The Last Salmon launched

LastCast Media is delighted to announce the launch of its second original fly fishing podcast called The Last Salmon.

It’s a new podcast a new podcast set to inspire hope and solutions for a species in crisis.

Hosted by renowned actor, Jim Murray, and award-winning producer, Daire Whelan, The Last Salmon, offers hope and solutions to the tragic story that is unfolding for an iconic species - the wild Atlantic salmon.

Featuring a cast of experts, activists, scientists and anglers including:
- Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia
- Jasper Pääkkönen, actor & activist
- Elvar Friðriksson, Iceland Programme Director, North Atlantic Salmon Fund
- Paul Whitehouse, actor & activist
- John Bailey, author & angling consultant
- Alexandra Morton, salmon scientist & activist
- Dominic West, actor & activist
- David Summers, Tay Fisheries Board 
- Prof Philip McGinnity, research scientist
- Charles Clover, founder of The Blue Marine Foundation
- Simen Saetre, co-author of The New Fish
- Matt Harris, angler, activist & photographer
- Mikael Frödin, angler, guide & activist
- Glenn Nolan, marine scientist & oceanographer
- Ken Whelan, fisheries scientist

The first episode was released in March and Season 1 has been a huge success so far, being featured and highlighted by international brands such as Patagonia.

The Last Salmon joins Ireland on the Fly as part of LastCast Media’s growing suite of original podcasts and specific fly fishing content.

Listen and follow The Last Salmon on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

The League ends and the Championship begins

The National Football and Hurling Leagues may have finished but there’s no rest in the compressed GAA season with the Championship already kicking off.

The Throw-In GAA podcast, produced by LastCast Media, for Mediahuis Ireland, now consists of two shows - The Throw-In Hurling show and The Throw-In Football show.

Monaghan legend, Dick Clerkin, joins Will Slattery and a stable of Irish Independent journalists every Monday to discuss the main talking points from the weekend in Gaelic football, while for the hurling, Michael Verney is joined by two legends of the game, Eddie Brennan and John Mullane.

Whether you’re a hurling or football fan, for the best moments, incisive analysis and the important talking points of the day, listen and follow The Throw-In podcast.

Another hugely successful Left Wing Six nations

Sinéad Kissane, Cian Tracey and Rúaidhrí providing post-match analysis on The Left Wing.

While it was another Six Nations title for the Irish rugby team, it’s also been a hugely successful tournament for The Left Wing podcast.

Sponsored by Bank of Ireland, the show, produced by LastCast Media, features former Leinster, Ireland and Lions’ winger, Luke Fitzgerald, and has become the leading Irish rugby podcast.

In addition to Luke’s weekly deep dive, throughout the Six Nations there were, in addition, post-match shows recorded from the stadia with Sinéad Kissane, Rúaidhrí O’Connor and Cian Tracey giving listeners the hot-takes right after the final whistle.

Plus, there were weekly team news episodes in the days before the big games, and coupled with the video offering of the show on the Irish Independent’s YouTube channel, The Left Wing is going from strength to strength.

What will 2024 bring? Keep them coming back for more

We’ve heard plenty of bad news about lay-offs, cutbacks and ‘consolidation’ for podcasting in 2023, so will 2024 herald similar bad tidings or can the industry weather the storm, hunker down and come back out fighting?

Having worked in digital media since 2005 and produced my first podcasts in 2007/08, I’ve seen plenty of highs and lows. Ideas stream ahead, technology catches up, or technology streams ahead and the ideas catch up and there’s always some new developments on the horizon, some new ‘thing’ to catch people’s attentions and drive creators and investors to rush in.

AI of course is on everyone’s lips and having tested and trialled many of its capabilities from a production perspective, there is plenty that AI is doing to make production workflows faster and easier. It will be a case of trial and error as we go along but there’s no doubt that its capabilities will only develop over time.

Which leaves us focusing - as we always should be - on the content and the audience. Everyone and anyone it seems can present and produce a podcast - although more of the former and rather less of the latter is more evident - and while CPM rates are holding up, the ad money is either concentrating more in the big players, or spreading itself thinner across the wider spectrum of content now available.

Which brings me back to the audience. if you’re a traditional big news publisher, or a main stay digital publisher, your audience is there in front of you every day and the secret is now to serve them with podcasts that likewise reflect what they want and expect from your digital properties.

However, what works for websites, won’t cut it as podcasts. People want engaging presenters and speakers, experts who are passionate, enlivening and authentic - listeners want to feel part of the show and identify with the people and topics they’re listening to. Expertise in writing does not equate to expertise in talking.

But publishers shouldn’t be afraid of or shy away from what they do well, in covering the news, doing the actual reporting and being the feet on the ground. Audiences want to be taken there, not just in instant articles and MBMs, but in reactive shows, giving them immediacy and relevancy to the topics close to their hearts.

If you’re at a press conference, take your listeners there as soon as possible. If you’re covering an event as it’s happening bring the listeners to it, give them the taste of being with you and then provide the analysis and context.

Of course with news rolling on an ongoing basis it does mean producing more audio content than ever before but in the same way that digital sites do it, podcast shows should look to do it too. Give audiences a deeper dive 1-2 times a week but fill in the gaps around it as well. Keep them coming back for more.

Are weekly podcasts becoming outdated?

The rise of daily podcast shows continues and not just in news.

