The popular DecodeDC podcast is now a crucial part of the E.W. Scripps Co.'s efforts to push to its D.C. bureau into the world of daily - and digital - political reporting.
Scripps acquired DecodeDC for an undisclosed sum in October and announced the sale earlier this month. The purchase is an interesting move given that podcasts are far from a sure financial bet. But bureau chief Ellen Weiss says DecodeDC is about a lot more than audio - it's what she calls "the starter sauce" for the kind of political coverage she wants the bureau to produce every day.
"It wasn't just buying a podcast," says Weiss, who joined the company earlier this year. "I liked where [DecodeDC] was heading … the perspective, the focus and the frame."Earlier this month, Scripps announced plans to fold its 96-year-old year old wire service at the end of the year. The D.C. bureau will be reorganized; instead of filing print copy, it will produce content - much of it under the DecodeDC brand - for digital products in 26 Scripps newspaper and TV markets.
Former NPR reporter Andrea Seabrook launched DecodeDC in 2012 by raising more than $100,000 through Kickstarter. Her goal, according to the DecodeDC website, was to "break through the stale right/left political narrative and engage people in the search for solutions."As part of the sale, Seabrook will serve as anchor and senior editor of DecodeDC content. In an online statement, Seabrook says she was "thrilled" by the sale and what it meant for the future of political journalism.
"It has always been my goal to cover Washington in a fresh new way, leaving behind the tired old cliches of political news," she says. "Scripps believes in that vision too."DecodeDC will continue to appear on iTunes, Stitcher and other podcast platforms, and will also be distributed to Scripps newsrooms across the country. The details of that distribution system remain unclear, but Weiss hopes to have something in place by the first quarter of 2014.
Before then, she has to hire seven multimedia journalists who will be tasked with DecodeDC content that's appropriate for television, the Web and print. Also part of the project: All Scripps properties are migrating to a single content management system, one that will allow easier distribution of content.
The new digital focus doesn't mean the bureau will abandon Scripps' ongoing focus on investigative journalism. Weiss expects DecodeDC to act as a companion to the kind of long-term investigative projects Scripps journalists have produced for years.
"You need to be relevant in people's lives on a regular basis," she says. "I have always felt that the daily is necessary for our ability to build a following for the investigative work."