“The NEWS AGENTS is now the biggest UK daily news podcast, growing to 24 million downloads in 7 months,” said Dino Sofos of Persephonica.
When Global Media and Entertainment accepted his pitch for a 30 minute news podcast focusing on context and analysis, the why of a story, ready for the commute home, Sofos got to work to build the team, he told the RadioDays Europe conference.
Experienced, former BBC news journalists Emily Maitliis, Jon Sopel and Lewis Goodall are the hosts of the news podcast. They promise to give their audience more than astute analysis and explanation of the days’s news, and they also add a healthy dose of skepticism and the ability to laugh at it all when needed… to tell the story as human beings.
All three hosts happily spoke of leaving solid jobs to continue to work in news and have enjoyed tackling the daily issues, by increasing their audience’s understanding and helping them feel smarter. During their interviews the presenters are now having a more human conversation, and find that interviewees are more relaxed and readily reveal information.
They enjoyed taking a multimedia approach, and that guests now call them asking to be on the program. All involved with the podcast are excited that they focus on the human condition as well as politics and policy.
Solos’s takeaways for this successful ratings formula include:
- Talent is pivotal
- Presenters need chemistry
- Presenters are experienced journalists. They have access to the best contacts.
- A daily podcast is taxing. Planning starts the day before, no scripts, need to bring knowledge, they are experienced journalists on the team. The team finish recording at 1.30 and are out by 5.00, when production takes place.
- We have one social and one video producer on the team.
Vicky Etchells, from Global. spoke about the dynamic connection between the presenters, great promotion through stations, and resources of the marketing team to promote the podcast.
Once an episode of News Agents is ready it’s pushed to the app then social media, TikTok, Instagram.
Solo said, “Our audience demographic is across the board including the younger audience. The News Agents is setting the agenda, even BBC adds our podcast links to website.”
Future plans are to continue to grow and even double our downloads. We are considering how we change people’s habits and continue to grow our number.
Advise from the pair includes:
- You need a superb team and presenters that people will want to listen to.
- Talent is the key and producers are pivotal.
- It’s a real commitment.
