Welcome to the latest season of Media Voices: Big Noises! This season, sponsored by Glide Publishing Platform, we’ll be talking to publishing people with something to say. Media Voices co-host Peter Houston is tired of hearing the same old industry buzzwords. The publishing platitudes are starting to wear a bit thin, and he’s decided to see if he can shake the conversation up a bit by speaking to some of the biggest characters in the business.
On this week’s episode of Big Noises from Media Voices we hear from Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director at Digital Content Next (DCN), the trade organisation for premium publishers.
Michelle has been a journalist for a long time. The rise of digital media saw her embrace the changes and after working for a range of publications, from alt weeklies to B2B titles, she joined what was then the OPA to help premium publishers on their digital transition. She now manages online content and events for the group.
More than a decade in, Michelle still has hope for the media, but is frustrated by many of the publishing practices she sees. “Now we’re in a world where two thirds of our job is to rise above the noise. ‘Listen to me. Look at me’ right? Are we providing a value exchange? When people give us that gift of their attention, do we provide them with value… was it worth their time?”
One highlight of the episode:
On the erosion of journalism’s appeal to young journalists:
When I was young being in the media was so highly esteemed. It was sexy. You saw – I did anyway – just boatloads of trust fund kids from the best universities just fighting for these crap jobs. I mean, they paid terribly even then, right? Well, that hasn’t gotten any better, they still pay terribly.
But I think the estimation of the craft has been eroded [too]. I don’t know that anyone ever did this for money. It used to be a cool thing to be a writer, to be a news person, to be a broadcaster, to be a filmmaker. And now I just see this vast dilution and erosion. It comes along with the technological piece, right, the level playing field that we were excited about means that we are in many times, in many ways, on an absolute level place with absolute garbage worse, fake disinformation, misinformation, all level in the eyes of audiences.”
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