Private Media, Mamamia and LBB Online to tackle revenue at Publish 2025

As the media industry grapples with the twin forces of AI disruption and shifting consumer expectations, Publish 2025 will bring together three of the most experienced minds in content strategy and monetisation: Private Media CEO Will Hayward, Mamamia’s chief content officer Zara Curtis, and LBB Online’s APAC managing director Toby Hemming.

Women’s media network Mamamia announced its new ‘house of brands’ content strategy at this week’s Upfronts; Private Media acquired key competitor Pinstripe Media earlier this year, and LBB Online reported 67% readership growth year on year under Hemming’s leadership.

Get your tickets to Mumbrella Publish 2025 here.

The panel will explore whether the golden age of subscription growth has peaked, what role brand acquisitions and bundling strategies now play in audience growth and retention, and how news and content can retain its value amid a rising tide of free, AI-generated content. The conversation will include insight into what audiences will pay for in 2025 and beyond, and how can publishers can future-proof monetisation without losing editorial integrity and brand values.

Publish will also include a research findings presentation from Taboola and data from its Deeper Dive genAI chatbot. Taboola’s product manager Kurt Gessler will reveal what users are asking, which experiences are driving the most engagement and early wins in personalisation and the implicaitons for brand trust, the session will give delegates an understanding of how to build chatbots that add value to journalism.

The conference will also feature industry heavyweights Tim Duggan (Digital Publishers Alliance), Rebecca Costello (Guardian Australia) and Nicholas Gray (News Corp Australia). Duggan, chair of the DPA will offer a hard-hitting keynote charting the structural crises facing publishers, and the action needed to future-proof the industry. Costello, managing director of The Guardian, will detail the outlet’s reader-supported model, leadership culture, and its dual strategy for navigating AI as both a threat and opportunity. And in an exclusive on-stage interview with Mumbrella’s editorial director Hal Crawford, News Corp Australia’s head Nicholas Gray will discuss the value reset taking place in publishing,  lessons from the paywall implementation, policy reform, and the evolving economics of content.

Publish will take place October 28 at the State Library of NSW. Early bird tickets are on sale for one more week.