InPublishing: Readly launches podcasts

The first phase is in collaboration with three British publishers whose podcasts in areas such as food, politics, celebrity and crime are available via the associated publication page on Readly.

From early June, readers can listen to 25 podcasts such as Today in Focus from Guardian News & Media, The TopGear Magazine Podcast from Immediate Media and The MoneyWeek Podcast from Future Publishing. The launch aims to meet the increased demand for podcast content, boost the use of Readly and give publishers greater value, says Readly.

Readly's pod player allows a publisher who has a podcast connected to their respective title to reach new listeners via Readly's app. Reading combined with listening strengthens a magazine brand and its relationship with the consumer, says Readly.

For Readly, this means that the service can be used more frequently as subscribers can easily discover and listen to content from their favourite magazine. The initiative also aims to reach new audiences that consume content in various formats.

“Our ambition is to strengthen the content experience at Readly and thereby broaden our target audience. Podcasts are a format we want to explore because of their increased popularity. Most people combine listening with other activities such as training, driving or cooking, which means that Readly can be used on more occasions. Publishers have also come a long way in their audio offering and we want Readly to become a great discovery tool for their popular podcasts to enhance engagement and audience reach at a global level. We look forward to learning more about how magazines and podcasts can complement each other as part of our strategic move into sound based services,” says Mats Brandt, CEO of Readly.

The roll out of the service will eventually include podcasts from additional countries and interest areas. There is also a focus on gathering user insights that will form the basis for further development of the service. In addition to qualitative customer surveys, Readly says it will collect data on listening time, number of episodes played, number of users listening, how it affects magazine reading and also how it affects retention and conversion.

Mats Brandt says: “As part of our increased pace of innovation, we iterate features based on user feedback and understanding of our customers. The data guides us and teaches us how different content formats can make Readly even more mobile friendly, enjoyable and create greater value for publishers.”

The podcast player is initially launched on iOS devices only.

Podcasts available on Readly from Future, Immediate Media and Guardian News & Media: