What Guardian learned in 5 years of daily news podcasting | Resilient newsrooms 'a necessity'
Good morning and welcome to your daily media news briefing on Wednesday, 13 December, brought to you today in association with Bauer Academy. Delivered by Head of Journalism Andrew Greaves, Bauer Academy has launched a series of day courses aimed at those in the industry looking to upskill and take on new challenges in their role.
Unlike news stories, features and broadcasts, podcasts are a new medium for journalism and the rulebook is still being written.
We spoke to the team behind The Guardian's Today in Focus daily podcast to understand more about the formula that has driven 250 million downloads for their show.
The importance of planning and grabbing the listeners' attention in the first minute are two take-homes.
Encouragingly, given the crowded nature of the daily news podcast market, Today in Focus is still growing its audience.
Given the current news agenda, we also have a timely piece on how to build a resilient newsroom from Andrew Greaves. He has plenty of advice about how to better care for ourselves and our colleagues to help maintain a happier, and more productive, workplace.
And tomorrow we find out the winners of the 2023 British Journalism Awards at a sold-out Bankside Hilton hotel. In the meantime here is a reminder of the shortlist. It is well worth your time to give it a browse because it includes links to all the shortlisted work. It is fantastic compendium of top-class journalism guaranteed to inspire and amaze.
Sponsored day course:
The Bauer Academy Newsroom Resilience course is perfect for those wanting an understanding of how the new ways of working can impact on the mental health of staff and how these challenges can be mitigated through a careful strategy.
This course will look at how journalists can cope with the stress of working in post-pandemic newsrooms, finding ways of developing more inclusive and supportive structures and managing the demand for news when under time pressures to avoid burnout.
It will also look at the stresses of dealing with reporting on traumatic news stories taking into account what a journalists mind and body will go through during and after the job and how to take steps to process.
New from Press Gazette
What The Guardian has learned from five years of daily news podcasting
Today in Focus deliberately had a “documentary sensibility” from the start, head of audio Nicole Jackson told Press Gazette, with the team avoiding a roundtable discussion format. Instead, she explained, they “really wanted to base it in storytelling”.
Why building resilient newsrooms is a necessity, not a luxury
“The British stiff upper lip mentality is long gone and support is now – largely – available… even if the onus is on journalists to look for it in some cases.”
Podcast 61: Why bad news can be good for business publishers with Dow Jones CEO Almar Latour
Dow Jones chief executive and Wall Street Journal publisher Almar Latour spoke to Press Gazette about how the financial news division of News Corp just managed to achieve its most profitable quarter since 2007.
In this edited version of his interview at the Press Gazette Media Strategy Network event in New York this month, he also spoke about what publishers need to focus on as global uncertainty looks set to continue in 2024.
News in brief
My London has launched a paid premium app which it says will be "free of disruptive ads for subscribers". Press Gazette reported in September that premium apps are one of three experiments Reach is trying in reader revenue generation. (My London)
Tiktok owner Bytedance has been accused of scraping articles by news organisations like The Guardian, Daily Mail and The Telegraph to train its generative AI chatbot tool without permission. (The Daily Telegraph)
Israel's Foreign Press Association has reportedly taken its first legal steps towards securing access into Gaza for international journalists. It said Israel is "legally obligated" to provide access following a previous ruling. (The Guardian)
Jeff Zucker's RedBird IMI, which has agreed a deal to buy The Telegraph that is being scrutinised by UK regulators, is reportedly in advanced talks to buy another UK media company - TV and film studio All3Media, which produced Fleabag and Call the Midwife. (Financial Times)
The New York Times has reportedly hired Quartz co-founder Zach Seward to be its editorial director of artificial intelligence initiatives, meaning he will establish dos and don'ts for using AI and help build training programmes. (The Wall Street Journal)
Previously on Press Gazette
Press regulator Impress forced to correct misleading accounts
Mail Online looks set to adopt partial ‘freemium’ paywall in 2024
Banned in UK, China state broadcaster now running free video news agency
International Criminal Court holds key to curb killing of journalists in Israel-Hamas war
