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

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

MediaGuardian Radio Reborn 2008: What’s the future for Channel 4’s digital radio?

The future of Channel 4’s digital radio prospect was on the table at today’s Radio Reborn conference, prompting some cagey answers from Natalie Schwarz, chair of the 4 Digital group over their ongoing discussions with Ofcom.

In the clip below Matt Wells, head of audio at the Guardian, challenges Schwarz’s comments:

Speaking from the audience, Ofcom’s director of radio and multimedia Peter Davies did concede that Channel 4 had not asked for an extension to the launch date of Channel 4 Digital.

Tags: Matt Wells, Natalie Schwarz, Peter Davies, The Guardian

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

The future of podcasting

Last night’s Radio Academy event on the future of podcasting proved a lively affair with criticism from Matt Wells, head of audio at Guardian Unlimited, of the BBC’s podcasting strategy and debate over podcasting’s relationship with radio.

The latter produced the following exchange between Trevor Dann, director of the Radio Academy and first speaker in the clip, and Wells.

But as fellow panellist Nathalie Schwarz, director of radio at Channel 4, went on to point out: it doesn’t matter - the generation that are going be most in tune with podcasting won’t care what it’s called - adding weight to Wells’ suggestion that calling it radio is a hang-up of the traditional media.

Schwarz also levelled Wells’ views on the BBC’s podcast service: how you define success in podcasting, she suggested, should be related to what you are trying to achieve.

“The brave new world isn’t just about big numbers and mass reach - I think that’s the old style world of looking at RAJAR as a almost a trading currency to get commercial revenue.”

The entire evening’s discussion can be listened to courtesy of the Radio Academy’s website.

Tags: BBC, Guardian Unlimited, Matt Wells, Nathalie Schwarz, Radio Academy, Trevor Dann