Guardian seeks independent producer for football podcast

The Guardian is searching for a new independent producer for its Football Weekly podcast.

According to an announcement via the Radio Academy, the application process for producing Football Weekly and Football Weekly Extra for the 2008/9 season is now open.

“After two really successful seasons working with production companies that shared the Guardian.co.uk vision and helped establish the programmes as the UK’s leading football podcast brand, we’re looking to build on the great work already done. We want to increase the reach and profile of the shows, and continue to be the net’s number one destination for football podcasts,” said Matt Wells, the Guardian’s head of audio, in the statement.

In January Wells told an industry gathering that the podcast was downloaded 80-100,000 times a week.

Tags: Football Weekly, Matt Wells, Radio Academy, The Guardian, the Guardian.co.uk, United Kingdom

Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk: want to run a news podcast, then let Amy Gahran tell you how

Podcasting: read Amy Gahran’s tips on creating a news podcast on Poynter. She advises to make them easy to find on your site and pack them with links to your top news content. Tipster: Laura Oliver

Got a tip? Submit it here - we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

Tags: Amy Gahran, Journalism.co.uk, Laura Oliver

MediaGuardian Radio Reborn 2008: Guardian readies ads for podcasts

The Guardian will soon introduce ad spots to its podcasts in the next few weeks, the title’s head of audio told an industry conference today.

Matt Wells, who announced the plans in January, said a range of bluechip advertisers were interested in the spots, though he did not elaborate on which podcasts would be the first to feature the advertising.

The argument for introducing podcast ads had been significantly boosted by the success of the Guardian’s advertising within its video content, Wells added.

Tags: Matt Wells, The Guardian

Washington Post Facebook app attracts 350,000 downloads

Jim Brady, executive editor of Washingtonpost.com, discusses widgets, podcasts, vodcasts and live streaming in the interview with Beet.tv below.

Brady says the Post’s political application on Facebook, which has been downloaded around 350,000 times, was a simple and relatively inexpensive way of promoting the WaPo brand.

However, he says that when experimenting with any new distribution methods - whether widgets, audio or video - it’s crucial to get the editorial content right first, regardless of what technology is in place.

Tags: Jim Brady, Washington Post, washingtonpost.com

Reportr.net: Clark Boyd, podcaster for The World, discusses radio vs podcasting

Clark Boyd, technology correspondent for The World - a joint production by the BBC and US public service broadcaster WGBH - discusses the merits of podcasting in this video.

Boyd says there is a future for audio content in this form, which will not be supplanted by video.

Tags: BBC, Clark Boyd, public service broadcaster, Reportr.net, United States, WGBH

Press Gazette: New Guardian morning news podcast to take on BBC

Matt Wells, head of audio at the Guardian, says the new morning news podcast will offer listeners an alternative to the BBC, which currently dominates the breakfast market.

Last month Wells criticised the BBC’s own podcasts for attracting ‘unimpressive’ audience figures.

Tags: BBC, Matt Wells, The Guardian

News articles today on Journalism.co.uk

NUJ to offer free legal support for members’ copyright actions
Deal with Thompsons Solicitors will allow members to pursue copyright infringements at no personal cost

Times Mobile appoints Brigid Callaghan as its new editor
Brigid Callaghan becomes editor of Times Mobile

Chinese digital news under attack in run-up to Olympics, says press freedoms report
Reporters Without Boarders report on press freedoms says 55 reporters and internet-users have been arrested in China since the country was awarded the Olympics

‘Local online news is changing, but not fast enough’ Paul Bradshaw
Comment article

Tags: Brigid Callaghan, China, internet-users, Journalism.co.uk, online news, Paul Bradshaw, Thompsons Solicitors, Times Mobile

Current TV to hire UK vlogging journalists

User-generated video blogging platform Current is planning to hire journalists in the UK to contribute to short video news posts and edit other video contributions.

The platform aimed at an audience of young adults recently made an agreement with Salon and The Guardian to supply vlogs (video blogs) to its online peer-to-peer news network. Reporters for The Guardian started filing pieces last week.

The platform, which also runs a cable TV channel, this week placed ads on Journalism.co.uk and looking to hire a Newspod producer and a NewsPod preditor (essentially a journalist/video editor) in the UK to create news packages for its headline news service.

The newspod producer will be responsible for working video feeds selecting news stories, scripting and performing voice-overs for Current’s headline news service. The preditor will be responsible for producing and editing news packages.

Tags: Cable TV, Journalism.co.uk, online peer-to-peer news network, peer-to-peer, Salon, The Guardian, United Kingdom

Audio: Regional newspapers compete with football clubs online

Leading English football clubs are in competition as web publishers with local and regional newspapers.

Footballing giants, like Manchester United or Liverpool Football Club, have huge online and TV publishing arms which they use as revenue streams and to control the flow of news coming from the club.

But it’s not just the big clubs that have got in on the act.

Journalism.co.uk spoke to William Watt, digital sports reporter with the Lancashire Evening Post, about how he sees the changing landscape of online news now that smaller football clubs, like his local club Preston North End, are publishing their own stories on the web.

For the club hitting a good balance with the local media is the key.

“It’s a tricky job trying to be both press officer and web publisher,” Matt Morris, Preston North End’s media manager, told Journalism.co.uk.

“It throws up a conflict of interest at times as there are elements of competition between the club and the press.”

While there is an onus to feed good stories to the clubs website, he added, the club still needed to be promoted locally as it was in competition with several other local clubs for revenue, that necessitated having a good working relationship with the media and striking a balance between the needs of the club as an online publisher and feeding the local media.

Tags: Journalism.co.uk, Liverpool Football Club, local media, Matt Morris, online news, online publisher, Preston North End, web publisher, web publishers, William Watt

Media Guardian: Internet radio attracting weekly audience of 8 million

New survey from RAJAR suggests move into the mainstream for internet radio with a weekly audience of 8.1 million internet radio listeners in the UK.

A further 2 million people download podcasts weekly, the survey says.

Tags: internet radio, Internet radio attracting weekly audience, internet radio listeners, United Kingdom