Wednesday 21st September: In going green, Time's ends justify the means

September 21, 2022

Good morning! Today's newsletter is brought to you by Chris. Esther's at Press Gazette's Future of Media Technology conference today so say hi if you spot her!

Wonderful header image from Axios, and one that speaks to some of the financial reasons for going green. Time is launching what is effectively an independent division - one that doesn't sit within the company's newsroom or business department - to help fund climate-friendly endeavours and experiments.

CO2 by Time essentially aims to become a "surrogate sustainability team" for companies, said Simon Mulcahy, Time's president of sustainability, who is leading the new division as CEO. "Because the climate market is full of so many junk quality projects, they're just risking throwing money away," he said.

Look, I know it's easy to be cynical. But the reality is that the allure of cash money is probably what will eventually tip more companies towards sustainability. It's not the best reason to go green, but the ends justify the means. Time is smart to be getting in on this relatively early.

Wowza. You'd feel pretty bloody special if the announcement of you leaving a company wiped over a quarter of a million pounds fromits value. Yet more than £300 million has been stripped from Future's market value after the announcement that Zillah Byng-Thorne is to step down.

I've written a few times now about how TikTok is the go-to for recommendations and discovery among Gen Z. But this longer exploration from the NYT is interesting for what it says about the future of Google. Will we eventually hear cries of 'make TikTok pay for journalism'?

Not content with trying to own the entire podcasting market, Spotify has finally formally launched its audiobooks business - as an à la carte model. This isn't strictly a publishing story, but inevitably this shake up will alter the balance of power between all the big digital players.

Save the date!

We’re pleased to be able to reveal the roundtables for the afternoon of the Publisher Podcast Summit 2022 on October 5th. Honestly, you should be coming to this if you have any interest whatsoever in podcasting and media. It's amaaaazing.

We'll be back in your ears next Monday 26th September with the next season of Media Voices, and we're excited to show you what we've been working on. In the meantime, why not browse our back catalogue? All our past episodes are tagged up by topic if you'd like to find previous episodes and guests around specific areas.