FT's visual online playbook revealed | Why Elle is betting on membership
And we have the latest radio listening figures, which show Radio 4's Today still on the slide
Good morning and welcome to your weekly Future of Media newsletter from Press Gazette on Thursday, 26 October.
Immersive online storytelling has come a long way since the New York Times broke new ground a decade ago with Snow Fall.
These interactive extravaganzas have gone from being experimental one-offs to regular fixtures for the biggest publishers.
Leading the way in the UK has been the FT which has won back-to-back prizes at the Press Gazette Future of Media Awards for the quality of its interactive online set-pieces.
The publication’s head of visual stories Sam Joiner spoke to us about how the title now has a playbook so that when a huge story breaks - like the Hamas-Israel war - the team can quickly produce online content that immerses readers in the story.
Today we also have the latest quarterly UK radio listening figures.
Flagship BBC current affairs show Today is down to a weekly reach of 5.6m (compared with more than 7m five years ago). New rivals GB News Radio and Times Radio may be taking a small chunk out of its audience but other factors are also at play - including the growth of BBC Sounds. It will be interesting to see the extent to which Today rallies when we get into general election mode next year.
This morning we also have an interview with Elle UK editor in chief Kenya Hunt. She explains why her title is betting on a premium membership offering as a new source of revenue in the face of falling newsstand sales and pressure on advertising.
It’s been a busy week at Press Gazette towers as I chaired three days of jury-style judging to agree the finalists for the British Journalism Awards. With 820 entries this year, sometimes we were looking to whittle down 50 category entries to just eight finalists. It was painstaking work but I know myself and the 80 independent judges are really proud of the results.
We’ll find out the winners on 14 December at the awards dinner.
Check out the Press Gazette website and Twitter channel at midday to find out who those finalists are. We are releasing the shortlist video today and then a news story tomorrow which, which will include links to all the nominated work.
New from Press Gazette
How the FT’s online visual storytelling playbook gives readers ‘lightbulb’ moments
“We can just turn things around far more quickly than when I first started doing this work a decade ago. We don’t have to take six weeks to build stories that are really visually impressive and compelling. And I think that that means we can do things that just weren’t possible. So that’s a huge change.”
Elle UK’s move from subscriptions to membership shares access to editors’ ‘daily joys’
“We’ve always had a really vibrant, dynamic, engaged community. So for us, this is very much an organic next step forward in terms of the evolution of our brand and our relationship with our audiences.”
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Our latest podcast
Podcast 59: From subscriptions to membership at Elle UK
Elle UK editor Kenya Hunt talks to Press Gazette about why she hopes readers will pay £150 a year to become fashion industry insiders as members of Elle Collective.
She also talks about the future of magazines, diversity and why magazine editors have a duty to present images of female beauty responsibly.
Must-reads this week from Press Gazette you might have missed
Mail reveals how it tracks and profiles readers so advertisers can target them
Biggest news publishers on Youtube: GB News and Piers Morgan Uncensored pass 1m subscribers
Race to buy The Telegraph: Who are the latest runners and riders?
National World debuts AI-generated weather presenter on London site