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eCommerce in Publishing: 3 strategic considerations — whatsnewinpublishing.com

Always good to feature some insight from Damian Radcliffe in the newsletter - particularly in light of the recent reappraisal of BuzzFeed's approach to commerce and its news provision. As the title suggests, he's pulled out three key points for publishers to mull over as they launch and/or improve upon their eCommerce strategies.

He notes, for instance, that the very idea of launching an eCommerce division means some new hiring considerations: "At many publishers, many eCommerce leaders come from technology, sales or product backgrounds. They seldom come out of the newsroom. This reflects the types of skills and experience that are typically needed to implement successful eCommerce strategies."

It's an interesting read, and a reminder of the precariousness of any approach to monetisation, even one that on paper looks like a slam dunk as BuzzFeed's eComm strategy did.

How The New York Times uses machine learning to make its paywall smarter — open.nytimes.com

The NYT is the poster child for digital subscription success, and to some extent that's unfair. After all, it started from an unassailable position; that crown was its to lose. But the team behind its paywall tech still deserves a lot of credit for using those resources wisely - and this is a little peek behind the curtain.

The Big Issue drives change with Citroen partnership — www.thedrum.com

Interesting partnership here from one of our favourite publications. The Big Issue Group has agreed to a content and distribution partnership with Citroen that will see the French automobile brand supply a fleet of 16 electric vans to deliver the magazines across the UK. Speaks to the halo effect of a great and wholesome magazine title.

Daily Mail calling? Boris Johnson weighs offers for his return to journalism — www.theguardian.com

It was inevitable that Johnson would slither back to journalism at some point, even if you'd hope that no paper in the UK would willingly employ a widely untrusted liar. But the silver lining is that he's apparently burned his bridges at his old haunt of The Telegraph - and might have to settle for the filthy lucre of the Daily Mail instead.

We'll be attending Press Gazette's Future of Media Technology Conference on Wed 21st Sept at The Waldorf Hilton, London. Media Voices are media partners, so we've got a special discount code for you - tickets include a networking lunch, evening drinks, and the Future of Media Awards after the conference.

Use FOMC-MEDIA-50-MV to get 50% off tickets.

Podcast throwback:

Future Chief Audience & Ecommerce Officer Aaron Asadi on driving affiliate revenue — voices.media

Related to today's top story - in this throwback episode Future’s Chief Audience and Ecommerce Officer Aaron Asadi tells us about where the ecommerce function sits within the wider strategy, how it relates to audience development, and creating content for affiliate ecommerce revenues across a huge range of brands. 

Buy the Media Voices team a Coffee — ko-fi.com

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