This week, Owen Meredith, Managing Director at the Professional Publisher's Association, talks to us about how the lobbying work the association has done on behalf of UK publishers to axe VAT on digital publications has paid off. During the Budget last week, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced that the current 20% tax on ebooks, online newspapers and digital editions would be abolished, bringing them in line with the tax exemption on physical copies. Owen explains what the announcement means for publishers, why the government chose now to action this, and what's next on the PPA's to-do list. In the news roundup the team takes a look at how news outlets are choosing to report on the coronavirus pandemic, ask whether a spate of hirings suggest that podcasting is a mature market, and examine whether Stylist's new digital edition is destined for success. Chris invokes the power of「THE WORLD」to give an update on a story during the edit.

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

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