The Evening Standard is entering the daily news podcast market with a new offering inspired by the “voice of the paper”.
The Leader launches on Monday for a three-month trial period, promising “exclusive analysis and insight from one of the UK’s most trusted newsrooms”.
The 15-minute long episodes will go live each weekday at 4pm, hosted by broadcast journalist David Marsland.
It will feature journalists and editors from the Standard newsroom telling the stories behind the headlines in documentary-style reports, with extracts from that day’s leader column.
Standard editor George Osborne said: “Our editorial column has always spoken for our readers – now you can hear it too.
“I’m excited that the Evening Standard is at the forefront of change – bringing people the news in a different, modern way. In these turbulent times, this podcast will help you stay ahead of the news.”
It is being produced by the Standard’s new audio news team, including executive editor for features Lucy Hunter Johnston and executive producer for video and audio Chris Stone.
The audio team is also working on creating current affairs content for smart speakers – working in partnership with Google to make short form news stories for its Assistant, and developing bulletins for the Amazon Echo.
Stone said: “London doesn’t stop innovating, and neither do we.
“Daily podcasts, voice AI and smart speakers provide an opportunity to build interactive, habit-forming relationships with new and existing audiences, and to continue our unprecedented digital growth – in the UK and beyond.”
David Tomchak, the Standard’s digital editor-in-chief, added: “Our audio team have been working on a number of exciting tech, content and commercial opportunities and partnerships over the last 18 months and this podcast will bring together the best of all that hard work.”
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