Your inbox will still be there in September. These five episodes won’t wait that long to feel dated, so queue them up before you hit the beach, the trail, or just while you relax at home.
We picked single episodes, already downloaded, ready for the moment your feet hit the sand.
1. Why USA Today Co might quit Google
The Rebooting Show, with Brian Morrissey and Mike Reed (CEO, USA Today Co.)
Brian Morrissey had Mike Reed as guest in the last episode of the Rebooting Show. Mike Reed has been at the head of Gannett (now rebranded as USA Today Co Media) since many years and has navigated the organisation through many transformations.
In this episode he explains why he expects he’ll walk away from Google search within the next 12 months , and how USA Today Co. is building direct relationships through newsletters and social to make up the difference. He also shares an interesting view on the 4 pillars of revenue at USA Today Co and makes a bet on e-Commerce and licensing as highest opportunity for growth.
If you’ve been putting off the “what’s our Plan B for search” conversation with your own team, this is the nudge.
2. We’re in 1997 for AI: A rational conversation on where AI is going
Lenny’s Podcast, with Benedict Evans (former in-house “thinker” at Andreessen Horowitz)
The most useful hour of AI-skepticism-meets-AI-optimism you’ll hear all summer. Benedict Evans has spent six years tracking where tech value actually accrues, and here he makes the case that we’re in “1997 for AI”: early, exciting, and genuinely uncertain what comes next.
The bit that matters most for publishers: why distribution — not the model, not even the content — is becoming the ultimate moat as software and content gets easier to produce.
3. The true global impact of news creators
Digital News Report 2026 podcast, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, featuring Nic Newman
Nic Newman — lead author of the Digital News Report for over a decade, and one of the speakers at this year’s Twipe Digital Growth Summit on October 15th — walks us through the chapter he wrote on news creators and their growing pull on politics and audiences worldwide.
It’s the data behind a trend every newsroom already feels: your competition for attention increasingly isn’t another publisher. A good primer before he takes the stage in Leuven this October.
Listen via the Reuters Institute
4. Inside the great digital media reckoning
The Digiday Podcast
BuzzFeed and Vox Media, once billion-dollar darlings, have both been sold off for a fraction of their peak value. People Inc. (formerly Dotdash Meredith), meanwhile, is doing just fine.
Digiday’s Jessica Davies and Sara Guaglione dig into why: the shift from bundled-traffic media businesses to owned, diversified revenue is no longer a theory, it’s a body count. Sobering, but it’s the kind of sober your board wants you to bring back from holiday.
5. Advertising goes agentic, publishers get punchy over AI
Future of Media Explained, Press Gazette, with Dominic Ponsford and Charlotte Tobitt
Dom and Charlotte discuss the publishing community’s increasing punchiness about AI companies just helping themselves to their content. They also explain why Telegraph journalists are, of all things, cheerful about a German takeover.
Back at your desk and want more?
Our own AI Frontrunners in News series sits down with the people actually running AI experiments inside newsrooms and media companies, including conversations with Ringier’s Chief Digital Officer and Miso AI’s CEO & co-founder as well as WanIFRA’s AI lead Ezra Eeman who will also join the speakers line-up of this year’s Digital Growth Summit in Leuven on October 15th. Catch up on past episodes before we announce what’s next.
Book your spot for Digital Growth Summit 2026
Technologies shaping the future of news. Join the conversation live on October 15th in Leuven. Claim your spot today.
Other Blog Posts
Stay on top of the game
Join our community of industry leaders. Get insights, best practices, case studies, and access to our events.
"(Required)" indicates required fields