The Future of Media, Explained - from Press Gazette

Dominic Ponsford talks to WP Engine director of product management Jason Konen and CTO of Bigbite Jason Agnew about the future of content management.

They are both experts in the deployment of WordPress, the world’s most popular content management system. They talked about some of the ways publishers are responding to falling referral traffic by making their websites more immersive and community-focused.

They also talked about the ways AI is being used to streamline content production and remove complexity in journalists’ lives.

And they have an interesting debate the importance of ensuring your content is seen and cited by the likes of ChatGPT. 

This episode is sponsored by WP Engine.

Press Gazette UK editor Charlotte Tobitt speaks to Forbes CEO Sherry Phillips about how the US business brand has changed tack in response to massive changes in the way Google refers traffic to publishers.

She said: "I think a lot of publishers were in the same spot, or still are in the same spot. And so for us, it's getting back to those core communities and those businesses and our editorial journalism that we take pride in and protect. And so how do we look at that in new revenue models?

"And as the business evolves, as the digital ecosystem changes, there were certain parts of the company that were fully just servicing that digital ecosystem, which is now evaporating quite quickly."

Advertising has funded journalism and kept the lights on for democracy since the steam age.

But in recent years many publishers have pulled away from relying so heavily on automated programmatic advertising as way of funding free online news.

In this episode (sponsored by Assertive Yield) the company’s chief operating office Sherzod Rizaev explains some of the challenges publisher face extracting value from an advertising ecosystem filled with intermediaries all taking a cut.

He says publishers don’t have to passively accept declining revenue but can increase their market share by taking back control of the technology which underpins online advertising.

He said: “I’m generally optimistic about where we are heading as a publishing industry. We are moving from guesswork and patchwork to a world where publishers can operate with more certainty and precision and confidence of know exactly what they are publishing, how much money they are earning.”

Whatever medium publishers started out on, many are now racing towards Youtube and other online video platforms as the fastest growing source of both audience and revenue.

Goalhanger co-founder Jack Davenport joined Press Gazette editor Dominic Ponsford to discuss this phenomenon alongside consultant Connie Krarup of Q5 Partners.

He revealed how the producer of hit shows such as The Rest Is History and The Rest Is Politics now sees itself as a video production company more than an audio producer and explained why podcasts is now a term eschewed by the high-ups at Goalhanger.

Davenport also spoke about Goalhanger's commercial model, which includes strong incentives for hosts, and shared his tips for other publishers who want to succeed in an increasingly video-dominated media age.

This edition was sponsored by Q5 Partners.