Daily Telegraph starts podcasting

A new mainstream media entrant into podcasting - The Daily Telegraph today launched the first of its new daily podcasts.

The UK daily says that its podcast is a single audio download available each day, consisting of three key articles from the day's paper selected by the editor.

I listened to the first one, a 16-minute narration of three stories. Nicely done and I can see the potential appeal of a podcast of this type - on your morning commute, for instance.

This could be a good way in which a newspaper can develop a new channel to its readership, offering readers news and information in a new, different and convenient form. I think it would likely work well if the paper differentiated itself (ie, made its offering appealing) by getting across a flavour of its personality.

In other words, not someone just reading out the day's news - anyone can do that - but giving the listener some insight into the style and focus of the paper and of the journalist/presenter him or herself. If today's first podcast is any indicator, it looks like the Telegraph will be doing that.

It actually seems to me to be such a logical thing to do, I wonder why no other UK mainstream medium has yet done this.

If the Telegraph developed a blog as well, then that could get very interesting - blog/podcast combo to stimulate some kind of direct and interactive engagement with the readership. Given the paper's demographics, I'd be surprised if that wasn't in their thinking.

I did like the answer to one of the questions in the podcast FAQ:

Q: How much does it cost?
A: Unlike with other newspapers, Telegraph podcasts are completely free.

Apart from the Wall Street Journal, is any newspaper charging for its podcasts? I haven't seen any.

(Hat tip: Antony Mayfield)