Thursday 29th April: Gannett's pay gap and the business of hip-hop

April 29, 2021

Good morning! Today's Media Roundup is brought to you by Chris.

Journalism has a representation problem. That's it, that's the tweet. It's not up for debate - on both sides of the Atlantic white men make up too great a proportion of the newsroom. It stifles our ability to hold truth to power and it limits our ability to generate revenue. We need to do better.

That's been highlighted - again - by a pay equity report published by NewsGuild Gannett Caucus on Tuesday. The pay gap at Gannett is stark: "Its analysis found that employees of color earned a median salary of $5,246 less than white employees, a 10% pay gap. Women of color earned a median salary of $15,727 less than white men, a 27% pay gap." And that's just the average, at some titles it's far worse.

Gannett, which owns 260 local newspapers across the United States, has promised to make its workforce “as diverse as the country” by 2025 last summer. By the looks of this report - and the failure of other newspapers and broadcasters across the globe - that looks like a tall order.

Audience engagement is the solid ground on which subscription and membership strategies are built. This first-hand account from the New Naratif explains how the team went about deepening that engagement through reader feedback.

The Daily Telegraph is on track to reach its 1m paying subs, 10m registered readers target, per its latest report: "It reported 71% year-on-year growth for digital subscriptions in 2020, with digital subscription revenues climbing by 77% to £31.5m for the year."

Love this. Proving the power of an interested audience, one creator has managed to launch a sustainable newsletter, essay and podcast business off the back of a passion. Worth a read, if only for the warm feeling you get seeing someone succeed in the hostile environment of digital publishing.

This week's episode:

This week we hear from Gina Tonic co-founder of The Fat Zine, an independent magazine by fat people for fat people, plus those that care. We spoke about the F word, the influence of Pitch Perfect, being an activist vs being a publisher, Fat Liberation and how inside every thin person there’s a fat person dying to get out.

Catch up with this year's winning podcasts and find your next great listen. You can also watch a video of the awards ceremony if you missed it and read about our plans for a Summit next year. All thoughts welcome - just reply to this email!