Football, murder, politics and food: The local newsroom podcast winners

Podcasts hosted by journalists in regional newsrooms around the UK were among the winners at the Publisher Podcast Awards this week.

Leading the charge was The Scotsman, which picked up three awards — two for its foodie podcast Scran, one for political podcast The Steamie — while parent company National World’s podcast producer Kelly Crichton was named podcast hero of the year.

Judges said Scran was “rich and inviting, with really interesting food and drink insights. The data is undeniable, a cracking podcast.”

The Steamie, meanwhile, was described as “a very focussed podcast with a strong newsletter tie-in and general integration with the reporting team. Exactly what a publisher podcast should do.”

Celebrating Kelly’s win, judges said: “She singlehandedly oversees four regular podcasts as well as other limited series every year.

“In most of these cases she produces and edits these podcasts in addition to hosting two of them.

“Kelly is tireless in her endeavours to promote podcasting across the company and beyond. Despite being a team of one, she has managed to produce award-winning content as well as producing an important and striking documentary, Tainted Blood which aired on Irish National Radio, Newstalk, last summer.”

Kelly said: “The Publisher Podcast Awards see publishers from all over the world enter these awards with winners often having significant production teams and budgets — that we are competing with these and coming out on top is testament to the hard work that goes into them and our commitment to quality content.”

Also shortlisted for the hero award was Hannah Jones, audience and content director for community website InYourArea, and Will Hayward, Wales Affairs Editor at WalesOnline.

In the sports podcast of the year category, Claret and Blue, the Aston Villa podcast from BirminghamLive, was named winner, seeing off competition from across multiple sports and many national brands.

In the last 12 months, the podcast has expanded into video with its own YouTube channel, as well as hosting live events. It is hosted by Dan Rolinson, Mat Kendrick & John Townley of BirminghamLive.

Best podcast launch went to the Press and Journal’s Vanished podcast, which was a deep-dive series into the disappearance and murder of Arlene Fraser.