Media Unscripted, presented by FIPP FIPP

In this episode of Media Unscripted we speak to Julia Kostetska, publisher of Vogue Ukraine, and fashion director, Vena Brykalin, about the challenges of creating content in a war zone.

Their story is an incredible one, which you don’t have to work in publishing to appreciate. It’s a story of survival and resilience and bravery. And also incredible creativity and sensitivity, as they have had to adapt their content to suit the needs of their readers, while war rages on.

While fashion still plays its role, Vogue is now focussed on telling humanitarian stories. As Kostetska explains: “We are trying to inspire Ukrainians and find personal stories and remind their readers of our country’s heroic history”.

In this podcast Kostetska talks about what she has learnt as a human being and as publisher – and how she has discovered strengths she never knew she had. It is this combination of strength and sensitivity that has helped her lead her team through these challenging and often devastating months. 

"This war has taught us to be fast, to be flexible, to be fearless and not to stop, even for a minute,” says Kostetska. “Due to this feeling we managed to create many beautiful projects even in the war circumstances.”

This really is a tale of true resilience. You do not want to miss this podcast.

In the latest episode of Media Unscripted we talk to Benjamin Cohen, founder and CEO of PinkNews, and so much more.

In 2012 Benjamin co-founded and chaired the Out4Marriage, the successful campaign to introduce same-sex marriage in England and Wales. He is also a trustee and non-executive director of Humanity and Inclusion, and a trustee of Wise Thoughts, a London-based LGBTQ+ arts charity.

Benjamin started his career in publishing at the tender age of 16, when he launched JewishNet/soJewish, an early social networking product that pre-dates Facebook. He went on to become the youngest correspondent for a UK network news programme, working as an on-screen correspondent for Channel 4 News.

In this interview Benjamin talks about why social justice has always been his driving force and how he has made this mission into a successful money-making publishing power house.

But he still wants more.

More equality, more equity, more of the advertising spend.

Benjamin is fearless and full of drive and energy. He’s also incredibly savvy, having created the world's most read and watched LGBTQ+ publisher, with a global audience of more than 100 million unique users every month.

But as well as a business for brain, he has a good heart and stays true to PinkNews mission: to inform, inspire change and empower people to be themselves.

There is so much to be learned from PinkNews, in terms of:

Putting your audience first

Adapting your content strategy to suit their needs

Being flexible and forward thinking. 

You do NOT want to miss this!

We hope you enjoy this episode, and please don’t forget to like and subscribe

This episode takes a slightly different direction as it's less about the person and more about the product. We are talking all things AI with Sarabeth Berman, CEO of the American Journalism Project (AJP).

AJP is a venture philanthropy, working to rebuild local news in the US. The non-profit's mission is to 

Empower communities

Preserve democracy

Rebuild local news

Since launching in 2019 AJP has raised more than $157m and it works with a network of 41 local news organisations.

A recent cash injection of $5million has come from OpenAi, the AI research and deployment company behind ChatGPT. This new partnership will look for new ways to support local news through artificial intelligence.

In this interview we talk about why this partnership came about, how AJP plans to use the investment and what role Sarabeth sees AI playing in the future of news.

As she explains, it’s only by working with AI that we can control its outcome and its impact.

Sarabeth is passionate about protecting and promoting local news, so she makes a very convincing argument for embracing this new tech. Or at least experimenting with it and seeing how media can harness the power of AI to enhance journalism, rather than imperil it. 

We hope you enjoy this episode - and please don't forget to like and subscribe!

We are excited to bring you season two of Media Unscripted. To kick things off in style, we have an interview with Emma Tucker, the newly appointed editor of the Wall Street Journal – and the first female to ever lead this prestigious title.

This isn't the first time Tucker has made journalistic history, as she was named the Sunday Times first female editor in January 2020. During her two years there, The Times and Sunday Times digital subscriptions rose from 320,000 to 450,000 at the end of September 2020, seeing pre-tax profits triple.

Emma is passionate about constructive journalism, which contextualises news rather than just giving the facts. It’s this innovative storytelling which she says is key to the success of the Sunday Times paywall.

In our interview, Emma also talks about the demands and challenges of taking on such a huge title. She says a lot of it is knowing how to delegate, but you also have to be brave about the choices you make in terms of content and sometimes going against the grain. Which Emma certainly isn’t afraid to do.

Emma is also open and honest, which makes for a great interview. We really hope you enjoy this podcast and are inspired by her passion for good journalism.

It’s exciting to see what she will bring to her new role as editor of the wall street journal. And we hope to get her back on again in the near future to talk about her experiences. Watch this space…

If you enjoy the interview. If you do, please don't forget to like and subscribe.

In this episode of Media Unscripted we are talking all things innovation, to tie in with the launch of FIPP’s invaluable Innovation in Media world report, which is available to buy here.

To kick things off we hear from Ciara Bryne, Director of New Business, Condé Nast, UK, who talks about the opportunities and obstacles of Web3. Ciara also talks about how this new technology can help convert your audience into a community.

Continuing the theme of building communities Ralph Büchi, Chairman of the Supervisory Board at Axel Springer talks about how Web3 is creating a new wave of content creators, who are individuals rather than organisations. According to Ralph big publishers need to work out their role in this new landscape, in order to survive.

However, despite all this talk of the disruption of new technology, the good old newsletter is having a renaissance. We hear why from Brian Morrisey, former editor in chief of Digiday and founder of the weekly newsletter, The Rebooting, who explains why he believes newsletters are a backlash to the tech-driven publishing world. Brian also talks about the recipe for a successful newsletter. 

There are some really interesting insights into the future of publishing in this episode, so we hope you listen and learn!

If you enjoy what you hear, please don't forget to like and subscribe.

Hello and welcome to another Media Unscripted special, which features key interviews from Congress 2022. In this episode we are talking about digital transformation. We speak to:

Industry expert Lucy Kung, who is a strategic advisor, professor and writer, explains why we are still talking about this important topic – and why so many media companies still haven't achieved it.

Arvid cheevejel Tchivzhel, managing director of Digital Consulting Practice at Mather economics, who talks about why he thinks creating life time value should be your North Star and how to achieve it.

Arvid also talked about news fatigue, the benefits of data driven content and why less is more in terms of content, when it comes to subscription numbers

Tom Armstrong, VP Global Advertising at The New York Times, who talks about their subscriber-first strategy, the roll of first party data in streamlining their ads, and what smaller businesses can learn from their model.

Will page, author of Tarzan Economics and former chief economist of Spotify and PRS for Music. Will talks frankly about why publishing is getting subscriptions wrong, and what we can learn from the music industry.

He also talks about, fixing churn, Substack and why FIPP could be the industry’s saviour. Yep, you heard it here first.

We loved speaking to these interesting, industry experts and we hope you enjoy listening.

If you do, please don't forget to like and subscribe!