# The rise of paywalls in the regional press with MEN editor Sarah Lester Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-future-of-media-explained-from-press-gazette-5452141/the-rise-of-paywalls-in-the-regional-press-with-men-editor-sarah-lester Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-future-of-media-explained-from-press-gazette-5452141/the-rise-of-paywalls-in-the-regional-press-with-men-editor-sarah-lester.md Podcast: [The Future of Media, Explained - from Press Gazette](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-future-of-media-explained-from-press-gazette-5452141) Published: 2025-12-22T09:32:51+00:00 Episode link: https://shows.acast.com/the-future-of-media-from-press-gazette/episodes/the-rise-of-paywalls-in-the-regional-press-with-men-editor-s Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/623317507e51370012bc96c3/e/694910439ff9a18986bbaeff/media.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-future-of-media-explained-from-press-gazette-5452141/episodes/the-rise-of-paywalls-in-the-regional-press-with-men-editor-sarah-lester Duration seconds: 2930 ## Resource Press Gazette UK editor Charlotte Tobitt speaks to Manchester Evening News editor Sarah Lester shortly after the UK's biggest regional newsbrand added a premium paywall to its website. The conversation also covers frustrations with Google, the role of the editor in 2025, the threat of fake experts degrading journalists' relationship with PRs, and more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-future-of-media-explained-from-press-gazette-5452141/episodes/the-rise-of-paywalls-in-the-regional-press-with-men-editor-sarah-lester/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-future-of-media-explained-from-press-gazette-5452141/the-rise-of-paywalls-in-the-regional-press-with-men-editor-sarah-lester.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.