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Corporate sponsored local news podcasts

by Mike Oplinger

Key Take Aways

  • Daily Brand Exposure: Sponsoring a local news podcast network offers companies a consistent platform to reach consumers daily, enhancing brand visibility.
  • Community Engagement: By supporting local news, businesses can strengthen their ties to the community, demonstrating commitment to local issues and fostering goodwill.
  • Cost-Effective Marketing: Investing in podcast sponsorship can be a simple and efficient way for companies to promote their brand with minimal effort and resources.

My September 2021 post was entitled Company branded podcasting network in that post I discussed how companies can leverage positive PR by associating their brand with ad-free podcasting.  This month I want to discuss a variation on that idea that mixes new technology with some older concepts.

I listen to a variety of podcasts, one show I listen to weekly is Podcasting 2.0 hosted by Adam Curry and Dave Jones, and on episode #190 while discussing ThisIsAflred.com with guest James Cridland, Adam talked about how the future of podcasting is local.  This got me thinking about the above-mentioned post and the other posts with a similar idea (linked below) and I thought I would expand on the original idea.

Corporate sponsored news

There was a time when basically every TV and radio show had a corporate sponsor, and you would hear “This program is brought to you by (brand name)”.  While not perfect, it was a system that worked, the media creators got paid, and the brand got basically no work advertising.  It’s the equivalent of automotive racing today, Tide isn’t there in the pit changing tires, they just write a check, slap a logo on the car, and occasionally write a press release.  This is what corporations sponsoring media could be, write a check and let someone else do the work of creating content.

Going local

The most well-known example of corporate sponsorship of TV news is of course the national news, because everyone saw that.  But even local news was sponsored at one time, it was just by local companies.  With podcasting the two concepts can be mixed, local news podcasts with national sponsors.  Companies could sponsor a state-by-state podcast news network and each state could have “bureaus” in the major cities.  These “bureaus” would basically be one or two freelance journalists who send in daily reports for their assigned region.  Then all those reports are put together by the main office within the state and release it as a state-wide news podcast.

So where does the company sponsorship come into this?  Well obviously they are paying the bills, but there would also be an advertisement upfront.  So you start your state’s news podcast and you hear “The Ohio New Network is sponsored by (company name) buy the all-new (product) at a location near you” and then the news starts to play and the listener gets 30 minutes of news about their home state.

This could be further expanded to a national level and the company could also sponsor a national bureau that would release a one-hour national news podcast that could both have its own reporters and pull from local podcasts for major events.  Of course, there would still be the “brought to you by” message at the start, and due to the length of the podcast maybe a 30-second reminder around the 30-minute mark.

Don’t think this would work?  Set aside the content and look at the structure of NPR, what I’m describing is basically their structure, local stations with a national bureau, except NPS is more focused on radio and appealing to a particular audience.  As long as the corporately sponsored podcast news network is allowed to remain unbiased and just report the facts then they could overtake any advantage NPR currently has.  NPR is slowly giving up on the podcast space (Inside the Crisis at NPR) and that means there is an opening for competitors to jump in and build a better product.

Considerations

Neutrality, the network must maintain a neutral standing when reporting the news.  To use a line from Dragnet “Just the facts, ma’am”. 

So what happens if a network is sponsored by Ford and the 2027 Pinto starts catching fire again?  The network should have full autonomy to report of the Pinto fires and present the fast to the public.  Not only will this make the network look good, but it will look better for Ford because they didn’t use their influence to suppress the news.  Will it be unpleasant to have the news network you sponsor reporting on your failures, of course.  But what will be even more unpleasant is being held to account for stifling that new agency when it could hurt you.  A company that weathers the storm and accepts the criticism can come out looking better than a company that suppresses the news and is caught trying to hide things.  Let’s face it, in this connected world the news is going to get out, you might as well not add fuel to the fire by trying to hide things.

Conclusion

A company sponsoring a local news podcast network could be a great way to get your brand out to consumers on a daily basis with a simple investment and very little work.  Plus sponsoring a network that is mandated to remain unbiased in this highly biased news landscape would be seen as doing good for the citizens, something that could be played up whenever the opportunity arises.

Looking for other ways to build positive Public Relations without using the standard methods?  Check out some of my previous posts on the subject linked below.

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