Bauer Media makes foray into news podcasts as it seeks to broaden portfolio

Ella Sagar

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June 12, 2024

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2 minutes

Limited series The Turnout aims to encourage young people to vote.

Bauer podcast. The Turnout still. Resized

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Ella Sagar Ella Sagar is a reporter for The Media Leader and leads our audio and out-of-home coverage. She joined in September 2021 and has a gold standard NCTJ. She previously wrote for the South West Londoner, Ealing Times, and The Hillingdon Times. At the University of Leeds, she received a First Class Honours Degree in French and Spanish with distinction in speaking and during her time there regularly presented radio shows on Leeds Student Radio, wrote for the student paper The Gryphon and was editor of Her Campus Leeds.

Bauer Media has launched its first news-based podcast series, which aims to encourage young people to vote.

The Turnout will be hosted by comedian and TikTok star influencer GK Barry, who wants to understand more about the reasons many young people choose not to vote.

Episodes will be released twice a week and produced in collaboration with Bauer sister brand Kiss Radio. It seeks to set the agenda for the youth vote and reach audiences who do not normally engage in the day-to-day political agenda.

Guests will include young voters, campaigners and politicians.

Now that an election date has been set for 4 July, targeting young people has become a more urgent priority. The Advertising Association and its Media Smart initiative rolled out a national campaign this week across TV, cinema and OOH, including in university accommodation and sixth form colleges, to provide information on party political advertising.

Analysis: Broadening portfolio

Last year, Bauer appointed Lucie Cave as chief creative officer for podcasts and commercial content in a bid to usher in “a brand new era for podcasting”.

Speaking to The Media Leader, Cave explained that while Bauer had a number of original podcasts, such as So Wrong It’s Right with Olivia Attwood and The Overshare with Gemma Atkinson, The Turnout is its “first podcast based in news”.

Cave added: “We’d categorise The Turnout in ‘Gen Z-tainment’, helping to broaden our portfolio and focus on reaching younger audiences.”

At The Future of Audio and Entertainment in April, Bauer Media Audio UK CEO Simon Myciunka emphasised that adding more speech and podcast content to the portfolio was “really important” for the company’s future, alongside the development of its on-demand Rayo app, slated to launch in June.

https://uk.themedialeader.com/simon-myciunkas-one-simple-mission-at-bauer/

Historically, Bauer podcasts tended to relate to its existing brands, such as Absolute Radio and Empire.

The move into a news-led podcast is part of a wider trend of publishers focusing on the podcast space.

DMG Media has been expanding its original podcast slate and recently announced a partnership with hosting and monetisation platform Adelicious to boost revenue and audiences.

Meanwhile, rival Global has been producing news-related podcasts initially based on its LBC programming and more recently The News Agents, hosted by Emily Maitlis, Jon Sopel and Lewis Goodall. The latter now has spinoffs The News Agents USA and The Sports Agents.