On Tuesday afternoon Mamamia CEO Natalie Harvey led her content and sales team on stage for its annual upfronts presentation. During the presentation, Mamamia emphasised a slight strategic shift to embrace a “house of brands” approach, while also talking up its expanding podcast lineup, and the introduction of shoppable ad products.
Sitting through the presentation, there was a lot to admire about Mamamia as it marches towards 20 years of publishing, but there were a few thoughts that were hard to shake.
The message from the upfronts didn’t feel 2026 specific
Messaging at upfronts presentations are a difficult juggling act – there’s a need to balance out what the organisation is and what it stands for, while also delivering an exciting message about what is coming in the year apart. For Mamamia, that is a difficult proposition because the entire business is based on being reactionary.
Across news/opinion articles, podcasts, and social video, it is a publisher that taps into the mood of the moment and builds from that – it’s impossible to tell an audience of media buyers what it will be talking to its audience about six months from now when two days from now can be equally murky.
Instead, it was left to rely on promotion of new podcasts rolling out – spin-offs from pop culture podcast The Spill, the spin-off from flagship Out Loud podcast titled Parenting Out Loud, and a smattering of other podcasts with the most interesting being couple relationship therapy podcast This Is Why We Fight.
None of the products felt especially buzzy. And they might perform well, but that will be off the back of the Mamamia podcast network effect. That brings the message back to the strength of the Mamamia brand, which leads the upfronts presentation to being more about the overall Mamamia proposition. With that proposition still being more or less the same last year and will likely be the same again next year, there wasn’t a clear message about what Mamamia is about right now.
Mamamia is in a transition phase
Shifting Mamamia away from the one key brand to being a “house of brands” is a giveaway that Mamamia is actively repositioning itself to survive a media landscape where consumers are moving towards centralised content distribution platforms.
Mamamia is embracing video distribution via YouTube (and Spotify, which can be harder to monetise), following the consumption trends we have all seen. But with that means an audience who will discover Mamamia content through the YouTube algorithm and not the “branded house.”
That’s a more difficult sell to buyers. And, to be fair, Mamamia isn’t all in on that as a distribution mode just yet. It is clearly where the business is moving and Mamamia will be well-placed as consumer behaviour further evolves in this direction.
Wait… can you tell me more about THAT
There was an interesting moment in the upfronts that Mamamia brushed past, which had the business (during part of a sizzle reel) bragging that it knew Labor would win the last election because they could see what their audience was doing.
Mamamia has a wealth of information on the interests and practices of its audience. Sitting in the audience, I would have liked to learn more about how Mamamia can track and predict trends based on the metrics it can see internally.
That sort of information has tremendous value for buyers and partners. Especially as companies start to look at how they can best leverage the new shoppable opportunities Mamamia was touting at the event.
Where was the talent?
It isn’t easy wrangling talent to come along to upfronts events, but even so, at every upfronts event there is usually a mix of audience-facing talent and those who work behind the scenes to actually make it all work.
We had one section of the upfronts dedicated to pop culture podcast The Spill with hosts Laura Brodnik and Em Vernem on stage together, but the entire event felt like it needed more from the voices of the podcast side of the business which feels very much like the growth engine for Mamamia. Where was No Filter host Kate Langbroek, any of the trio of hosts from Out Loud, or Psychotherapist Sarah Bays who hosts the upcoming This Is Why We Fight?
The future is still female
Broadly, the Mamamia upfronts presentation was a success. It was very firm in establishing the difference between Mamamia and other leading Australian publishers. It has the inventory with an ever-increasing number of podcasts and as it further embraces video, there will be a growing opportunity to further build upon its slate.
Despite the expansion in programming, the overall Mamamia offer still feels curated and still meeting its mission statement to make the world a better place for women and girls. It is a business with runs on the board and there was nothing in the upfronts that suggested that was going to change anytime soon.