Director of Business Development

Daily Mail publisher bundles brands into 'Stack' B2B2C offer. By Bron Maher - 2 hours ago DMG Media, the company best known for publishing the Daily Mail, has launched Stack, a product that bundles access to its three brands and which is marketed to telecom companies, fintech providers, loyalty schemes and other providers of member perks. DMG Media also publishes non-partisan brand The i Paper, popular science magazine New Scientist and free daily city newspaper Metro. All but the last are - as of the launch of the premium DailyMail+ subscription in 2024 - at least partially paywalled online. The three paid products also span three very different audiences: The Mail is well known for its middle-market (sometimes regarded as tabloid) sensibility and its skew towards conservative politics. The i Paper brands itself as a provider of "impartial news and intelligent debate," while New Scientist is more concerned with novel geometries and the origins of Alzheimer's disease than with politics. A subscriber to The i Paper is unlikely to also subscribe to DailyMail+, so it would be tricky to bundle those subscriptions together for subscribers as The New York Times has done with The Athletic, for example. But, "It's lucky we have these three titles, because they hit 95% of the demographics within the UK," Jack Barham, head of subscriber partnerships at DMG Media, told AMO. Barham explained the logic underpinning Stack with reference to his bank, Revolut, one of a new wave of European banks targeted at young professionals. While a standard Revolut account is free, paid tiers grant access to certain benefits: a customer paying £14.99 monthly gets access to other services including a Financial Times digital subscription, a monthly WeWork credit, NordVPN Plus, The Athletic and Tinder Gold. The bank claims its customer gets access to subs "worth £2,100 a year" for better than a tenth of the price. Revolut is not the only service to provide these sorts of perks. In the U.S., some Verizon plans come with Disney+ or Hulu, while LinkedIn Premium comes with temporary access to services including Duolingo and Headspace. Various loyalty programs and employee perk plans have long included complimentary access to certain subscriptions. Perfect little business model. So what's the monetization deal? Stack is priced by seat in a similar way to an enterprise subscription. For any partners who expect to give the benefit to 9,999 subscribers or fewer, it's priced at £2.99 per seat per month; that drops to £2.49 for plans serving between 10,000 and 49,999 subscribers and £1.99 for plans from 50,000 to 249,999. Past 250,000 subs, pricing is a matter of direct negotiation. Regardless of the size, partners will only be charged based on the number of people that actually activate their subscription offer. Normally, a DailyMail+ subscription costs £6.99 monthly, The i Paper is £8.99 a month (or £79.99 for a year) and New Scientist is £199 for a year. "What we're going to partners with as baseline pricing is just over a 90% discount," Barham said. There is some flexibility if for whatever reason a partner only wanted access to one or two of the Stack brands, although the preference is for selling the full bundle. Stack could plausibly mean many thousands more readers getting access to DMG's paid content. Barham said it would be "a distribution engine that allows us to increase our total addressable audience to people that otherwise would never have subscribed to each of these things individually. And because we're bundling them up within partner ecosystems, [for us] there's no churn. [...] "And because it's already existing journalism, there's no incremental production costs. So it should be a kind of perfect little business model." For Stack clients, the ultimate value is that these perks improve retention. "Churn is everyone's enemy," Barham said. "If we can help a partner get a 1% improvement on retention over a period of two or three years, it's going to dwarf the costs of what they're paying us." Helping DMG Media's pitch to prospective partners, he noted that 63% of DailyMail+ subscribers use the app every day. "That kind of engagement is nuts." Goals. DailyMail+ said it passed 325,000 subscribers in July and is aiming for one million by October 2028. For the purposes of counting total subscribers, Barham said the company would probably treat those acquired directly separately from those acquired through Stack. "You wouldn't want to muddy the waters." Following a decade of tech platform traffic volatility, many publishers - DMG Media included - have begun putting a higher priority on directly owning their relationship with their audience. But with Stack, as with Apple News+, doesn't that relationship get intermediated? "To some extent," Barham said. "But they'll still access the Daily Mail or The i in the same way they would had they purchased [a sub] on their own. [...] Once they get that one login, they can download the apps for all three titles and access it as would anyone else." In theory, the way Stack is priced means a canny existing i Paper, Daily Mail or New Scientist subscriber could also cancel their sub and get it far cheaper from a Stack partner organization. But asked whether DMG was worried about cannibalization, Barham said: "Not really." "If you look at the lifetime value of a customer, if you get churn basically down to nothing, the long-term economics weigh up and we end up actually making probably the same, if not more, off a customer that's embedded within a partner's ecosystem." The caveat, he added, was that it may depend on a partner's pricing. "We can't bundle the New Scientist into a product that's going to cost users nothing. We're only going to be entertaining that full bundle when you know customers actively have to pay for something." Barham wouldn't comment on which companies had signed up for Stack so far, but said there would be announcements with "well-known household names" to come in following weeks.

