News podcasts are an effective way for media organisations to engage with new audiences and help them build habits since people like to consume content in lots of different ways. It’s important for news companies to format their stories to suit different mediums.

Please Explain was launched by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in 2018 as a weekly podcast that delved primarily into federal politics. It has evolved into a daily news podcast, The Morning Edition, which was recently crowned the best in the country at the Australian Podcast Awards and ranked No. 1 in the news category in February.

Changes to the production and output of the podcast

The Morning Edition is the only daily podcast in our current suite of five. It now has:

• A full-time host instead of a suite of guest hosts.
• A regular publication time of 5:00 a.m.
• A regular schedule of episodes, including a one-on-one conversation with international editor Peter Hartcher every Wednesday.
• An episode dedicated to analysing the biggest stories from Australia’s capital, Canberra, as part of a breakout episode titled “Inside Politics.”

Emphasis on the production of each and every episode

We’re sourcing more tape and using sound design to enhance the listening experience as well as the overall quality of the journalism.

These recordings are then sliced and diced. They are published not only on traditional audio platforms, but also repurposed as vertical video on Instagram and TikTok. They also run in their entirety on YouTube for both brand awareness and to satisfy different audience listening behaviours.

Peter Hartcher’s episodes, in particular, have been very successful on YouTube, as have the regular uploads of Inside Politics.

Relaunch involved redesign of name, look, and feel of the podcast 

This reaffirms our mission: the story behind the story with the best journalists in Australia.

The podcast title also ties in with our morning newsletter, building a clearer link between these two products that serve our journalism to audiences off-platform.

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