Wednesday 7th July: Stop Funding Hate's unexpected tabloid truce

July 07, 2021

Good morning! Wednesday's Media Roundup is brought to you by Peter.

Our Chris has been writing in the Drum about how Stop Funding Hate has been developing more positive relationships with some of the titles it takes issue with. It is even meeting up with some of its previous targets, including the Daily Mail.

The campaign group originally focused on convincing advertisers to remove their budgets from three UK tabloids that produced what it considered to be hateful content. Now it wants to facilitate conversations between the media more generally and those who are on the receiving end of hateful coverage.

Co-founder Richard Wilson said: "There is definitely less of a gulf between 'those titles' and the rest of the UK media… it wouldn’t really make sense to just focus on those three publications, because you’re not going to solve the problem if that’s only what you focus on.”

Silos are a major stumbling block for publishing houses making their way through the digital transition process. The Wall Street Journal has developed a MACU (Members, Audiences, Customers and Users) approach to creating a product culture that brings together the newsroom, customer service, product design and technology and membership around a common purpose.

There's always been a lot of love for free audio editor Audacity among the independent podcast community. But users are furious over privacy policy updates introduced by new owners Muse Group. Some have gone so far as to call Audacity ‘spyware’ and are recommending uninstalling it.' Muse Group denies any wrongdoing, but trust in the software has been seriously dented.

No it's not go to Eton and snag yourself a Telegraph column; it requires way more hard graft than that. But after a slightly angsty opening, this piece from Andrew Don has some strong advice about surviving as a freelancer. My favourite: 'have specialisms but be willing to write about anything and everything'. Truly, the freelancers' mantra.

This week's episode:

This week, we hear from Chris Duncan, CEO of UK Publishing at Bauer Media Group. He joined the company just a few weeks after last year’s lockdown, so he talks about what it’s been like leading Bauer through such a turbulent year, their wins and losses throughout the pandemic, and which trends he’s seen accelerated in the business.

We don't just talk, we write too! We're aiming to bring you more regular written analysis exclusively from Media Voices, and you'll be able to find it (as well as links to content we write for other outlets) all here in our analysis archives.