Scottish publisher DC Thomson has made its head of podcasts redundant amid a change in its audio strategy.
Christopher Phin, named hero of the year at the 2020 Publisher Podcast Awards, has led the development of more than a dozen podcasts for DC Thomson’s newspaper and B2B and consumer magazine brands since taking on the role almost three years ago.
The roster of podcasts cover a diverse range of subjects including news, energy, parenting, gardening, football and golf. In May they passed the collective milestone of one million downloads after growing from 299,000 downloads in 2020 to 518,000 last year.
DC Thomson’s chief transformation officer Tom Miller has said this initial “period of discovery” is now over and the publisher is taking a “more planned approach”, which will involve more collaboration between the content development, radio production and audience development teams.
Phin’s last day at DC Thomson was Friday 12 August and he is now taking a break before exploring new opportunities.
He told Press Gazette: “It was an immense joy to help the teams across DC Thomson find their voice in podcasting, and to build resource, expertise and talent in this exciting growth area. I’m so very proud of what we made together, and I wish them every success in the future.”
Phin did not have any direct staff reporting to him, but instead worked with those at brands across the business to help them develop their production skills and podcast offerings.
Writing on Linkedin, he said: “Three years ago DC Thomson didn’t have any podcasts. Now it’s got a folio of more than a dozen, with well north of a million downloads across the family, revenue, and new audiences. And at least as importantly, it’s now got facilities, processes, best practice, and just the best mix of on-mic talent, producers and editors (sometimes in one person!) anyone could ever hope for.”
DC Thomson is now planning to move away from brand-led podcasts towards an approach with more cross-brand “experimentation and innovation” through which they discuss story and format ideas and then decide the best medium for them.
Miller said: “We’re committed to podcasting and see it as an important part of what we do. We’ve had some incredible programmes over the last few years, and it’s been a great period of discovery. What we’re doing now is taking a more planned approach to the format.
“Podcasts will now develop as part of the wider growth in our audio business: our radio listening hours are up and our podcasting work has seen the shows collect many awards.” DC Thomson owns three radio stations in Scotland: Pure Radio, Original 106 and Kingdom FM.
Miller continued: “Across the business, we are finding that collaborative, insight-led work is what is driving growth. The next phase of our podcasting will bring together the teams and processes in content development, radio production and audience development. Together they’ll look at how current and future podcasts can be developed, supported and grown.
“This approach pushes experimentation and innovation in the way we tell stories. It’s a method that has seen us nominated for Press Gazette Future of Media awards for both documentary investigations and data journalism.
“A significant element in DC Thomson’s digital transformation is building new capabilities. Podcasting is, and will continue to be, part of that.”
DC Thomson launched a digital transformation project called Apollo in 2020, moving its newspaper brands from a print-first model as part of a mission to “future-proof” the business that included the creation of more audio producing, video, animation, interactive graphics and live events.
DC Thomson’s 13 podcasts and their associated brands are currently:
- Robin Galloway Takes On a Podcast – Pure Radio Scotland
- The Courier Daily – The Courier’s daily audio news briefing that the company claimed was a first for a UK regional publisher
- The Bunkered Golf Podcast – Bunkered
- Energy Voice Out Loud – Energy Voice
- Author In Your Classroom – Plazoom
- The Dirt – Grow Your Own
- The Global Franchise Podcast – Global Franchise
- Twa Teams, One Street – The Evening Telegraph
- The Courier Talking Football – The Courier
- Northern Goal – The Press & Journal and Evening Express
- The Stooshie – The Courier, The Press & Journal, the Evening Telegraph and the Evening Express
- Reading Between The Lines – The People’s Friend
- Baby On The Brain – Stylist
At the Publisher Podcast Awards, where Phin was named publisher podcast hero of the year in 2020, DC Thomson this year won three categories: B2B for Energy Voice Out Loud, books and literature for Author In Your Classroom, and sport for The Bunkered Golf Podcast.
Speaking on a panel at The Publishing Show in March, Phin revealed Energy Voice Out Loud was DC Thomson’s biggest-earning podcast, pushing six figures in the financial year despite a small listenership of under 300 on average because those people are engaged and can be targeted with branded content and native series.
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