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“It’s been a galvanising moment for us”: How Quartz is charting an independent path to the future — voices.media

The past few years have been bumpy for many publishers. Quartz is no exception; squeezed by plummeting ad revenues and a slow takeup of its membership offering, it has seemed to struggle to find its place. Could independence give it a fresh start and a tighter focus?

This piece from us is actually based on a recent appearance from Chief Executive Zach Seward on our podcast. He talked about the recent management buyout, how they plan to balance membership and advertising, and his vision of the service Quartz' journalism provides.

One point in particular stood out to me, and that is how important he sees the publisher's renewed focus on their mission. “When you’re pulling out your wallet to give money to a news organisation, a lot of that is about signing up for that organisation’s mission,” he said. “We need to be clear about what that mission is for Quartz.”

9 ways newsrooms can incorporate more audio in their work — whatsnewinpublishing.com

The growth of podcasts, and emergence of audio in other places, like social networks, means that the time we spend with this type of content continues to grow and evolve. This creates opportunities for newsrooms of all shapes and sizes. Damian Radcliffe outlines three areas, and nine different examples, to show how journalists and news outlets can more effectively embrace audio.

How publishers plan to recoup lost event revenue — www.adweek.com

Only 4 in 10 event teams have pivoted from in-person to virtual profitably. About 60% of planners will recoup less than 25% of lost revenue for 2020. Only 8% expect to recoup more than 75%. For a lot of companies, these numbers do not support a comeback, leading many to experiment with variable ticket pricing, especially in the consumer-facing category.

What if the future of media is only newsletters and podcasts? Axios seems to think that's right. — thefix.media

It isn't, of course. Newsletters and podcasts should be just two of many types of content publishers produce, depending on their audience's needs. But this is nonetheless an interesting look at how Axios and others treat email as the primary product and have built their businesses around that.

This week's episode:

The Membership Economy author Robbie Kellman Baxter on developing compelling direct-to-consumer offers — voices.media

In this week’s episode we hear from Robbie Kellman Baxter, an author and consultant with over twenty years of experience in subscription pricing, digital community, and freemium. Robbie started working with membership and subscription models like Netflix while they were still sending out DVDs!

Conversations Archives — voices.media

Ahead of our latest Conversations episode being released this Wednesday, take a look through our archive and hear experts discussing the state of the digital publishing market, privacy, subscription success, and more.