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From one of the oldest publishing houses in Germany, why Der Spiegel now has podcasts?

Successful podcasts from a traditional print media house

Charlotte Meyer-Hamme (Product Manager, Spiegel Online, Germany) & Sandra Sperber (Podcast Host, Speigel Online) opened the session from Paper to Podcast at Radiodays Europe Podcast Day. 

Der Spiegel creates a commissioned production for Audible which gives a steady stream of income to the podcast department.

Some of the challenges they have seen is getting reliable analytics, monetization and how to improve content discovery. "This is why the whole Podcast industry should work together to improve in these areas".

Stimmenfang is a long form podcast format from Der Spiegel which the audiences enjoy. This is a weekly political podcast. The goals of thw podcast are to give the listener a different experience from the printed magazine. It tries to give an insight into the journalistic newsrooms, give Der Spiegel a voice online and humanize Der Spiegel's product by talking to journalists behind the headlines, helping to build trust in Der Spiegel reporting.

The best stories come from listeners and readers, Der Spiegel are asking for content by contacting readers for podcasts. Der Spiegel contacted listeners who had complained on the website about Angela Merkel and then gave interviews on what they thought about the current situation in Germany.

Building trust and a conversation with listeners is hugely important. Engaging people by asking for stories and opinions and conversations with reporters as well getting the inside track.  

Charlotte finished the presentation by saying that “Capturing authentic moments with journalists re-builds trust in journalists and the media”.