Managing Podcast Editor Duties

1. First and foremost the MPE’s duty is to ensure the podcast staff’s well-being

1. Make sure to regularly check in with the staff to make sure they are engaged, not burned out, and feel a part of the section and wider Daily community

2. Review and approve podcast episodes for publication

1. It helps to split up who will review each of the different podcast the Daily produces

3. Attend events for management of The Daily such as MDesk and Story meetings

1. MDesk: Weekly meetings for Daily managing editors and senior editors to go over information, share ideas, make decisions, etc.
2. Story Meetings: Nightly meetings Sunday-Thursday to go over what content each section is working on.

1. As podcast is on a different production schedule from other sections check in with the EIC and DME about what your attendance schedule for these meetings should be

4. Advocate for Pod at every opportunity to get more resources, more attention, and greater integration into the Daily
5. Alert staff to payroll

1. We want the staff to be paid for their hard work

6. Make important announcements such as days off
7. Arrange bonding activities
8. Work with recruitment chairs to recruit new members of the podcast team

1. Integrate new members into the team

9. Attend Daily Elections on behalf of Pod and write up a section quiz for MEs

1. Section quiz is a 5 question quiz about general pod info to test that the EIC candidate is knowledgeable about our section
2. Past quiz linked here

10. Write weekly TWATD blurb for the pod section
11. Identify issues or things to improve and come up with ideas and solutions
12. Work with other sections or people who might want to start podcast and work with them through the process
13. Organize elections and transitions at the end of your term

Producing Episodes*

1. Schedule a production meeting with the staff to pitch ideas and layout the vision for the next episode
2. Before the production meeting, start an episode file in the drive and create a planning doc.
3. Browse The Daily Website to familiarize yourself with trending topics and jot down a couple ideas in the doc
4. At the planning meeting facilitate a conversation about what the episode will be

1. The goal is to find something that:

1. The staff is passionate about

1. Try to make sure that everyone is involved in the conversation, don’t be afraid to call on someone if they are a little quiet and integrate them into the conversation

2. Is timely/relevant (remember the pod typically gets published a couple weeks after the event so you want to find an event that has a long shelf life)
3. Important
4. In the words of Doug McClure “that podcast can provide its own unique take on”

5. For an 1 hr production meeting I try to keep choosing the subject to the first 30 minutes, then spend the second 30 minutes outlining possible interviews, assigning roles, and laying out deadlines
6. Outline the structure for the episode such as

1. Format: Interview vs roundtable vs others
2. How many segments will there be
3. Roles: who will do each segment
4. Tentative order of the segments

7. Layout tentative deadlines for production, but be flexible to change
8. Over the course of the production keep tabs on how production checking in on different staff segments and troubleshooting any issues
9. To access studio recording equipment and zooms see below
10. It might help to sit in on some interviews or aspects of production at the beginning especially with less experienced staff members or pair them with more experienced staff
11. Once recordings are done, assign people to edit the audio

1. Make sure to have a way to keep the audio organized
2. Make sure to always have at least copies of the original audio

12. Once the different segments have been cut, the EP and/or MPE take on the final edit

1. More below

13. Once the final edit has been completed, assign an audio engineer to mix and master the episode
14. Once everything is completed share the episode with The Daily’s Digital Managing Editor for review
15. Once review is completed and any issues are resolved the episode can be published

1. Uploading instructions below

*subject to change and adjustment

Accessing Podcasting Equipment

1. Go into multimedia room (i.e. podcast studio)
2. On back wall there is a lockpad with the key to the podcast storage locker inside
3. Code to lockpad is the room number
4. Take key with Pod key tag
5. The Pod locker is on the left back wall of the room
6. Unlock locker to access equipment
7. Make sure to keep track of equipment, especially zooms when they leave the building

1. It can help to have a sign out sheet

8. Return equipment to locker and try to keep it organized
9. Make sure to lock the locker and return key to lockpad

1. Close lockpad and scramble numbers

10. Passcode to computers in the multimedia room: sweetlock39!

Final Edit

1. Organize all the segments into one Garageband file

1. Typically wav or mp3 files are most compatible with Garageband
2. For help converting files talk with the audio engineer

2. Before making any edits listen through to get an understanding of the flow of the episode

1. Make notes as you listen

3. Go back through and make any edits

1. This can be shortening some parts or lengthening others, cutting out awkward silences or interruptions or mouth sounds or clicks

4. The typical TDW podcast lasts about 15-30 minutes as we know listeners are typically busy so we want to produce episodes that will keep them hooked and provide important information concisely

1. The traditional goal has been to keep segment lengths to a maximum of 10-12 minutes in order to maintain listeners attention

5. Insert theme song at beginning of episode after introduction
6. Once final edit is completed save the Garageband file and compress it, upload to the drive and let the audio engineer know that it is ready for mastering

Uploading Episodes

1. Save final cut of episode as an MP3
2. Go to Anchor.fm
3. Current login info

1. Username: ​​gsill@umich.edu

1. You can change this in the account settings section

2. Password: [Securely receive the password from the Big 3]

4. Click new episode
5. Upload MP3 file of episode
6. Click save episode
7. Put in episode title and episode description

1. For the episode description, I typically use the last line of the intro where we provide the summary of what the episode will feature

8. Click publish

1. The episode should appear on spotify within 30 minutes-1 hour.

We are currently only able to get our episode to appear on Spotify due to issues switching over the RSS feed from our old podcast publishing service to Anchor and having it publish in the same feed to other services. One thing that I wasn’t able to do during my time as MPE was contact the other streaming services and try to get that worked out. My apologies.

Publish Episodes to TMD Site

1. Go to https://www.michigandaily.com/wp-login.php
2. Click on Forgot my password and reset your password to something secure

1. Username: podeditors@michigandaily.com

3. Go to Post → Add New Post
4. For title it should be “[Show title]: episode title”

1. For example: The Daily Weekly: The Michigan Marriage Pact

5. In the “Type / Add a block section” click the + sign in the black box

1. There should then appear a menu of things to add to the article
2. Click the spotify logo
3. Paste url of episode into the Spotify box
4. The episode should then be embedded into the article

6. Then type out the episode summary. I typically copy and paste the Anchor summary.
7. Then scroll down to the SEO portion. This portion is for helping improve Michigan Daily rankings in google search results

1. In Focus Keyphrase put a couple words about what the episode is about. Think what people would search for the episode or topic to come up

1. For example “michigan marriage pact” or “schlissel resignation”

2. In meta description copy and paste the summary you wrote up earlier

8. On the right side of the page you’ll see a menu. Click Post
9. Look for author

1. Check to make sure the author is Michigan Daily Podcast Section
2. If it’s not search for it in the search BAR and click on it

10. Then scroll down to categories

1. In categories search for multimedia and click the check box
2. Then search for podcast and click the check box.
3. Under primary category select multimedia

11. Scroll down to set featured image

1. Click the grey box
2. In media library search the show title
3. The shows logo should appear
4. Click on it and then click set featured image

Monitoring Podcast Listener Stats

1. Go to https://podcasters.spotify.com/
2. Login

1. Username: gsill@umich.edu

1. You can change username in the user settings

2. Password: [Securely receive the password from the Big 3]

3. Click Catalog → The Daily Weekly
4. Look at various stats on listenership
5. Can help you identify which episodes do well, identify marketing opportunities, and possible monetization in the future