The publishers of the Manchester Evening News and Yorkshire Post have joined forces to launch a local news podcast service, Laudable.
They’ve received €500k (£434k) from Google’s Digital News Innovation Fund to develop the project, which will include new audio shows in regional newsrooms.
“Across our local newsrooms, we have a whole stable of experts on all sorts of subjects, and some of the best storytellers in journalism,” explained Reach’s Chief Audience Officer, David Higgerson.
“Laudable will give us the chance to unlock that expertise, reaching new audiences and engaging existing ones in a new way. It will also help us create audio around subjects which don’t get much of a show at the moment. We know true crime works, as does football, but what else can we achieve by listening to what our readers are interested in?”
The publishers will also be working with Entale, a podcasting platform, which makes the podcast experience more interactive.
“We know podcasting is becoming increasingly popular and is a skill that our journalists need to be equipped with, whether that is for creating engaging chatty and insightful commentary about football or more pithy incisive debate around politics,” added Jeremy Clifford, Editor in Chief of JPI Media.
