Suno India gets the country listening to shakers, in many languages
The corona virus has been on a rampage in media houses in India, but it has also enabled media start-ups to grab unexpected opportunities by identifying niche markets and language-based news deserts, finds Laxmi Murthy.
Fewer movers, more shakers — that’s the principle of the drive by Suno India (“Listen up India” in Hindi) to replace the country’s podcast culture of bantering talk shows dominated by strong personalities with deeply reported narrative and story-telling in the under-served language Telugu as well as Hindi and English and a few special episodes in Tamil and Urdu.
“Very few had taken the leap into narrative or reported-narrative podcasts. No one had done a series based on a single topic. That’s the gap we wanted to fill and started off our launch podcast Dear Pari, India’s only podcast on adoption,” says DVL Padmapriya, co-founder and editorial lead of the podcast platform Suno India.
India lacks a tradition of news media using audio as a medium for reporting and journalism. Suno India grabbed the opportunity: they surveyed the market through secondary sources, and found that narrative gap. Merging their skills of journalism, policy advocacy and digital expertise, the three co-founders have gone on to build a vibrant platform for exclusive audio stories.
The outcome is Suno India, a multilingual and multi-generational podcast platform launched in 2018, based in Hyderabad and New Delhi, building the niche of “slow journalism” through its audio-stories.
After a couple of pilot shows in Hindi and Tamil around the elections, the editors identified a further niche in the Telugu language community — relatively under-served despite being the 11th most common global language, spoken by about 82 million people (more native speakers than, say, Korean or German), largely in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
“As a platform we believe in processing information slowly, synthesizing it thoroughly and only then putting it out,” says Padmapriya, explaining Suno India’s focus on topics such as tuberculosis, rare diseases, climate change, technology and governance. But COVID-19 changed the pace.
The small team of five (pictured above from left Kunika Balhotra; Vaishali Pandiyen; Padma Priya; Tarun Nirwan and Rakesh Kamal) geared up in response to work longer hours, pushed itself to respond more rapidly and ramped up its social media presence. It’s expanded its channels with, for example, flash cards on public health. The result has been incredible growth in the past two months, reaching the half million mark despite no resources for marketing.
Pandemic news they can use
After the first case was identified in the southern Indian state of Kerala, one of the first episodes on COVID in February featured a virologist involved with containing the Nipah virus outbreak in 2019. A few weeks later, when the novel coronavirus took over the news, Suno India quickly shifted gears, responding to the audience’s need for updated information. The team ramped up production across platforms but remained conscious of taking breaks and working in rotation to avoid burnout.
“We realised after the first ‘myth buster’ episode that we needed to produce more information-based content: fact-checking, discussing what exactly ‘social distancing’ means; asking whether social distancing really works for the poor; what role do private players have in the pandemic…” says Padmapriya.
Then came the lockdown, one of the most stringent in the world, which has already had a massive impact on rural communities. A farmer in Telangana explained the need for voice to Padmapriya: “If even 100 people listen to me talking about my harvest ruined because of the lockdown, I’m okay with it.”
Stories about the impact on migrant workers, fisherfolk and health workers mixed with informed critiques of the government’s approach allowed listeners to make up their own minds.
Audio was not the only way Suno India reached out. Partnering with Iranian artist Azam Masoumzadeh, the ‘Corona Flashcards’ in English, Telugu and Hindi were designed to give practical tips in the form of FAQs. “I think my neighbour has coronavirus, what should I do?” asks one. “Avoid contact but give them a smile”. The Telugu cards were printed out and put up as posters by listeners.
Their Cyber Democracy looked into privacy concerns over surveillance and contact tracing through Aarogya Setu, (literally, bridge to freedom from disease) the governments’ newly-launched controversial tracking app meant to track and contain the spread of COVID-19. With the increasing traffic toward online discussions during the lockdown, a webinar on cyber democracy was another popular way to reach audiences.
No movers, only shakers
“Our audience is the average middle-class person. We don’t know if farmers themselves are listening, but others are listening to farmers we feature on our episodes. Shaking people up and making them think about other communities, and what’s happening to others. This is what our show does,” says Padmapriya.
Children form another large chunk of listeners. Kathey cheppava Ammamma (“Tell me a story, grandmother”) a podcast of Telugu stories for children addressed a much-needed gap.
“Children’s stories in Telugu are outdated and we wanted to produce more contemporary stories. I wouldn’t want my own child to listen to those old stories,” says Padmapriya, who then got well-known Telugu writer Chamundeshwari (who happens to be her mother) to record stories she told her own granddaughter: A fish that fights a plastic whale, stories about trees and air pollution tell relatable stories about the world we live in.
The show has reached into the large Telugu-speaking diaspora in Singapore and the US who want their children to be raised with a familiarity with the language.
Regional canvas
Programming in Telugu, whether children’s stories or the news show Samacharam Sameekhsa hosted by Ayesha Minhaz show the demand for regional language media within India.
Samacharam Sameeksha, the news and analysis program about the two Telugu speaking states, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, was only a couple of episodes old in February when COVID-19 swept across India. The show crossed 60,000 listeners after just 11 episodes, confirming the need for information and news-led shows in regional languages.
For instance, an episode on busting myths about COVID and telling listeners clearly what precautions to take got tremendous response. It was downloaded and shared on the country’s social media of choice WhatsApp. A show on the impact of the outbreak on health workers was also a hit. “You’re one of the few Telugu channels that talks about what ASHA [ground-level women health workers] workers are going through,” commented one health worker.
Like much of new media, the team faced the challenge of verifying facts in the face of authorities reluctant to make statements on the record or even release official data.
An “Open Letter” by Padmapriya and Ayesha Minhaz on behalf of several reporters facing difficulties accessing information from state officials highlight the roadblocks from lack of information to misinformation and a poorly publicized chain of command. “The most critical need in such pandemics is to take the help of journalists to ensure timely and accurate information is available to the public–to allay fears while also conveying the seriousness of the issue at hand. This is an unprecedented situation for everyone, and it is time Telangana looks at best practices being used worldwide by the public health departments,” they wrote.
Showing a path in Tier 2 cities
Another gap is being filled by Suno India’s Hindi show Raah (Path), which offers career guidance aimed at 17–25 year olds, highlighting unusual career fields. It is particularly aimed at Tier 2 cities such as Indore Population about 2 million) and Allahabad (1.1 million). These smaller cities and towns lack the media consumption patterns of metropolises.
People writing in, thankful for opening their eyes to new possibilities showed the gap was just waiting to be filled. “What’s working for us is that listening doesn’t need literacy. Also that our files, smaller ones, just 10 MB, can be downloaded and shared on WhatsApp,” says Padmapriya, for whom it has been rewarding reaching out to a younger age group that is still trying to figure out their lives.
From bootstrapping to sustainability
The platform was launched with personal savings and contributions from well-wishers. A grant from the Independent and Public Spirited Media Foundation helped them scale up. Subscription and other models are being explored for long-term sustainability. The hope is to ultimately become a publicly-funded platform.
The COVID crisis has forced them to rejig budgets, and it has meant that the founders have taken pay cuts, while continuing to maintain payments to freelancers, especially those doing investigative pieces.
The good news is that the Suno India initiative resonates with journalists, who are willing to contribute to an effort they believe in, by hosting shows and sending in pitches. “We’ve built a nice community of journalists and that is expanding,” says Padmapriya. “Though the core is just the five of us, independent journalists who host our shows part time have fallen in love with the medium. I hardly have to tell them to do a story — they come to us with pitches.”
Laxmi Murthy is a journalist based in Bangalore.