The 2026 ufurnish.com Home Awards in partnership with media partner Metro. 2nd of March 2026 ufurnish.com, the UK's No.1 furniture finder platform for consumers, is delighted to announce the ufurnish.com Home Awards 2026, recognising all the amazing people who create and share their beautiful interiors and designs of their own home, including content creators, influencers, home innovators and bloggers. The 2026 Home Awards will be the pinnacle of celebrating home content creation in the UK with ufurnish.com joining forces with Metro as the awards official media partner for the second year in a row. The Home Awards launch to entrants on Monday 2nd March it's anticipated that more than 1,000 entries will be submitted from exceptional talent across 18 entry categories, from 'Before and After Transformation' to 'Best Use of Colour' - see below for full list. Thereafter the shortlisted entries will be open to a public vote to get the all important public opinion opening on 11th May. The Awards will conclude with a glittering Award ceremony in the Kimpton Fitzroy Hotel on Monday 19th October. 1. Best Bathroom, sponsored by Easy Bathrooms - optimising your bathroom for best effect 2. Best Bedroom - where opulence meets relaxation 3. Best Before and After Transformation - incredible transformations 4. Best DIY Creation - Beautiful home grown looks. 5. Best Entertaining Space - where you entertain or enjoy entertainment. 6. Best First Impressions - showcasing your home's kerb appeal 7. Best Furniture Retailer, sponsored by Retail Systems - what you want, when you need it 8. Best Garden - your outdoor living space 9. Best Hallway - making the most of a forgotten space 10. Best Home, sponsored by Ideal Home Show - your ideal home 11. Best Home Office, sponsored by Grand Designs Live - Productivity at home 12. Best Interior Content Creator, sponsored by Cox & Cox - showcasing 'the look' 13. Best Kitchen - where style meets function 14. Best Living Room - a room you can relax in 15. Best Nursery & Children's Bedroom - making bedtime fun for the kids 16. Best on a Budget - big looks with small funds 17. Best Seasonal Styling, sponsored by Lights4fun - your home designed for any occasion 18. Best Use of Colour - expression through colour 19. Overall Judges Choice - what its experts like 20. Overall Public Vote - as decided by overall public vote only 2025 Best Use of Colour winner - Sarah Ellis 2025 Best Hallway winner - Natasha Landers 2025 Best Bathroom winner - Anouska Lancaster 2025 Best Kitchen winner - Roxanne Fregona Expert judges. ufurnish.com has assembled an incredible line-up of expert judges to adjudicate the Home Awards 2025. This year's judges are: Barbara Chandler, the UK's most respected home interiors journalist with more than 50 years' print and digital experience. Deborah Arthurs, editor-in-chief of Metro. Deborah is incredibly passionate about homes and interiors. Deirdre Mc Gettrick, founder of ufurnish.com and the ufurnish.com Home Awards. A visionary business leader whose technology platform is changing the way Brits furnish their homes. Eva Sonaike, vision designer and business owner renowned for luxury home furnishings with a vibrant West African aesthetic. Jayne Dowle, award-winning journalist and author on homes and gardens for more than two decades. Max McMurdo, author, TV presenter and Dr of Sustainable Design. Mel Hunter, freelance writer and journalist specialising in helping people save money in all areas of their life including their homes and gardens. Nicki Bamford-Bowes, renowned interior and furniture designer and contestant in Series One, BBC Two's Interior Design Masters. Nicky Rampley-Clarke, freelance interiors, property and homes journalist and editor. Wayne Perrey, presenter, writer, DIY expert and TV Carpenter. Deirdre Mc Gettrick, CEO and founder of ufurnish.com said: "This year is our third year of the ufurnish.com Home Awards and I continue to be blown away by the incredible response, talent and community within the home interiors space. One of my favourite days of the year is the magnificent awards ceremony where I am lucky enough to meet so many creative and inspiring people. These Awards are about recognising those people who are inspiring others to turn their home visions into reality and I cannot wait to see what 2026 brings!" Entries for the 2026 ufurnish.com Home Awards are open from March 2nd to April 13th. Public voting commences May 11th, expert judging starts on July 13th, finalists will be announced in early August and its awards ceremony takes place in October 2026. Follow the button below to enter the Home Awards or get onboard as an awards sponsor by contacting [email protected]. Created By Deirdre Mc Gettrick is the co-founder and CEO of ufurnish.com. Deirdre created the business after struggling to furnish her own home. She brings insight and inspiration to every home furnishing opportunity.

