As you begin to think audio, listen to this podcast. Take note of the format and storytelling — there’s plenty here we could draw inspiration from.
This is part of the FT Weekend, hosted by Laila Raptopoulos, and is a good model. Note how it’s not merely repurposing what has appeared on earlier on FT,but working ‘off’ the original story, to build on it, add originality, and, most importantly, adapt it efficiently to the platform.
Note the narration. Delivery is chilled but professional, and quite different from the news bulletin ‘radio voice’ (’I am so-and-so, and this is BBC News Podcast. In the early hours of Sunday, such and such happened…’), or the YouTubian over-chattiness (’Hey, what’s up guys, this is x and x and I am going to rock your world by taking you to moon and back’) — and the narrator manages to put in a lot of her individuality into the story in the way she tells it (it is not a monolithic delivery).
The script is strong — think, if you will, of the individual components that she’s using to piece together the story in a way that takes you from A to Z.
A shortened version of this could work for you. While Laila is looking back at what FT did, you would present what your reporters have been up to, what this week’s coverage will be all about.
Think: what all will we need, then; and how, by when, should we get all those together? PS: Don’t forget to take note of the show notes. See the kind of stuff that goes in there: text, links, artwork/image for the episode.
And if you want to scroll through @lilahrap on Twitter, I am pretty sure I saw a script or two there, which could give you some pointers.
But don’t let this post limit you. There are other models, which lean more to the documentary side, too. So lean on stuff from Graham’s workshops as well.
