BT Podcasts set to grow reach and revenue with new facilities, expanded team

WHEN I announced to my then boss, the general manager of SPH Radio, that I had applied for and landed a role at The Business Times (BT) as their first dedicated podcast editor, I didn’t have a ready answer to his obvious follow-up: why? 

I could have been flippant and called it a mid-career switch. It was, after all, the big buzz phrase at the time. Or perhaps I could have channelled Dilbert and said something about leveraging synergies. Instead, what I did find myself saying was: A new mountain to climb.

But why move from a live broadcast environment, with all its excitement and synchronised urgency, to the production of podcasts?

The appeal for me was precisely that podcasts are unfettered by the informative urgency of news. Podcasts occupy a distinct space in being able to complement information the newsroom delivers.

Take, for example, the first podcast BT launched in 2018. Money Hacks provides useful personal tips and advice from experts to help you make the most of your money. While correspondents are keeping you abreast of the latest movements in the stock market or how policy changes might affect the population online and in print, Money Hacks distils those into broader strokes and relates them back to you and your money. 

BT was also well into its digital transformation and had successfully pivoted to an audience-first focus. That shift has given podcasts an opportunity to play a more meaningful role in the newsroom – for example, by giving depth and breath to columns by veteran journalists Ben Paul, Leslie Yee and Genevieve Cua.

Even so, when I started my audit of BT Podcasts’ output and capabilities a year ago, I was amazed that we had achieved so much with so little. We lacked dedicated audio facilities in the newsroom and had just one audio professional doing the work of a team: recording, editing and publishing three titles, while concurrently producing content for two more. This wasn’t sustainable and presented a serious key-man risk.

It was time to strengthen the foundation that BT Podcasts was built upon. I needed a bigger team and dedicated audio facilities, without which we were going to lag the competition.

The thing is, presenting needs to senior management is an invitation to scrutiny and raised expectations. SPH Media and the BT leadership accepted that facilities and manpower would be required. In turn, they signalled a clear message: serve BT consumers better and move the needle on reach and revenue. 

In undertaking the studio build as co-project lead, I met those handling facilities, security, procurement, finance, engineering and tech, as well as those in the newsroom. Re-routing air conditioning vents, sound transmission suppression and minimising the disruption of workflows that the buildout would create were among the many issues I had to handle.

That I was not overwhelmed is testimony to what can be achieved when teams from multiple stakeholders come together in support and open sharing. Still, it was the steepest learning curve I’d ever experienced in my career to date. 

Studio buildout underway, I turned my attention to hiring. BT’s associate editor for audience, Chan Cheow Pong, has written in this column of the challenges he encountered in hiring the right people for his audience teams and the shortcomings of the current state of education for aspiring journalists.

I experienced this first hand and concur with his opinion: academia has to relook how and what they are teaching journalism students to prepare them for the modern newsroom, which should include podcast production. Matching my requirements, and competing with other newsrooms for suitable candidates, has been an odyssey. Thankfully, it is no longer an ongoing one.

Revenue generation, however, is. I am not alone. Every department, division and organisation head in every business sector is right now probably huddling with their marketing teams looking for the means to counter the current economic landscape. To drive revenue despite shrinking budgets, fierce competition and uncertainty. 

BT Podcasts has to strike a balance between two sets of requirements. One, the need for a clear distinction between editorial content, with all the necessary safeguards of journalistic integrity. Two, our commercial content – as a product of BT – still needs to meet the standards of responsible journalism.

The answer, I believe, is in the challenge. Produce excellent content driven by some of the most respected correspondents in BT’s newsroom, gain a loyal following, and that will compel potential advertisers and sponsors to seek out the association and partnership.

In the face of competition, the big winner here is the consumer. The harder we work at creating compelling content that will draw accolades from fans and commercial partners, the harder our competition will endeavour to outdo us. That will, in turn, galvanise us.

Today, the studio is up and running. The expanded team is hitting its stride with new podcast titles in development. And from a personal perspective, I am finally at base camp with the mountain before me.