FT looks to US for podcast growth

The Financial Times is developing a podcast strategy that aims to grow its U.S. audience, reports Charlotte Tobitt of the Press Gazette.

Tobitt writes, “Although the FT has had its own podcasts for several years, they have until now been produced without an overall strategy outlining objectives for how they should work within the newsbrand’s editorial output.

“The daily FT News Briefing launched a year ago with its ten-minute rundown of the news designed primarily for voice assistants. It surpassed 1m monthly listens in August. Norwegian energy firm Equinor has just agreed to renew its 12-month sponsorship of the briefing.

“Earlier this month, the FT began another experiment with the Rachman Review, its first subscriber-only podcast which is run through Acast’s paywall podcast platform.

“Renee Kaplan, the FT’s head of audience and new content strategies, told Press Gazette chief that foreign affairs columnist Gideon Rachman was chosen for the experiment because he is one of the paper’s most read columnists.”

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