Welcome to an audio-led edition of Unmade. Today’s edition features the story of how Claire Kimball and Kate Watson grew The Squiz from a daily newsletter to a multi faceted brand via podcasting, with events now on the horizon.
Also in today’s post, the Unmade Index lifts from Tuesday’s low.
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‘We thought there would be an acquirer by now’: How The Squiz made an early pivot towards daily podcasts
This month The Squiz reaches its seven years in the market. Starting life as a daily, agenda-free catchup of the key developments, with a female skew, The Squiz surfed what was a US-led trend.
Later The Squiz expanded to a daily podcast - they believe it was Australia’s first - and then extended to Squiz Kids. More recently they launched new podcast Squiz News Club.
In an honest conversation, founders Claire Kimball and Kate Watson share their challenges and frustrations, including the difficulties of getting in front of media agencies, how they’d expected the business to go faster, how ‘curation’ is their favourite word, and why they’re planning to soon move into live events.
They also discuss their unconventional publishing backgrounds, with neither of them having been a journalist before starting The Squiz. Kimball had been head of communications at Woolworths and was a press secretary to former PM Tony Abbott. Watson had done sales roles for Bauer Media and Sky News Australia.
Unmade Index comes off the bottom
The Unmade Index recovered a little on Wednesday, rising by 0.4% from Tuesday’s all time low to land on 568.4 points.
The slight uplift in the index was helped by Nine, which grew by 1.23%. But Seven West Media lost even more ground, falling 2.44% to a share price of 20c.
On a day without clear direction, Ooh Media, IVE Group and Southern Cross Austereo all rose, while ARN Media, Enero and Sports Entertainment Group also went backwards.
Time to leave you to your Thursday. We’ll be back with more tomorrow.
Editing was courtesy of Abe’s Audio, the people to talk to about voiceovers, sound design and podcast production.
Message us: letters@unmade.media
Tim Burrowes
Publisher - Unmade
'The slog is relentless': Claire Kimball and Kate Watson on the marathon of email publishing