Majority of UK publishers ‘keen to offer podcasting’

A third of UK publishers have already launched podcasting services, according to new research, while half of those surveyed plan to do so in the next 12 months.

The survey was carried out by the UK Association of Online Publishers. Karl Schneider, chair of the AOP Content Trends Working Group and editorial development director at Reed Business Information, says: “It’s still early days, but the large audiences already being attracted by the top podcasters show there is an appetite for this content. The challenge now for publishers is to sort out how to make money from podcasting.”

Podcasting is potentially big business – Ricky Gervais’s podcast, carried on the Guardian Unlimited website, has been downloaded more than 2 million times since its launch in December and has topped the iTunes charts in both the UK and the US.

Only 13 per cent of the survey sample said their companies would not be experimenting with podcasting. They cited factors such as the perceived cost of entry, a lack of relevant skills within the business and the lack of a clear business model as the main reasons why.

The AOP represents 160 publishing companies including newspaper and magazine publishing, television and radio broadcasting, and pure online media. Together they publish about 1,150 products, attracting more than 5 billion page impressions each month.