Building lasting loyalty from every kind of audience has got harder

For publishers, search is turning into an AI-driven answer engine rather than a source of clicks; social referral has thinned out; and the commoditisation of news continues apace.

For all organisations that lead with content, there is more competition for attention and a need to build a loyal, habitual audience.

The winners are building direct relationships with the people who matter to them: a clear reason to engage, a clear reason to pay or give, and real habit rather than one-off attention.

We help organisations make that shift, practically, quickly and effectively.

Clear-eyed diagnosis,
and a plan that works

When growth stalls, when editorial or programme teams and the commercial side are pulling in different directions, or when leadership needs a clear-eyed diagnosis of what is actually broken, we go in and work it out with you. Newsroom transformation, subscription growth, audience strategy, AI readiness – we’ve been responsible for all of it ourselves, in newsrooms and beyond, so our recommendations are built to survive contact with how your organisation actually works.

Advisory services →

What performed – and why

Most content audits tell you what performed. Ours tells you why, combining AI-driven categorisation and statistical modelling with editorial judgement to show which stories, topics and formats are actually worth your newsroom’s time, and which are quietly costing you money. The process takes weeks, not months, and is grounded throughout in what we know about how newsrooms really work.

Content Review →

A confidential sparring
partner for leaders

Agreement is easy to find at the top of an organisation. A genuine challenge to your thinking is rare – your team wants to please you, your board may not know the sector well enough to push back, and a traditional consultant hands you a framework rather than an argument. 121 Consulting is a confidential sparring partnership for leaders working through a pivot, a launch or a board presentation they haven’t quite pressure-tested yet. You bring the idea, we argue it through with you as peers who’ve made these calls ourselves, and you leave with a position you can defend.

121 Consulting →

A half-century of running the businesses we now advise

Michael Brunt led The Economist’s evolution into a digital subscription business and gave The Times its highest ever growth.

Alan Hunter led digital transformation at The Times and The Sunday Times as the two print stalwarts embraced new ways of working.

Between us, we’ve launched paywalls, rebuilt newsrooms around subscription rather than volume, and sat around the conference room table when the numbers didn’t work and something had to change.

We use AI the way any serious operator does now: for research, for pattern-finding, for speed. But a plan that survives your organisation’s politics, incentives and habits still takes people who’ve lived through exactly that. That’s us.

Publishers, charities and cultural institutions