50 December-January 2014
T
HE runaway success of ‘Serial’,
the podcast from ‘This American
Life’ producer Sarah Koenig docu-
menting a 15-year-old murder case, has
energised scrutiny of the format as a way
for news outlets to attract audiences.
‘Serial’ is simply the most successful
of a number of professionally produced
podcasts, and it is no surprise that it
comes from a public-radio background.
Its parent show, ‘This American Life’, has
already established itself as a podcasting
hit, as have many other shows from the
National Public Radio (NPR) stable, such
as ‘99% Invisible’ and ‘Snap Judgment’.
On the face of it, there would seem to
be fewer prospects for Irish news outlets
hoping to get into podcasting.
Despite a high-power campaign
MEDIA
Also in this section:
Media ownership 52
Brendan O’Connor 54
The oddness
of pod
Quality podcasting is
cheap, lucrative and
effective.
By Gerard Cunningham