FT records 45 million podcast downloads in 2015

The Financial Times has 12 regular podcasts that managed to rake in 45 million podcast downloads in 2015, writes Lucinda Southern of Digiday.

Southern writes, “‘The ecosystem is growing around podcasting,’ Kayode Josiah, head of commercial development, video and audio at the FT, told Digiday. ‘People start to find their gaps and areas of development and build business around that, that’s the indication that there’s a market and it’s here to stay.’

“Now, the FT produces around 20 podcasts a week across its 14 different shows. FT News, for instance, a segment under eight minutes on the day’s top events, goes out sometimes twice a day. So far this year it has launched Irreverent Questions with Mrs Moneypenny, where the FT columnist answers queries on topics from career advice to capitalism, and FT Politics, both of which are weekly shows of 30 to 40 minutes long.

“The latter, presented by former Spectator journalist Sebastian Payne, has had the fastest-growing download figures. It’s produced in Asia so can be published early on Saturday mornings, GMT. ‘This was a gap in the market where no other competing podcast publish,’ said Martin Stabe, head of interactive for the FT.”

Read more here.