Chris Stone, executive producer for podcasts and video at the New Statesman and founder of Podcast Crew. Picture: Submitted
Publishers must identify a target audience and niche before launching a podcast, according to Chris Stone, executive producer for podcasts and video at The New Statesman.
Stone, who also founded B2B marketplace Podcast Crew , said publishers should track relevant metrics and be prepared to hire at least one full-time podcast producer.
Since Stone started at The New Statesman in 2020, he has overseen its transition to video podcasting. Since making the podcast the primary Youtube output for the publisher, subscribers on the platform have grown from 30,000 to 220,000, he said.
When should you launch a podcast?
“I’ll tell you when a publisher shouldn’t enter the podcast space, which is when they fancy doing a podcast because they think it’ll be cool,” said Stone, adding this risks it becoming a “hobby project”.
When a publisher has enough trust and engagement with its audience, he added, a podcast is a “good asset” to introduce to drive paid subscriber growth.
“The more time a listener spends with you, the more trust they build, and therefore the higher their propensity to part with their cash and become a paying subscriber.”
How can news publishers stand out in a busy market?
“You’ve got to have a really clear idea of why your podcast needs to exist,” said Stone.
Publishers need to identify their target audience and their needs and consider how their journalists can help their podcast stand out with unique takes and experiences.
“Commodified news roundups – they’re ten-a-penny, they’re easy to produce. You’re not going to generate a lot of listener loyalty for those,” he said. “Things like incisive reporting or insider takes – all of those are pretty much done… it’s got to be different.”
“Competitor analysis” is also important, said Stone: “Find out what your audience aren’t already getting elsewhere, and what’s the combination that you can bring that helps to distinguish you.”
How can a publisher convert newsletter subscribers or social followers into podcast listeners?
Different audiences need to be treated differently, said Stone.
“Do you want to convert all of those into podcast listeners? Because where does the podcast exist on your user journey?” he asked. He added that users discovering publishers on social platforms tend to be at a “very early stage of their user journey” with a publisher.
“Your task with those people is to deepen the relationship. So podcasts are a good step for that,” he said. Stone added that getting social users to move platforms is challenging as “they’re not necessarily going to then become website readers or podcast listeners or newsletter subscribers unless they have built a level of trust with you”.
A social strategy therefore needs to combine high-reach content (often video) and content that engages a core audience more frequently, then use social content to promote a podcast.
The relationship between podcasts and newsletters can also work in the opposite direction, Stone said, as podcast listeners may be more likely to become newsletter subscribers.
“Your podcast is better at building trust for free to a point where people are willing to take the next step, which is commitment, to give you their email address and join your mailing list,” he said.
How can a publisher retain a podcast audience?
“Discovery is just the first step, and that’s where the marketing comes in,” said Stone. “The next step is engagement, and that means finding the answer to the question: How long are people spending with us, and how frequently are they interacting with us through our podcast?”
Analytics from podcast platforms and Youtube can help publishers understand consumption and drop-off rates, he said, which are “established methods for building listener engagement”.
Stone added that the beginning of a podcast episode having a “tight hook” is important.
“The top 30 seconds need to be the most engaging part of the podcast,” he said. Beyond this, telling an interesting story is key to retention.
Stone pointed to analytics tool Episode IQ that can help publishers assess audience engagement and episode duration. One metric publishers should avoid is downloads, he added.
“Downloads are a discovery metric. All the download tells you is that somebody has a device that has downloaded your episode. It doesn’t mean that person has listened to that episode.”
How can publishers best market their podcast?
Stone created The Podcast Marketing Map in 2025 to help publishers promote their shows to their existing audiences.
“As a publisher, you have an unfair advantage in driving people to become podcast listeners because you’ve got already really strong owned media presence,” he said.
“If you’re a massive international news publisher and you’ve got loads of people coming to your website, then that’s some really good owned media space that you can exploit. If you’ve got a big newsletter following, then you should be promoting it on your newsletter… each publisher will have a slightly different makeup, but it’s basically like where’s your existing audience?”
How can publishers make money from podcasts?
Most publishers think of advertising and sponsorships when approaching podcast monetisation, said Stone.
“It’s the easiest to turn on, but it’s the lowest return,” he said.
A more lucrative option can be multi-platform partnerships, where advertisers buy exposure across podcasts and other platforms. Memberships are also a great way to monetise podcasts, he said.
“Places like Goalhanger have proven that this works really well for podcasts, not least because podcasts connect you very closely to a parasocial relationship with the host.”
Sky News is also launching paid memberships for its podcast s, a move that “requires a shift away from thinking about memberships or subscriptions to your masthead, and more about building that show-based approach”, Stone said.
Live events also offer opportunities to grow revenue through ticket sales and sponsorship.
“I think the success of Crosswires in Sheffield shows that – they had 50,000 people in Sheffield for their live podcast event across 11 stages ,” he said.
At the higher end of investment, intellectual property is an opportunity that’s also lucrative, said Stone, pointing to The Observer’s success in selling their podcast content to Netflix for adapting.
What investment is needed to see returns in podcasts?
Publishers often make the mistake of underinvesting in resources, alongside underthinking the strategy, said Stone.
“I think if you get the strategy right from the outset, and you put together a strong business case for it… then it makes the investment question a lot easier because you can predict what the return is going to be, and then you can scale your investment accordingly.”
Stone added that publishers hosting an always-on weekly show “probably need at least one full-time producer”, and an investment plan should also consider recording equipment, a recording space, distribution and marketing costs and time spent on marketing.
What is the biggest mistake a publisher can make in podcasts?
“It’s basically like not knowing what your podcast is for, not knowing who it is for. I think the who is probably the thing that most people get wrong,” Stone said.
“You have to closely define who your audience is, what they need, where they congregate, and what you can uniquely serve them with.”
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