Always innovating: Private Eye’s podcast at 10
Ten years on, and we’re still pushing our clients to bigger and more ambitious work, as MD Matt Hill explains…
Last week, Private Eye hosted the annual Paul Foot Award, where six shortlisted journalists from across the country come together to find out who has won the coveted prize.
In past years, we’ve recorded interviews on the night and presented a fun, ‘live’ podcast with lots of audience chatter to give a sense of ocassion. But this year we turned the fortnightly podcast into a daily show, with each nominee given 10-15mins to explain their (often complex) story.
MD Matt Hill and Senior Producer Ollie Peart, at Private Eye’s offices in Soho.
This allowed us to build momentum for the ceremony itself (a trick we picked up working with BAFTA) and create anticipation and noise ahead of the result.
We also filmed the interviews and, taking advantage of a new social media role at the ‘Eye, worked with the team to publish across X and YouTube (where the Eye’s social presence is strongest).
The feedback from listeners was fantastic - and one Eye reader’s praise even warranted inclusion in the Letters section of the magazine this week.
Number Crunching
650k views on X, 40k views on YouTube
500% increase in listenership across the mini-series
Peaked at #12 (Apple Podcasts) & #19 (Spotify) in News category
““No need for a Rethink with Matt Hill and Co’s work on the Private Eye podcast, they are brilliant””