What if your content is brilliant but your readers can’t find it—or can’t stay? That’s the problem Laura Cushing is solving at Immediate.

Great content alone doesn’t retain readers; the entire experience—from push notifications to print delivery—does. Laura Cushing, former Head of Product Management at Amazon and now Product Director at UK publisher Immediate, has transformed how media companies think about their digital products by treating every touchpoint as part of a unified customer journey. She doesn’t just ask ‘Is the article well written?’—she asks, ‘Did the reader feel understood?’

How can publishers stop treating content as the product and start treating the experience as the product?

In tech, the product is the app, the search function, the checkout flow—not the item being sold. In publishing, the product has traditionally been seen as the article, the magazine, the feature. But Cushing argues this is backwards: the real product is the entire ecosystem surrounding the content. A delayed magazine isn’t just a logistics issue—it’s a broken promise. A confusing app menu isn’t a UI flaw—it’s a trust erosion.

Immediate’s shift under Cushing’s leadership means:

• Customer service emails are treated as product feedback loops
• Every feature starts with a one-page press release written from the customer’s perspective
• Print, app, email, and push notifications are designed as interconnected touchpoints—not siloed outputs

For example: when a reader complains their BBC Gardeners’ World magazine didn’t arrive, the team doesn’t just issue a replacement. They ask: What did they miss while waiting? Could we offer a digital preview? A seasonal tip via push notification? A behind-the-scenes video? The product isn’t the magazine—it’s the weekly ritual of gardening inspiration.

Why does Amazon’s ‘working backwards’ press release method work better than traditional roadmaps?

At Amazon, every product idea begins with a one-page press release dated for launch day. It forces teams to answer: What problem are we solving? How is life better today than yesterday? What will customers say about it? At Immediate, Cushing adapted this to kill assumptions before they become features.

Here’s how it works in practice:

Traditional Publishing Approach	Amazon-Inspired ‘Working Backwards’ Approach
‘We should add a recipe filter by dietary need.’	‘Today, Good Food users can instantly find vegan dinners under 30 minutes—no more scrolling through 200 recipes.’
Feature prioritised by internal preference	Feature prioritised by customer outcome
Feedback collected post-launch	Feedback solicited during drafting—via team red-pen sessions

The press release becomes a ‘piñata’—meant to be beaten up by colleagues across design, engineering, and customer service. If it survives untouched, it’s likely not customer-focused enough. If it’s covered in red ink, it’s been stress-tested. This process eliminates ego-driven features and replaces them with outcome-driven ones.

How do you balance speed and precision in a fast-moving media landscape?

Cushing’s team hears conflicting messages: ‘Go faster!’ and ‘Don’t rush!’ But she resolves this tension with the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) principle—not as a low-quality shortcut, but as a strategic way to learn quickly. In publishing, where launch cycles are quicker than at Amazon’s 1.3-million-person scale, MVPs are not just possible—they’re essential.

Instead of building a perfect app overhaul, they might launch:

• A single new push notification template for subscribers with missed issues
• A ‘Quick Read’ summary button on long-form articles
• A one-click re-subscribe option for lapsed magazine readers

Each MVP is monitored for engagement, feedback, and retention. If it works, it’s scaled. If it fails, they learn why—and move on—without sunk cost bias. The mantra isn’t ‘get it right the first time’—it’s ‘get it out there, learn, then improve.’

What’s the most overlooked source of product insight in publishing?

Customer service emails—not focus groups or analytics dashboards. Cushing reads them daily. She doesn’t delegate this task. Why? Because behind every ‘My magazine was late’ message is a story: a grandmother who waits for her Radio Times every Friday, a gardener who plans her week around Good Food’s seasonal recipes. These aren’t complaints—they’re love letters disguised as service tickets.

By mapping these patterns over time, Immediate identified:

• 75% of delayed print complaints came from readers aged 60+
• Those readers were 3x more likely to churn if digital alternatives weren’t offered
• They preferred SMS alerts over app notifications

The result? A new ‘Print Pause & Digital Boost’ feature: when a print issue is delayed, subscribers automatically receive curated digital extras via SMS—with no action needed. Churn dropped by 22% in three months.