EXCLUSIVE: Inside Tapt Media's three-a-day news podcast push

A four-minute news bulletin can tell listeners what happened. But Josh Bryant wanted more time not only to tell the news, but to delve a little bit deeper behind the headlines.

That was the starting point for The Summary, Tapt Media’s new daily news podcast, which draws on the newsrooms of 2GB, 3AW, 4BC and 6PR for three episodes each weekday.

Short headline updates arrive at breakfast and in the evening. Between them sits a 10- to 15-minute lunchtime discussion, hosted by Bryant and featuring two interviews on one topical issue.

The format gives the journalists behind those bulletins another outlet for their reporting, and listeners a chance to hear more of the story.

Finding room for the questions

Bryant said the team considered expanding on a traditional news format but wanted to create something that was “giving something different to people”. That led to the Lunchtime Deeper Dive, which “gives us a chance to unpack a story in a way that you can't in a four-minute news bulletin”.

The team then experimented with how that idea would work in the feed.

“So once we landed on that, then we were experimenting with the format a bit, and that's where we landed on the product that we have now.”

The result is a podcast built around three points in the day. The breakfast episode provides a quick headline rundown; lunchtime gives one issue more attention; the evening update recaps the day and looks ahead to tomorrow.

Choosing the lunchtime subject and finding the people to discuss it happen at the same time. Bryant says the team follows the morning’s news, decides which questions need answering, and pursues interviews as the episode takes shape.

Sure, while availability can change the guest list, the deadline stays the same.

“We sort of know what the topic is going to be and what questions need to be answered by that topic, and then we find someone who can talk to it, and if we have to keep chopping and changing to pin someone down, we will.”

The work is already happening

For National News Director Clinton Maynard, lining up interviews against a moving news agenda is familiar territory.

“This is not foreign to us.”

Maynard, a radio veteran himself, said reporters already spend their days calling people, recording interviews, and turning those conversations into short audio pieces for the next bulletin. The podcast, he said, gives the organisation another way to use that reporting work.

“The 10-second grab in a radio news bulletin usually comes from an interview that goes for at least four minutes.”

That said, Maynard is quick to clarify that doesn't mean an existing interview automatically becomes the lunchtime episode. Instead, the discussion will go further, drawing on the interviewing work happening across the newsrooms and live programmes.

The practical challenge of securing someone who can speak about a developing story is one those teams already face throughout the day.

“When we're lining up interviews for bulletins, we're also asking these people, hey, can you jump on the phone later and have a chat about this issue? We'll be able to better utilise what we're already doing.

“Yes, it can be challenging, but that's what we've been doing, to be honest, in radio newsrooms, as you know, for decades.”

Taking the newsroom to another audience

Maynard sees daily news podcasting as an extension of the radio operation, with the potential to reach people beyond the four stations’ existing audiences.

“We're one of the few organisations that has the resources and the history to be able to do both.”

The bulletins and live coverage continue. The podcast gives listeners another way to hear the reporting, when they choose.

Maynard said the experience of producing frequent radio bulletins also supports the longer format.

“We're used to compiling news bulletins every half an hour. So to then be able to deliver a product that goes into a little bit more depth, but is available to listeners whenever they want to hear it. That's an extension effectively of what we've been doing for years.”

He said listeners have already shown a willingness to follow audio onto other platforms.

“Our listeners have adapted to modern technology really quickly. With podcasting, we can use that content that is proving so successful in a streaming sense.”

Three episodes a day, four newsrooms and more room to ask the next question. The Summary gives Tapt’s journalists another outlet and listeners more than the headlines.

And is AI doing any of the heavy lifting? Bryant’s answer is shorter than a news bulletin.

“It's all coming from us.”