Inside The LA Times's podcast strategy

The New York Times gets a lot of credit within the media industry for the blockbuster success of its podcast The Daily,  but The Los Angeles Times was also an early pioneer within the medium. Its narrative true crime podcast Dirty John generated over 30 million downloads and was adapted into a TV show for Bravo. The newspaper has since gone on to launch ambitious shows chronicling the criminal trial of Bill Cosby and the famous murders committed by Betty Broderick.

I recently interviewed Clint Schaff, VP of strategy and development, about the paper’s podcast productions. He walked me through how shows get made, their monetization strategy, and his views on selling IP to TV studios and Spotify.