The Future of Media, Explained - from Press Gazette

Hosted by New Statesman Media Group

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119

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Aug 2026

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About the show

Press Gazette has covered the world of news media since 1965. This podcast draws on the expertise of our award-winning team and brings in expert voices to explain one theme, idea, strategy or innovation every week. The Future of Media Explained aims to provide industry leaders with the information they need to create commercially successful businesses based on quality content. If you need to know about topics like: cookie-less targeting, data journalism, paywall strategies, content management systems, new publishing revenue strategies and audience growth tactics - then this is the podcast for you. It also aims to provide insight into the biggest challenge of all, how to lead and inspire people on the journey of technology-led change which ever major media company globally is going through. It is hosted by Press Gazette Editor-in-chief Dominic Ponsford who is joined every week by a member of the team sharing insights from their area of expertise and featuring interviews with some of the leading names in media globally. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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60 recent

September 4, 202634 min

Everything is changing, says Wordpress VIP's Brian Alvey: Here's how publishers should react

Online entrepreneur Brian Alvey has been building publisher websites pretty much since the world wide web began in the mid 1990s. Having lived and worked through every wave of dramatic digital disruption since then, the Wordpress VIP chief technology officer knows what he is saying when he says about AI “This wave is up there with fire, steam engines, electricity and refrigeration.” He explains why the AI revolution is fundamentally different to previous changes in online publishing and shares how publishers should react. They must embrace AI, he says, to automate workflows and speed the pace of development whilst avoiding both AI and human slop. And above all publishers must cherish and promote their direct and owned relationships with their audience (via websites and email).(This episode was sponsored by Wordpress VIP) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

August 6, 202644 min

How Hello! fought back after saying goodbye to Google Discover traffic

Hello! magazine was one of many publishers that saw website referrals from Google Discover plummet last year. Chief content officer Sophie Vokes-Dudgeon talked Press Gazette UK editor Charlotte Tobitt through the "year of transformation" that has followed. Hello! has fought back by making the most out of syndication channels while building its own community for the future. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

July 23, 202638 min

Mike Soutar on what today's media leaders can learn from Genghis Khan

Dominic Ponsford asks magazine industry titan Mike Soutar how to tackle modern publishing industry challenges looking at the lessons of history. The Shortlist Media founder and former IPC Media director is something of a history buff. And he has just launched a new eight-part podcast series with Immediate Media’s History Extra called History’s Greatest Leaders. How would Genghis Khan or Elizabeth I go about tackling an unequal struggle with tech titans, or deal with the decline of a magazine publishing empire? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

July 14, 202653 min

Prince Harry goes beyond the pale after his big Mail fail

In this special edition, Charlotte Tobitt and Dominic Ponsford unpick the fallout from Prince Harry and others' historic privacy action failure against Associated Newspapers. Includes interviews with media lawyer Louis Charalambous who said Prince Harry should apologise for a post-trial statement which was "beyond the pale" and which proved he is a terrible loser. We also heard from former Daily Mail showbiz editor Nicole Lampert about the "terrifying" ordeal of having her reputation put on trial on the basis of zero evidence. What happens next? Charalambous gives his view on Harry's chances of winning an appeal and explains who is likely to pick up the £50 million legal bill. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

July 3, 202633 min

Advertising goes agentic, publishers get punchy over AI and new dawn for Telegraph

In this episode Dom returns from Cannes with a severe case of yacht envy brought on by Axios, Press Gazette's AI summit reveals a publishing community getting increasingly punchy over the theft of their content and Charlotte explains why Telegraph journalists are feeling cheerful about being taken over by the Germans. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

June 18, 202637 min

Publishers versus LLMs: Trusted Reviews is leading fightback

Candr Media CEO Chris Dicker has seen its flagship website - Trusted Reviews - be pillaged by AI bots over the last 18 months. He spoke to Press Gazette about a new legal tactic which uses a branch of law dating back to the Romans to secure justice and perhaps force big tech to the negotiating table. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

June 3, 202630 min

Thai police jokester drags down UK press standards

In the latest edition, Dominic Ponsford and Charlotte Tobitt talk about the latest changes to Google search. Agentic search will probably stay niche, but forcing AI mode into conventional search queries is a new threat to publisher referral traffic. They also discuss the publishing dilemma du jour - should publishers block LLMs or do all they can to optimise content to show up in ChatGPT-style answers? And publishers in the UK and US have been caught out by another AI-generated hoax. What can we learn from the curious case of the 'LADYBOYS IN BLUE' - the Thai police officers who didn't dress as carnival dancers to carry out an undercover drug dealer arrest? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

May 21, 202637 min

Better call Louis: Lawyer to press victims tells all

Media lawyer Louis Charalambous represented victims of some of worst lapses in press standards during the 2000s. He went on to represent newspapers in libel battles against a violent gangster, 'wife beating' Hollywood star and others. He says press standards have improved, times are hard for both claimants and publishers and explains why Prince Harry's colossal privacy claim against Associated Newspapers is looking a bit iffy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

May 7, 202633 min

The Axios shift from volume to value

Axios dropped its output by almost a quarter but increased page views by almost a third at the start of 2026. Head of news Ben Berkowitz told Press Gazette UK editor Charlotte Tobitt about why they stopped chasing clicks and started focusing on stories that "actually matter". Berkowitz also shared his advice for other newsroom leaders going through a similar strategy change. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

April 23, 202627 min

Less is more at The Times, Standard's long decline and future of The Telegraph

Dominic Ponsford and Charlotte Tobitt discuss what led The Standard to where it is today, with just 16 staff left to create the weekly print title after a digital takeover by Independent Media. They also cover why less is more at The Times, and the future of The Telegraph after almost three years in limbo as Axel Springer received government approval for the takeover. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.