The Independent expects revenue from personality-led podcasts and video strands produced in its new Studio division to eventually become its biggest source of revenue.
Independent Studio’s head of content Al Brown said it was launched in April in response to changing audience behaviours.
Independent Studio hopes to become a “diversified revenue business” that is expected “to outstrip other revenue sources”. Revenue sources for the Studio will come through brand partnerships, advertising in video and podcasts, licensing, merchandise, events and membership.
To activate revenue streams within this model “you need something that is loved and has a fandom around it”, Brown said. “That’s what we’re trying to create – a business with lots of opportunity to market. We can reach a specific audience across any social platform and site.”
Independent Studio is responsible for all non-news-related video and podcasts for Independent Media (which comprises The Independent and BuzzFeed UK, Tasty UK, HuffPost UK, and Seasoned). This includes video content pushed out on site and social platforms, personality-driven podcasts, live streams and documentaries. Highlights include Adam Clery’s Football Channel (ACFC) on Youtube and Roisin O’Connor’s Good Vibrations podcast about music.
Its 18-strong production team works across three physical studios, with plans to create a fourth podcasting studio in the US in the future.
Video content is watchable content on Youtube, Instagram, Snapchat, Spotify and Tiktok, and “there will be newsletters attached to the brands that the studio gives a platform to, e.g. the podcast Well Enough by Emilie Lavinia is launching in September”.
Newsletters will aim to boost engagement, with Lavinia’s “to go out weekly with the podcast” and connect with the topics in the episodes.
Independent Studio is “about growing audiences and our social video platforms, but it’s also about creating new shows and brands that come from the Independent, but we have learnt a lot from our deal with Buzzfeed too“, said Brown.
In March 2024, the Independent took over Buzzfeed UK brands (including Huffpost UK) to create “Britain’s biggest publisher network” for Gen Z and millennials.
Brown said that it is focusing on its “core” audience with current affairs and culture programming, but is reaching a “new audience” now having merged with Buzzfeed and learned about “talking to the audience and [utilising] talent”.
“You’d probably watch ten seconds of ACFC on Youtube and think, why the Independent? We’re kind of stretching our core brand.”
Football Youtube channel launch beats expectations
The ACFC has “outstripped all predictions” of success for Independent Studio, Brown said. The Youtube channel has 148,000 subscribers at the time of writing, “which is big – channels take time to build and we’ve managed to achieve our first commercial partnership with it”.
The videos see Cleary provide a breakdown of matches and “change the way people talk about football”, Brown said, adding: “He wants to deepen our understanding of things we love, and that really aligns with The Independent – a trusted brand explaining and contextualising the world to people. That’s not to say everything we do will be edu-tainment.”
Independent has also recently launched podcast “Like This, Love This” through the studio.
“It’s a series about recommendations, cutting through the noise of what to read and watch, and feels very aligned with The Independent’s culture department. That’s had a good start – it hasn’t blown anything out of the water though. It takes podcasts ages to grow,” said Brown. “I wouldn’t expect any podcast we launch to hit 30,000 downloads [immediately] – unless its with someone with a huge audience – but that’s the end goal.
“When I’m looking at podcasts, I’m looking at momentum. You just want to make sure that when people start watching, you keep watching. I think about 80% of the [ACFC Youtube] audience are still watching at minute one, and over 50% are still watching halfway through.”
Brown described this as “best in class retention” in terms of Youtube, adding the studio can avoid pop-up advertising while the video is streaming with this.
“If you ask about Youtube, I’ll talk about watch time and retention,” Brown added. “But on Tiktok, we had more than 200m views last month. It’s much more scale play there. Podcasts are harder because you don’t get much data, just downloads.”
Wider publisher push towards video
The launch comes at a time when other media outlets are also taking advantage of a content creator boom and launching studios.
In 2024, Reach launched a 120-strong Studio team to make editorial and commercial audio. The Mirror, Express Star and regional publishers have access to state-of-the-art studios in London, Manchester, Glasgow and Birmingham, with work ongoing in Liverpool and a revamped space in Newcastle.
“Everyone is doing it,” Brown said. “We’re just doing it in slightly different ways. The Independent didn’t come to video late, but it did come to long-form storytelling late.”
However, arriving at video journalism “later” had its advantages, according to Brown, “like not making lots of mistakes like other media brands did”.
Read more: From Eamonn Holmes to Andrew Doyle: I watched GB News for 18 hours
“When you think about businesses starting studio enterprises, it will be a reflection of what they are – like Vice-run studios would be a reflection of Vice. What makes us stand out is independence and independent voices, so not bringing a dogmatic view of the world to what we’re doing.
“That’s what makes Independent Studio great: finding the right talent that aligns with who we are and finding the most exciting formats we can.”
He added: “We’re 100% looking into membership offerings, creating a one-stop shop for people who subscribe to specific newsletters, so they watch extra exclusive content or listen to ad-free versions of podcasts – a membership package like that.”
In a time of industry cuts and closures, the studio is also feeling optimistic in its staff growth plans: “We’re expected to grow again next year, but sustainability is the key of all of this,” said Brown.
“It’s easy to spend a ton of money and fall apart, but we have to be really careful with the bets that we take. We’re not trying to compete with Netflix, we’re creating content that can compete on Youtube and big social platforms.”
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