3. October 2025.
SoMoCast S4E1: Matej Lončarić – The future of media: subscriptions, niche content, and media literacy for users
This season, SoMoCast is shaking things up with two new hosts.
The first is Petar Pavić, an expert in digital media and marketing and co-founder of S.T.A.R. Digital Group. Throughout his career, he has led digital transformation and marketing strategy projects on an international scale, earning multiple awards for his work in media, design, and communications.
In the second episode, Petar welcomed guest Matej Lončarić from HUDI, Chief Digital Officer of Slovenia’s Pro Plus and Croatia’s RTL, for an in-depth conversation about the evolution of the digital industry and the challenges facing the market.
Matej reflects on his early career and how, despite having an engineering background from FER, he decided to enter the media industry. He emphasizes how fundamentally the industry has changed over the past 20 years, especially since he started when YouTube, blogs, and Facebook were still in their infancy.
In the conversation, he touches on generational differences in approaching media, noting that today’s Gen Z and Alpha are more pragmatic than older generations. As a result, their focus in the future will be more on the products themselves rather than the brand.
Matej also highlights that the future of media lies in subscriptions, as shown by examples from the U.S., such as the New York Times, which thrives on a subscription-based model.
The key to survival will be content tailored to specific audiences, as well as media literacy among users, which could be funded through higher taxation of big tech companies like Google and Meta.
Greater regulation, as Matej say’s, would also help address the imbalance in the Croatian market, where these companies take two-thirds of advertising revenue, while their contribution to the local economy is minimal, as they neither pay taxes nor employ Croatian workers.
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Podcast about the most important topics of the digital world.
In SoMoCast we dive into the key topics of digital business, marketing, and media – through the lens of those who know them best. Our guests bring real-world insights, and you get first-hand knowledge.
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