Listener Supported Political Podcasting with Jen Briney

Jen Briney is a trailblazer in crowdfunding podcast journalism. During this episode, we talk about what actually goes into producing an episode of Congressional Dish, and discuss downloads, listener-based financial models, what it’s like to get bad reviews, and how you can grow a big audience by focusing on creating solid content.   Main Questions Asked: When did you introduce the Listener Contribution Model? Talk about the behind the scenes production work on Congressional Dish. Do you mingle with the other podcasters in your category on iTunes, or just focus on your own thing?   Key Lessons Learned: Congressional Dish Podcast The first episode released in Sept 2012. Congressional Dish involves reading and outlining a bill. It is entertaining, educational, and has opinion. The show has two episodes per month, and Jen does all her interviews in one week.  The research alone takes a solid week. The show is high in the Government category on iTunes, but Jen doesn’t feel as though she is in the political clique. Jen will fire at certain people for job-related scandals but not personal scandals.   The Funding Model The show is an advertising-free space and makes money from listener contribution.   Show Notes & Outsourcing The show notes are the most valuable part of the show, as there are links to actual provisions. Jen hired an audio engineer to edit the show, which saves her a day of work.   Download Stats After 30 days, if your episode has 165 downloads, you are doing better than 50% of the podcasts on iTunes. Congressional Dish garners 10,000 downloads per episode.   Marketing It’s good to market your podcast from the beginning, but don’t let it replace quality content.   Point of Difference So many podcasts are using the same ‘recipe’ and same questions. Be different.   Journalism & Journalists There are a lot of people who call themselves journalists but are actually pundits. The question is, ‘Are you delivering information or opinion?’ Congressional Dish also has opinion and slant, but the information is always backed up rather than made up.   Resources: Congressional Dish Electoral College Episode Horse Radio Network Walking Deadcast Heather Havenwood: The Win The Ladygang   Live Webinar:  Text ‘rock’ 72000 Jessicarhodes.biz/webinar   Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio! The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic