The strategy behind the Economist's new audio product

The recent launch of Economist Radio also saw the news outlet introduce a new daily audio product.

In Other Words, which is available to download via the Economist Radio app and on the web, features daily curation of online blog posts in audio form, as well as podcasts.

The daily delivery is aimed largely at morning commuter traffic, although can be downloaded at any time by the user, as and when it works best for them.

"We schedule it to ideally be made available around the world for everybody, for broadly when they wake up, and available for them to ideally consume on the way into work," Neelay Patel, vice president of innovation at The Economist, told Journalism.co.uk.

First thing in the morning the "content should be on your device," he added, "and you'll be notified to tell you it's waiting for you.

So sometime between the time you wake up and the time you've arrived at work, we've given you a good, healthy opportunity to consume itNeelay Patel, The Economist

"So sometime between the time you wake up and the time you've arrived at work, we've given you a good, healthy opportunity to consume it."

He added that particularly for those driving into work, delivering content in an audio format is vital.

"There's very limited things you can do while driving when it comes to consuming content. Audio is broadly the one that jumps to mind at that point, so this felt like it might be an interesting fit there."

However, he added that audio is also a valuable, and convenient way to share content for people who commute by train, or walk into the office.

"It's generally hard to walk and read at the same time, so we thought this might be an interesting way to give our audience members what they need or what they want."

A curational approach

Given its daily scheduling, the programme's editorial content will "be as timely as we can make it", Patel said.

"Because it's a daily show it's something that we want to make sure is highly relevant at the point in which you're listening to it."

In the early stages each show will last around 20 to 25 minutes, although Patel added the team will "adjust it accordingly" as necessary.

In Other Words comes with a £2.49 monthly pricetag. It is worth noting that the majority of The Economist's blog posts already sit behind its online paywall, which offers one article a week for free, or three once readers have registered.

In Other Words curates around five stories per show, with a "generalist" approach to the agenda.

In a press release The Economist said In Other Words was introduced "following the success of its weekly audio edition" of the magazine, which it has been producing since 2007.

According to Patel, figures show more than one million articles from the magazine are listened to via the audio edition a month.

And while the news outlet has "basically mirrored the operations that we use for that process" to create In Other Words, Patel hopes to adopt "much more of a relaxed delivery" in time with the new product, which he thinks may appeal more to the "talk radio styling".

"We definitely want to lean more towards the relaxed conversational styling over time, as we can make it happen," he said.

"But we didn't want to jump to that step out of the gate, want to take it on a longer path based on feedback."

And for Economist Radio on the whole, the aim is to eventually introduce other radio programmes, some of which may "cover specific subject matters".

"We'll go down that path when the time comes," he said, "if we feel there's a need for it, if there's a want for it".

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