The Economic Times

Extending clout and seeking new audiences - Building a Business Podcast for the Economic Times

The Creative Ask

Audiences today demand more from media outlets. Not only do they want trustworthy news 24/7, but they also seek informed perspectives on business, politics, and the markets from opinion leaders, to navigate work and personal finance. Today’s millennial, urban audiences are used to consuming content-rich offerings on-demand on multimedia platforms. To this end, The Economic Times approached Agrahyah to create a business podcast to appeal to a new generation of online consumers. But what sort of podcast offering would appeal to ET audiences? Long-form vs. short-form, news roundup or in-depth individual stories, talk show format or monologue, daily or weekly? There were many choices to navigate to arrive at a solution for bringing ‘The Morning Brief’ podcast to life.

About The Economic Times

The Economic Times is a media brand that needs no introduction. The world’s 2nd most popular English language business newspaper, second only to The Wall Street Journal with a base of 800,000 readers, as a brand, ET believes in constant innovation.

With a sixty-year-old legacy, the media outlet is the go-to platform for leaders of India Inc. and busy executives looking to make sense of a fast-changing world. ET today extends its influence with year-round webinars, CXO-focused events, workshops, leadership conclaves, and more.

The Agrahyah Response

We own and operate aawaz.com, the largest podcast network in Indian languages. We brought in our in-house audio experts to co-create ‘The Morning Brief’ podcast in consultation with a core team of ET editors, journalists, brand experts, and marketers.

  • Arriving at a name and a sound, differentiated positioning for the show keeping ET readers in mind
  • Deciding on the format, frequency, and length of the podcast
  • Conducting voiceover training, audio scripting, and hosting workshops to transform print journalists and subject matter experts into podcast hosts
  • Creating a robust process for recording host and guest interviews, editing, and packaging the show to go live thrice a week - on Tuesdays and Fridays.
  • Hosting and distributing the podcast across multiple touchpoints, including the aawaz platform and app, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, and more
  • Creating media assets to promote the podcast on the aawaz platform

What Did We Do

In order to create a unique positioning for The Morning Brief, audio and podcasting experts at aawaz.com recommended that the show not focus on being newsy or creating an audio summary of the first page/key headlines in favor of creating original episodes with a clear focus on ‘a single story told well’ was brought to life on the audio medium, by using evocative music, SFX, and rich production.

We also recommended creating a team of audio journalists who, over time, would form a strong connection with listeners owing to their hosting style and sectoral expertise.

What makes this cool + challenging ?

It was a first-of-its-kind initiative to create a business podcast. We have helped ET publish 230+ episodes since September 2020, having seen listenership accelerate during the pandemic with listeners opting for podcasts to learn and catch up with what's happening around while they multitask to keep up with the hybrid WFH model.

In particular, we brought about technological advances to the production process:
  • By incorporating an automated, efficient way of creating episodes using best-in-class recording software and audio editing tools, like Zencastr and Descript
  • Using best practices for audio scripting, recording, editing, hosting, and distribution to deliver a consistent product despite tight deadlines and uncertainties due to the demands of the newsroom.

The Outcomes

The Morning Brief is available across all podcast platforms and has made it to the top of the charts on Apple & Spotify.
Since its launch, the podcast has accrued close to half a million loyal listeners and counting.