The Courier launches pioneering daily audio news briefing

DC Thomson news brand The Courier has launched what it believes to be a first for a UK regional news brand: a daily audio news briefing.

Created in-house by the company’s audio visual team working alongside the title’s journalists, The Courier Daily gives listeners an insiders’ account of Dundee, Fife, Perth and Angus’s most important local stories.

Hosted by Courier journalists Clare Johnston (pictured), Maria Gran and Kate Brown, each five-minute briefing goes behind the headlines, delving into issues affecting local communities, from the latest crime and court stories, newest restaurant openings, as well as investigations being carried out by the title’s reporters.

New episodes are available every weekday and are available free of charge on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and most other podcast services.

The daily briefing is the latest innovation from The Courier as it continues to expand the ways it can connect with and serve its local communities. Recently, the news brand launched its first video documentary and for the 2022 local elections it took a novel approach to hustings by crowdsourcing questions for candidates and packaging up filmed/audio content for The Courier’s channels.

Analysis to develop the concept for The Courier Daily was carried out by DC Thomson’s IDA (insight, data and audience) team. It conducted detailed research on various aspects of the podcast including format, content, topics, frequency and timing. Amongst the findings was a keenness for ‘truly local’ content supporting The Courier’s ‘Local Matters’ ethos.

Mark Asquith, Head of Audio Visual at DC Thomson, said: “Audio journalism has undergone a revolution over the past few years and The Courier Daily puts us at the forefront of this changing world. On-demand audio such as podcasts are now an essential part of any newsroom’s story telling arsenal.

“The Courier Daily news briefing, produced by the Audio Visual team at DC Thomson, offers us another way to become a fantastic source of reliable news for our local communities. Every weekday we’ll be sharing a mix of news and feature stories from across our newsrooms to inform, educate and hopefully entertain.”

The Courier Daily’s first episode can be found here and on most podcast providers. Hear from The Courier’s editor David Clegg about the podcast in the video below: