A weekly series from 2024 examining the ways the industry is changing and reshaping.
Introducing Word on the Square
Episode 1: Matt Deegan: “We’re all in the sales business”
In this episode, Matt Deegan of Podcast Discovery and Folder Media talks over how to build an audience, as well as doing the marketing to let it shine. “If you make something and you build it from scratch you are the expert — they should look to you to be the expert on how to market it,” he said on the show.
Episode 2: Hannah Àjàlá-Rahman – “One commissioner’s trash is another commissioner’s treasure.”
Award-winning journalist, producer and presenter Hannah Àjàlá-Rahman talks about the process of nurturing a podcast idea from fledgling to the final round of pitching to commissioners. “An idea turns into a process and it turns into almost being in a relationship with it…so have fun with it!” she advises.
Episode 3: James Cridland: “Creativity needs to be sustainable.”
On a trip to RadioDays Europe, Brisbane-based James Cridland, radio futurologist and editor of Podnews.net popped into City University to discuss the market for podcasts right now; what’s making him positive for the future and the issues the industry is likely to face within the next year.
Episode 4: Nathan Freeman – “Audio is a very effective way of creating a world that people can go to.”
Charlie Brown and Tim Utzig chat with Nathan Freeman from Granny Eats Wolf who tells us the latest from the cutting edge of soundscaping in the podcast industry. And while he is one of the great masters of his craft, Nathan emphasises the importance of collaborative team work for everything that he has achieved: “You got to work together with people you trust, that you think are great and believe in the same thing as you. The best I have ever done has never been on my own.”
Episode 5: “There’s so much scope for experimentation”: Acast’s Lizzy Pollott
Chief Communications & Brand Officer at Acast, Lizzy Pollott talks over the monetisation of podcasting, how creators should use the format — and how artificial intelligence may impact the world of audio production. “Podcasting as a medium is so way underserved by advertisers as compared to how effective and engaging it is — and it’s changing massively,” she says on the show. “We’re working all the time to educate advertisers who have perhaps never thought of podcasting as a medium for them, exactly why it is a perfect for them to reach their audiences, and also when they’re in it just how best to maximise it.”
