The deal brings together Flashes & Flames founder Colin Morrison and Esther Kezia Thorpe and Peter Houston, co-founders of Media Voices to grow the combined business. Media Voices’ third co-founder Chris Sutcliffe will continue as a contributor to the Publisher Podcast and the Publisher Newsletter.
Colin Morrison, who launched Flashes & Flames as a weekly subscription newsletter in 2020 after almost a decade as an industry blog, said: “This deal brings together a wealth of experience and resources and, most of all, committed audiences for whom we have exciting plans to expand our information services and events. We believe Flashes & Flames + Media Voices is one of those all too rare opportunities to ensure that 2+2=5. We have lots of plans to pursue ourselves and with others.”
Morrison was formerly a CEO of media companies in the UK, EU and the Asia-Pacific including for: Reed Elsevier, Axel Springer, Future Plc, EMAP, Hearst and ACP. He has also been chair of a national children’s charity and an advisor to successive UK education ministers. He was awarded a CBE in 2024.
Esther Kezia Thorpe and Peter Houston co-founded Media Voices in 2016 with Chris Sutcliffe. Outputs now include a weekly podcast and newsletter focused on publisher products, as well as Masterclasses, and an expanding events stream with the Publisher Newsletter, Print, App and Podcast Summits, and the Publisher Podcast and Newsletter Awards, all taking place in London on June 10-11.
“We’ve learned so much since starting Media Voices as a podcast almost nine years ago,” Esther commented. “It’s gone from being a spare-time podcast to a full media business, and we’re really looking forward to working with Colin to take it to the next level.”
Peter Houston says: “Media Voices has been way more successful than we ever dreamed when we started out. But there comes a time when you realise that to take the next big step-up you need to collaborate with others. Media Voices and Flashes & Flames are natural partners – we do very different things, but broadly for the same companies and many of the same industry leaders. We can see so much potential in working together.”
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