The New York Times The Daily podcast became a global leader in news shows when it launched, focusing on single current affairs topic in twenty minutes or so.

And it led the way in showing that there was a listener appetite for daily updates from their favourite podcasts.

Why wait a week if you can get your fix every single day?

The weekly show is nearly an anachronism these days.

People are becoming hooked on their podcast show feeds as much as their social media feeds and it’s a handy comparative example to make when pitching or producing shows for clients.

How many times do you check in on your social media feed during the day? How many times would a podcast follower like to check in on their podcast show feed if they could get new content from it?

With daily shows only running to 20 minutes or so, and with radio shows only expanding their podcast offering more and more, once a day or more is the obvious answer.

Just look at the appetite for rugby podcasts during the Rugby World Cup. The Left Wing, which LastCast Media produces for Mediahuis Ireland, along with the BBC, RTE and Off the Ball produced daily or nearly daily content whilst Ireland’s run in the World Cup continued.

And the public’s response? Each of these rugby shows were generally in the Top 10 not just of the sports charts but of the overall Apple and/or Spotify podcast charts as well.

With Ireland’s exit at the hands of New Zealand in the quarter-finals, Irish sports fans have moved on, but podcast publishers have not.

The horrific Ashling Murphy murder and its subsequent trial which started this week has seen the release of The Trial from Mail Metro Media and All Rise from Newstalk, daily podcasts focused on each’s day events from the courtroom and these podcasts are in the Top 10 of the overall podcast charts.

Then you also have the success of The Stand with Eamon Dunphy and Crimeworld with Nicola Tallant, that release episodes nearly every single day.

Podcasts are not radio though. They are more like specialist publishers, delving deep into the topics that have captured people’s attentions which require us to keep coming back for more.

Podcasts have become so immersed in our daily lives that weekly shows don’t cut it any more. The podcast feed has become akin to a social media one and the more you can keep people coming back, the more your show will keep riding high in the charts - factored as they are on momentum amongst other things - and the more your listeners will turn into fans.

It’s time to rethink your podcast feed and see how you can tweak and develop new content to be released beyond just your normal weekly broadcast date.

Rugby World Cup Fever

The beginning of the 2023 Rugby World Cup, and with it Ireland’s place as the number 1 ranked team in the world, has meant that hope and expectations are at an all-time high for the Irish public.

Could we actually be celebrating a World Cup winning Irish sports team come the end of October?

The Left Wing podcast, produced by LastCast Media, for Mediahuis Ireland, is releasing daily episodes for the duration of the tournament with the Irish Indo’s team of rugby writers over in France also joined by Luke Fitzgerald, Will Slattery and Jonathan Bradley in Ireland to bring team announcements, the latest news and the best post-match analysis.

Interest in rugby podcasts has soared in the build-up to the tournament and with it The Left Wing podcast is riding high in the charts on Apple and Spotify - and it’s not just the sports charts either, the Left Wing is hitting the Top 10 of the overall Apple and Spotify charts showing just how much interest there is in the show.

Listen and follow on Apple or Spotify and you’ll never miss a thing from the Rugby World Cup.

The Throw-In Hurling & Football Championship Podcasts

The Throw-In, the Irish Independent’s popular GAA podcast, is now being split into two separate shows with separate hurling and football episodes each week being produced by LastCast Media.

With so many talking points around the games, The Throw-In Hurling and The Throw-In Football shows will give the presenters and contributors more time each week to delve into and dissect the issues that GAA fans are talking about.

The Throw-In Hurling show is presented by Michael Verney with Kilkenny legend, Eddie Brennan, and Waterford legend, John Mullane, joining Michael each week to give their thoughts and provide plenty of frank and honest opinions.

The Throw-In Football show is presented by Will Slattery and he’s joined by Monaghan legend, Dick Clerkin, and GAA writers from the Irish Independent, including Donnchadh Boyle, Colm Keys, Conor McKeon and Frank Roche.

Each show is released on Monday lunchtime and you can listen and follow on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Commit 2 Lead

LastCast Media is delighted to be working with McNulty Performance once again producing digital audio content around Enda McNulty’s latest book, Commit 2 Lead, which was launched to a packed audience from the worlds of business, media and entertainment in the Mansion House this week.

It’s a book full of insights, wisdom and experience on how to first of all lead yourself before then looking to lead others.

Listen out in the near future for the audiobook and podcast series around Commit 2 Lead.

In the meantime, you can listen to previous podcast series from Enda here.

The CUBS Work Placement Experience Audio Series

The CUBS Work Placement Audio Series was produced by LastCast Media as a reference aid for UCC business students.

This is a digital audio resource series to help prepare CUBS students for their work placement experience.

In this series, CUBS graduates describe their preparation, success and the pitfalls to avoid. They also share some incredible insights that they developed during their time on work placement and speak about the networks that they have established.

Plus, you’ll hear from the placement managers themselves, discover what they’re looking for and what students will learn whilst on placement.

For more from the series go to:

https://www.cubsucc.com/the-cubs-work-placement-experience-audio-series/

Going to College 2022

The latest series of Going to College has been produced for Mediahuis Ireland and in association with QQI.

The series was presented by guidance counsellor and podcast host, Donnchadh O’Mahony, with episodes focused on the CAO and preparing for college life.

The Irish Independent’s YouTube channel was the main platform for this series which was recorded remotely.

You can view the episodes at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZwrrd9wOrk and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiRGZr4bGiU