Often, podcasting is discussed in terms of its novelty - and how the format’s newness, in turn, can help stimulate change and growth in more legacy media formats: how can radio programmes, for instance, be powered up by the topics and tones of popular pods?

However, I thought it would be more useful - at least, in this conversation - to flip the script a bit.

Traditional media products have built a powerful foundation on which podcasts can grow - and this feels like a good space to tap into the various insights that have undergirded the production and distribution of powerful media products for many years.

So I’ve asked experts to share what they think are the key rules that podcasts should keep in mind - while the medium is revolutionary in many ways, where could more established learnings help the podcast industry grow? And not just from radio, but from TV and beyond!

The Editor

Krista Almanzan

John S. Knight Senior Journalism Fellow at Stanford University

“One of the great things about podcasts is they can be any length. The problem with that is it can discourage editing”

I can’t stress enough how important it is to have your work edited.

One of the great things about podcasts is they can be any length. The problem with that is it can discourage editing.

In traditional broadcast media you are forced to fit into very specific time slots, so in the editing process the producer or reporter has to let go of a lot of material they love.

It’s important that the editor is someone who is not otherwise heavily involved in the pre-production of the podcast.

They should represent the audience's ear, someone who is coming to the podcast fresh with little background, except maybe having listened to previous episodes.

Brad Hill

Editor of RAIN News

“If it weren’t for iTunes, Spotify, and smartphones, would we be talking about podcasts today?”

Radio’s linearity has been challenged by all types of on-demand, anyplace audio. But is radio also a mentor?

One admirable quality is the tightness and clock-awareness of radio.

Those are also disadvantages, of course, and podcasting relishes unstructured time. But time freedom can be time wasted, and podcasting can sometimes be faulted for rambling.

One reason NPR podcasts are so popular is that they grew out of a long radio tradition of disciplined storytelling. In contrast, commercial radio has an entirely different mode of spoken-word audio; music stations barely have any talk; and news stations are all-reportage, with almost no perspective.

Talk radio shows are all perspective, and therefore bear the most resemblance to podcasting.

I think podcasting has already taken and adapted the direct-to-you feeling of talk radio while removing the clock, loosening the atmosphere, broadening the topicality, and increasing the cast of characters.

Likewise, the resurgent post-2014 podcast industry owes a debt to digital music, which established on-demand and very inexpensive access to a global catalog of audio.

If it weren’t for iTunes, Spotify, and smartphones, would we be talking about podcasts today?

Gerard Edwards

Founder of UK-based Podcast Radio

“If you don’t give your listener a reason to fall in love with your content over and over, they will find content elsewhere.”

Radio teaches an important lesson: Listeners are hard to win, but easy to lose.

If you don’t give your listener a reason to fall in love with your content over and over, they will find content elsewhere.

There are other stations out there, other mediums to consume, and there is even a push for people to find zen and enjoy the silence!

Appreciate that your content is part of someone’s day - not something you put out with a scattergun approach.

Also, adapt and change as you go. Podcasting is different now than it was two years ago, and different again to how it was ten years ago. Too often, ‘specialists’ forget that industries adapt around them.

Podcasting will be different in another two years, so be ready and open to change.