First-Party data for publishers: why it matters and how publishing leaders use it to improve performance. First-party data has become a reliable way for publishers to prove performance and build more resilient revenue. This article breaks down why it matters now, and how leading publishers are turning consented, user-declared signals from polls into segments and results they can actually activate. Modern publishing is under pressure. Publishers are under growing pressure to prove performance while operating in a market that is becoming harder to measure, target, and monetize. Attention is fragmenting, privacy expectations are rising, and buyers increasingly want to understand and activate their audiences with confidence. The first-party data solution. In this environment, first party data has become one of the most practical tools available to publishers, especially when it is user-declared and consent-based. It helps strengthen direct advertiser relationships, build privacy-safe segments, and create repeatable value from audience engagement, without relying on external identifiers. Turning polls into user intent data. Opinary is already partnering with publishers like Daily Mail Group, Funke Media Group, and Burda Forward to support first party data collection through on-site polls and other audience interaction tools. By engaging audiences with relevant questions, publishers can capture sociodemographic insights alongside intent data and feed those signals into their DMP in real time. This approach turns participation into actionable audience understanding, including user intent data and richer customer intent data, that teams can actually activate across sales, targeting, and content strategies. Leading publishers, leading first-party data strategies. To illustrate the impact of first- and zero-party data, here are some publishers who have already made significant strides in this area: * By accelerating its 1st party data strategy with a clear focus on addressability and direct revenue, The New York Post has been building authenticated relationships via newsletters and alternative identifiers, using those signals to build audiences that support more direct deals and higher-value campaign planning. * Bauer Media Group has scaled a first party data approach across a large portfolio, packaging unique audience insights for advertisers and proving measurable impact. In a case study, Bauer reports a 75% increase in revenue, a 152% increase in advertiser count, and a 31% year-over-year increase in average CPM, supported by audience and campaign insights that help sales teams sell beyond individual brands. * Bloomberg offers a strong signal of where the market is heading: after shifting away from third-party programmatic approaches, Bloomberg reportedly saw a 20% uplift in advertising CPMs, reinforcing how owned, consented data can directly translate into commercial resilience. Declared data from polls: best practice. Additionally, its publisher partners offer concrete examples of how poll-generated first-party signals can translate into measurable commercial results: Daily Mail Group Ireland (DMG) offers a compelling success story. In an interview, Doug Farrell, DMG's Head of Digital Media, highlighted how Opinary's in-article polls help capture audience attention and turn it into actionable signals for targeting and performance. The collaboration resulted in a 60% increase in CTRs, an 80% boost in brand engagement, and a 40% increase in CPMs, demonstrating the value that publisher-owned, declared data can bring to campaign performance and client outcomes. BCN has focused on creating user habits with regular, editorial-driven questions that consistently add value and prove that quality beats volume. Instead of chasing millions of passive signals, BCN found that around 1,000 high-intent responses are enough to build audience segments that performed strongly. The difference comes down to asking better questions and using the right audience participation tools to make participation feel natural. When a poll feels like a conversation rather than a form, relevance goes up and so do response rates. Operationally, BCN connected the full stack by using Opinary for survey collection and DMP Permutive for activation, enabling a real-time flow from poll response to targeting, including scalable segments built on declared interest and intent signals.