The Future of Funding Investigative Podcasts in Africa
And how do we bring in more African languages?
"There are incredibly exciting stories all over Africa, many of which would translate wonderfully as an investigative podcast," says Molly Jensen, CEO of Afripods. Afripods is an innovative, functional and user-friendly platform for podcasters, listeners, and advertisers focused on Africa (which happens to be the worlds fastest growing digital continent).
"With podcasting I believe that in order to accelerate funding we need to build the African podcasting ecosystem. And we can do this by getting more exposure globally as well as breaking down barriers to entry, specifically those surrounding technology," says Molly.
Tip 1# - Funding investigative podcasts
Afripods has an interesting goal and business model which should help with the funding of investigative podcasts across the continent.
"Afripods is building the largest library of African audio stories on the planet," says Molly. "Africans are natural orators and storytellers which is one of the most critical pillars of recorded history we currently have on the continent."
Afripods is positioning itself as "the home" of African podcasting not only on the continent, but also in the diaspora for those who want to listen to African stories. And the funding side? Well, Afripods is accepting pitches for investigative podcasts. They want to start with "Afripods Originals" which means they will fund a series from an independent producer much like Spotify does. It is a very exciting development and something that could really accelerate podcasting on the continent.
"We are currently based in Kenya," says Molly. "But in five years the company will have offices in multiple key markets on the continent."
But, according to Molly, it's likely that we will see news outlets step into podcasting by repurposing some of their research, content and journalism to create exciting investigative podcasts.
"I could imagine a few of the larger media companies and news outlets creating evergreen content to fit the podcasting format by making it available to live on their website for their audience to consume on demand when they want it," she says.
Molly reckons that true crime and "murder mysteries" in particular are the most likely target for growth in Africa.
"A murder mystery podcast gives listeners an adrenaline rush with every layer added to the story," she says. "And it intrigues people by giving them clues so they can try and solve it like they would a puzzle."
She says that having an area of doubt around the story results in "a compelling and captivating podcast" and creates, "a dialogue that leaves the audience wondering who did it or how could this have happened."
LISTEN NOW: Molly Jensen from Afripods recommends:
"A Country of Gamblers". It was released in July of 2021 and highlights the fascinating story of Kenya's SportPesa.
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Afripods
Tip 2# - Bring in more African languages
There is a serious lack of investigative podcasts in African languages.
"It's a no brainer that we need to have podcasts in all genres in African languages," says Molly. "We are a continent of 1.3B people, 54 countries and 1500+ languages. Everyday there is breaking news on the continent and most of it would be excellent in a podcasting format."
"Audio is the preferred medium for content here and in order to reach as many people as possible it would be wise to meet people where they are. In this case, I would hope we see podcasts in Sheng, Kiswahili, Amharic, Yoruba, Kinyarwandan, Arabic, Twi, Afrikaans, Lugandan," she says.
Afripods is currently working on a searching function so customers will be able to sort podcasts by language and also country. "Because it is our belief that Africa will be the largest podcasting market in the world," says Molly.
"I recently went to a podcast launch event here in Nairobi about a famous Kenyan freedom fighter, Pio Gama Pinto, that was initially recorded in Sheng (a dialect of Swahili) and put on YouTube with captions in English so I think we will soon be seeing either more translations or radio stations syndicating content to the podcasting medium in local dialect."
All the best,
Paul
If you'd like to chat more about podcasts you can just hit "reply" to this letter. I'd love to hear from you.
LISTEN NOW: Molly Jensen from Afripods recommends:
"A Country of Gamblers". It was released in July of 2021 and highlights the fascinating story of Kenya's SportPesa.
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Afripods