Lou Barrett on News Corp's sales evolution, and is the industry ready to try again for a local premium content exchange?

Welcome to an audio-led edition of Unmade, in which we talk to the industry veteran in charge of delivering News Corp’s advertising revenues, Louise Barrett. Further down, a good day on the Unmade index for Australia’s TV players.If you’ve been thinking about upgrading to an Unmade membership, this is the perfect time. Your membership includes:* Member-only pricing for our HumAIn (May 28) and REmade (October 1) conferences;* A complimentary invitation to Unmade’s Compass event (November);* Member-only content and our paywalled archives;* Your own copy of Media Unmade.Is it time for the news industry to revive the ida of a local premium content exchange? Louise Barrett thinks soThis week saw News Corp run it’s D_Coded sessions, the news company’s version of Upfronts, with a digital focus.Among the new offerings shared with marketers and media agency executives were ways of making more of News Corp’s large logged in audience. Google’s long-delayed, but now imminent, deprecation of third party cookies on Chrome may work to the benefit of publishers and media companies with big opted-in audiences.For News Corp that includes adding to the capabilities of its Intent Connect data offering, and the introduction of its ecommerce play Shoppable ScrollX.Barrett’s conversation with Unmade’s Tim Burrowes also uncovered the information that the idea of a cross industry premium content exchange is back on the agenda. News Corp’s MD of client product Pippa Leary previously worked on setting up the APEX Advertising exchange which was a joint venture of Nine and Fairfax Media before those companies merged.With increasing client concerns about programatic fraud and low quality Made For Advertising (MFA) sites, a premium content exchange potentially offers marketers the ability to reach a higher quality audience programatically.In the UK, the Ozone Project, owned by news publishers including News UK, Reach, Guardian News & Media and Telegraph Media Group is well established. Barrett reveals that she and her colleague Leary held talks with Ozone during a UK visit. “I’m a big supporter of pulling something like this together. There are discussions happening. It’s a very strong ambition,” she says.Also under consideration is the idea of setting up an academy aimed at educating new media agency staff about the strengths of print publications.Good day on the index for TV and outdoor, as SCA tries to slam to the door on ARN.A solid trading day for Seven West Media, Nine and Ooh Media helped lift the Unmade Index by 0.62% to 536.8 points on WednesdayNine rose by nearly 1% to return close to a market capitalisation of $2.5bn; SWM surged by more than 2.5% and Ooh lifted by 1.85%Yesterday afternoon also saw Southern Cross Austereo attempt to slam the door on ARN Media’s takeover bid. The SCA board issued a statement saying the updated bid was unattractive for shareholders and would be costly to execute.Today’s podcast was edited by Abe’s Audio, the people to talk to about voiceovers, editing and production.Time to leave you to your Thursday. We’ll be back with more tomorrow Have a great day.Toodlepip…Tim BurrowesPublisher - Unmade This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit unmade.substack.com