Wednesday 13th September: The Economist adds podcast subscription tier

September 13, 2023

Good morning! Today's newsletter is brought to you by Chris. As a little announcement to kick off today’s edition, on Monday I started a new role as news editor for Marketing Week, woop woop!

As AI advances continue to disrupt the way we work, there are many questions from news and media organisations: What will be the impact of AI on audience expectations? How can we maintain trust in our news content in the AI era?

Reuters sheds light on these questions in an exclusive report: Powering Trusted News with AI: Navigating the present and shaping the future.

The report explores the role of AI in news and journalism and offers practical advice on how AI can help streamline your processes.

The Economist adds podcast subscription tier

The Economist plans to introduce a new subscription tier this Thursday called Economist Podcasts+ for $4.90 monthly, the Economist president Bob Cohn told Axios

https://www.axios.com/2023/09/12/economist-adds-podcast-subscription-tier

I love podcasts. I just agreed to produce a pilot for one about shark movies. But while I’m delighted to see The Economist deepening its investment in the medium by launching a dedicated subscription service for its stock of current and upcoming podcasts, I’m actually far more interested to see how they market it.

Axios’ Sara Fischer points out that the move is reminiscent of the business-focused newspaper putting the majority of its newsletters behind a subscription barrier in 2020. But I would argue (happy to hear counter-arguments) that it’s much easier to market a subscription to a newsletter than to a podcast, which take time to bed in with the listener by dint of being audio.

The question is whether the 4.8 million monthly unique listeners that the outlet currently enjoys is a large enough starting point to launch this service. Millions of those listeners will fall away rather than pay — but evidently the team believes those that do stay will make it worth the paper’s while. Watch (listen to?) this space.

ITV picks up Oscars broadcast rights for UK as Sky backs away

The UK network has made a ‘multi-year’ deal with Disney to screen the annual awards, as Sky ends its 20-year connection

www.theguardian.com/film/2023/sep/12/itv-picks-up-oscars-broadcast-rights-for-uk-as-sky-backs-away

We so rarely cover broadcast news (as opposed to news broadcasts) on Media Voices, which is a shame as it remains so influential. So it’s interesting to see ITV having picked up the rights to the Oscars — especially since viewer interest in the televised ceremony has been waning. And rightly so. Still, got to be good for attracting a few eyeballs, eh?

If anyone fancies enlightening Peter about why you watch (or don’t watch) broadcast news any more, our new community forum currently has a thread discussing just that.

Google accused of rigging market to secure dominant search monopoly in biggest US antitrust trial for years

The historic legal battle against federal government lawyers - which comes just a week after Google's 25th birthday - is set to be the biggest in almost two decades.

news.sky.com/story/google-accused-of-rigging-market-to-secure-dominant-search-monopoly-in-biggest-us-antitrust-trial-for-years-12959558

I don’t think anyone can credibly argue that Google isn’t extremely, extremely powerful. I watched an entire (very good) parody anime where it was effectively a galactic superpower, even. By the same token it would be great to see checks and balances on that power — but it will take a long time before we see any meaningful ramifications from this for the media industry.

The Barclay family, the banks and the billion-pound debt

How a decade-long effort to restructure loans extended to the reclusive businessmen’s empire culminated in Lloyds Banking Group seizing control of a national newspaper

www.ft.com/content/322e4bea-40b3-4749-92f4-d5fa78762a14

Excellent long read here from the FT about the financial circumstances that led to the Barclays losing control of the Telegraph. Some wonderful insight into how reticent Lloyds was to call in debt that happened to include the most Tory-adjacent newspaper. But there’s a real sting in the final paragraph, which points out that the Barclays’ dreams and legacy have crumbled before their very eyes.

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Why we've launched a media community forum

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