PODCASTING – NEWSPAPERS’ NEXT SECRET WEAPON?



It is relatively new and most news reporters do not have much, if any, experience with them but podcasts are becoming all the rage and could play an important role in keeping traditional newspapers relevant.

According to the Washington-based Pew Research Center on Journalism and Media, in 2006 just 20 per cent of Americans, aged 12 and older, said they were familiar with the term “podcasting”. A decade later the percentage was 49 per cent.

In 2009, 69,800 podcasts were produced stateside. The number grew to 91,700 by 2013.

On this side of the border, about 30 per cent of Canadian Internet users engage with podcasts on a monthly basis, according to Global Web Index numbers.

The jury remains out as to whether podcasts can encourage reader reengagement with local print and online newspapers. Part of the reason, say observers, is that news organizations have been slow to adapt to this new social media vehicle and many of the podcasts they do produce leave plenty of room for improvement.

But one has only to look to the slick podcast page of the London-based Guardian newspapers to suspect that podcasting could be the next big thing in journalism, and something with the pizazz to potentially enhance and modernize the brands of traditional players.

The Guardian, impressively, posts a dozen or more podcasts monthly, inviting readers to “click and listen”. Some examples of topics tackled recently:

How statistics lost their power and why we should fear what comes next.

Who Killed the British curry house?

How should Australia deal with Donald Trump?

But let’s start at the very beginning: what exactly is a podcast?

Drawn from the word ipod, podcast is a term for what is essentially a radio show on the Internet, although a podcast less often can feature video as well as audio. It is on demand, and unrestricted by any broadcast regulations. Typically, podcasts are produced by everyone from rank amateurs to radio and TV network pros.

One of the most popular podcasts around these days is called This American Life, a production of National Public Radio in the U.S., telling stories about ordinary people. Some 2.5 million people download for free it each week.

Newspapers are now starting to get with the program. In 2016 the Globe and Mail launched an 11-episode podcast called Colour Code, about race in Canada.

Barry Link, host of two podcasts, The Practical Geek and This is LotusLand, thinks podcasting is a good fit for traditional papers. “What works is the intimacy. We’re in an age where we’re trying to be authentic and transparent, and it’s just that feeling you get when someone is talking to you directly in audio podcasts, there’s a feeling that there’s nothing between you and the person talking to you. Like you are with them in the room.”

Link, creator and producer of the Glacier Media’s Press Play Podcast Network, notes on his website, that podcasting has one of the fastest-growing audiences in media today, with more than 60 million North Americans listening to at least one podcast a month.

The vast majority of podcast fans listen by way of itunes. And, in 2014, according to the Pew Research Center, 63 per cent of listeners used their mobile devices to download the podcasts, up from 43 per cent in 2012.

Link believes that podcasts should be part of the playbook for community newspapers. “It’s a rising platform, and we need to be part of it.”

Also, he asserts, “It’s just a natural extension where community papers are rooted in the community.” Podcasting captures that closeness in an audio format.

Several of Glacier’s community newspapers are now producing regular podcast content, including the Coast Beat podcast from the Coast Reporter on B.C.’s Sunshine Coast; the Energy City Plugged-In Podcast from the Estevan Mercury in Saskatchewan; and the Westman Journal Podcast from the Westman Journal in Brandon, Manitoba.

Recent editions of Link’s own This is LotusLand podcast have featured an interview with Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson and a chat about craft beer. Other Glacier Media podcasts are listed on: http://www.pressplaynetwork.ca/

“It’s really an excellent way of providing transparency for the readers. You can now meet the reporters and the people they’re writing about, you can hear their voices. It provides an additional level of intimacy and engagement that was not there before.”

Newspaper-produced podcasts serve as ideal platforms for roundtable discussions, for reporters providing details about their written stories that they were not able to include in the printed format or for hosting discussions with people in the community who are just doing interesting things.

“Very friendly, informal talk shows basically, I think, work well for community newspapers. It provides an extra voice for the newspaper, showing that the newspaper is not just people that you never meet or see. It provides that extra element where you get to know the people who produce the paper in a way that you would not just from seeing their bylines week after week. It gives the newspaper more of a personality.”

It also allows media to “better control the way [stories] are told,” says New Republic senior editor Jamil Smith, a big proponent of the social platform.

Quoted on the website — http://www.editorandpublisher.com/feature/the-rising-popularity-of-podcasts/

Smith explains, with the availability of the podcast, “We’re not waiting to be booked on another radio or television show to talk about our work or the issues that matter to us.”

And for people who may not be reading any publications or even have an Internet connection but who listen to podcasts on their cellphones during their daily commutes or workouts, Smith believes, “podcasts are a smart way to bring our journalism to an audience we may have been previously neglecting.”

It’s about visibility in a new arena, piercing people’s consciousness, augmenting relevance.

As yet, no one is sure whether these podcasts can boost a newspaper’s readership, or be a potential vehicle for bringing new dollars to the table.

Publishers who want innovators to just “show me the money” are going to have to be patient, says Link.

“It takes a lot of time to build audiences and major advertisers demand a level of audience share that is going to be hard for particularly small-market newspapers to reach.”

The way to monetize the effort may be to arrange for branded podcasts whereby an advertiser will act as sponsor. Ebay, for example, does a U.S. broadcast Open for Business. “Good, engaging content, even if paid for by an advertiser, can still really resonate with an audience,” says Link.

Perhaps profits are a ways off. But podcasting may generate other practical, and feel-good, benefits that are hard to put a price on. Says Link: “podcasting is growing in popularity. Computers are developing the capacity to talk back to us. Audio, and talking, and conversation, is becoming more the way that we are communicating.

“The origins of newspaper, of course, are in print and that’s very important. But I think that having organizations reaching out to the community, using audio, is going to become more and more important because that is the direction our society is moving in.”

While podcasting may not be profitable at present, the upside is that podcasts can be produced at relatively low cost.

Link assures people, “anyone can do a podcast”. Technically it is far easy than it used to be because everything is now digital. Believe it or not, Amazon.ca now sells a “podcastudio bundle.”

The ABCs of podcast production can be found at online sites like: http://www.digitaltrends.com/how-to/how-to-make-a-podcast/2/; http://lifehacker.com/how-to-start-your-own-podcast-1709798447; or http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/how-to-podcast.htm.

Link advises wanna-be podcasters that, when starting out, the key is keeping it simple; more complicated stuff can be added later if desired. Find a good place to record, preferably somewhere with a door that closes and no windows, and where sound is buffered. Wall to wall carpeting, blankets to absorb sound, that sort of thing. Buy a podcasting microphone online for less than $100. Editing can be done through an online program, Audacity, or if using a Mac, Garage Band. Files can be hosted on Sound Cloud.

Aim initially to produce a podcast of 20 minutes or so in duration.

Take risks and experiment, counsels Link. “You’re not on TV and you do not have to stick to a rigid format dictated by the CRTC. You can have fun with it.”

Tips for Good Podcasting, as recommended by blogger Pat

Thorton: http://patthortonfiles.com/blog/2008/02/17/podcasts-can-drive-traffic-for-newspapers/

• A podcast should stand on its own and not merely function as a springboard to direct eyeballs to print stories.
• Podcast length can vary. A podcast, just like a good written piece, should be as long or short as necessary.
• Think outside the box so that the podcast stands apart from traditional news content and is fresh and innovative.
• A good podcast educates people, giving them new information.
• While the podcast should stand on its own, it should be supported by “show notes,” providing an outline of the content of any given episode of the podcast.
• Do not think of a podcast as another version of a newspaper; do not mimic its content.