMarketer. Pre-COVID, it was due to grow 13%. Amazon on the other hand is proving resilient as it has no dependencies on the travel market, and Facebook is set to grow 5% as well (although it remains to be seen whether the threatened July ad boycott will have any impact).

Lessons from award-winning podcasts: The Week Unwrapped’s Arion McNicoll — voices.media

The winner of the News & Current Affairs category in the 2020 Publisher Podcast Awards was The Week Unwrapped from Dennis Publishing’s The Week. Peter Houston asked Arion McNicoll, editor at theweek.co.uk, to share some of his insights into what has made The Week Unwrapped podcast so successful.

Throwback Thursday:

WIRED Editor-in-Chief Nicholas Thompson on lessons from a year behind a paywall — voices.media

Our most popular episode to date, if you haven't heard Nick Thompson talking to us about his work in readying WIRED for the jump to a paywall and what they've learned since, now's your chance.

Transcripts Archives — voices.media

Did you know we do a transcript for each of our guest's interviews? It usually goes live a couple of days after the episode has been released, and we have a (searchable) archive of what our guests have talked about dating back over two years now.