John Hirst, head of global content and podcasts with the UK’s Global Radio group, says that podcasting has the potential to “create new and lucrative revenue streams” for newspaper, radio and television businesses. Global Radio has over sixty stations throughout Great Britain, including syndicated brands Capital Radio, Classic FM and LBC, and purports to have generated over £1million sterling from its podcasting efforts.

In an interview with Business and Leadership.com, Hirst recounted the podcast-monetization timeline at Global Radio, which has been producing audio and video podcasts for the past four years. After spending a year in the planning stages, the group had £40,000 sterling in sales in the second year, and £450,000 sterling in year three. Podcast revenue “is growing significantly at present,” he said.

Hirst thinks podcasting as a revenue stream is not limited to radio. He sees other media –  publishers, “gadget” companies, and a variety of other industries jumping into creation of their own podcast content.

Generating revenue from podcasting will “depend on the company’s existing resources,” according to Hirst, such as transitioning newspaper advertisers into podcast show sponsors, for example, or creating “podcast element[s]” for clients’ ad campaigns.

Global Radio also sells listener subscriptions to some of its content: news and talk station LBC in London boasts five thousand subscribers at £2 per month. For that fee, subscribers get access to all the station’s podcasts. “But the subscriber model really only works for speech stations with a lot of original content. I don’t think that model really works with any other station,” Hirst says.

Global Radio is trying a wide range of different tactics to turn podcasting into a source of revenue, whether offering free (ad-supported) podcasts, custom podcast production for sponsor/clients, premium subscriptions, or driving more loyal (“engaged”) listener behavior by offering exclusive content.

The article is worth a read, and you can find it here.

What are others doing to turn their podcast series to a revenue source?

photo: “Retro Radio,” by Petroleum Jelliffe