New politics podcast unites experts from Northern titles as Laudable project goes live

Behind Local News
Nov 7 · 4 min read

Google-funded audio news project launches first podcast, The North Poll, as Northern media brands team up to cover #GE2019

Laudable, the Google News Initiative partnership between Reach plc and JPI Media has launched its first podcast, to coincide with the General Election.

The North Poll harnesses the combined expertise of political journalists from across the North of England, to cover the news, issues and debates across the key regions.

The first episode brought together Jen Williams, politics and investigations editor for the Manchester Evening News, Liam Thorp, political editor of the Liverpool Echo, and Geri Scott, Westminster Correspondent for the Yorkshire Post, along with Professor Andrew Russell, politics department head at Liverpool University.

The wide-ranging debate saw topics including key political battle areas, big city issues, heartland areas that are likely to be targeted, and how Westminster big beasts are faring when they go out on the campaign trail in some of the Northern towns.

There will be a regular weekly show in the run up to the election but also plans for shorter, ad hoc episodes that can be put out in response to breaking news or rising issues, to make sure the content is a fresh and relevant as possible, with contributors from across both Reach and JPI Media Northern titles appearing, alongside external guests.

Laudable is the Google funded initiative to bring audio news, shows and information to local and regional audiences

However, it wasn’t all plain sailing to get the first episode ‘Winter Is Coming’ out to listeners.

Laudable is currently being set up in three pilot newsrooms — Edinburgh Evening News, BirminghamLive and Manchester Evening News.

What listeners (hopefully) won’t realise is that as the Manchester studio is still very much under construction, and the MEN’s podcast producer doesn’t actually start his job until November 11, there was a slight element of ‘just make it work’ about the inaugural release for The North Poll.
The audio was recorded in the incomplete and yet-to-be sound-proofed new studio by a willing videographer on Monday, and then sent to Birmingham’s newly-appointed podcast producer, Matt Millard, to edit. He worked late into the evening to complete the edit so The North Poll could go live on Wednesday afternoon— ahead of the Thursday deadline.

Alison Gow, publisher of Laudable, said: “Our project’s milestones include a requirement to have created the first audio projects by December; coming out with some content ahead of schedule was always in the plan… just not quite as soon as this! The the election was the perfect opportunity to put the training and also the collaborative elements that are so much a part of Laudable, into practice and the commitment of Jen, Geri, Matt and Liam, among others, was absolutely fundamental in making this happen.

“It all felt a bit like when a massive story breaks and everyone in the newsroom tears up trees to provide the best coverage they can; except this time, we were planning and working in audio, which was a pretty new medium for some of the team. I am always so impressed by the commitment of our journalists, and to see how everyone pulled together and made this work, was quite something.”

Jeremy Clifford, editor-in-chief, JPI Media, said: “I’m delighted to see the first production from our new partnership on audio journalism.

We are developing new skills with our journalists and learning fast. Working in collaboration enables us to share good practice across our newsrooms.”


Laudable content from all the brands in JPI Media and Reach will be hosted and distributed by the third partner in the project, Entale. This immersive podcast app is currently available on iOS, and as part of the GNI funding an android app will be released very soon. But to make sure the content reaches as many people as possible, the podcast is also being embedded on all the relevant sites, such as this:

And it’s getting lots of promotion on social media, from brands and journalists too.

Laudable is funded with the aim of investigating how regional newsrooms can provide news, local content and serve niche communities with audio.
Among the shows due to release very soon are Walking The Line -BirminghamLive’s investigation into HS2, and the fears and hopes of the people and places around Birmingham where it will impact — and the Liverpool Echo Monopod, a (mostly) female-focused show offering straight talking, advice and bags of humour on the menopause.

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