Podcast perfection: Businessweek podcasts

Businessweek.com has one of the best podcasts in the world right now. Just check out the 5 star ratings on iTunes.

I've a couple of hundred BW podcasts in my iPod that I listen every time I commute to work. So much so that the time I spend listening to these podcasts is more than that of what I spend on music.

What makes these podcasts work is because they have personalities. They are character based. The same reason that made the Mr Brown Show podcasts so popular.

Let me take my favourite podcast title of all, Behind The Cover (BTC). BTC is a weekly podcast that takes readers behind the scenes of the cover story. Chief executive editor John Byrne talks with the writer/s who wrote the cover story.

Each podcast is about 10 to 20 minutes. The discussion will touch on how they approach the story and their personal opinion on the topics. You literally go behind the scenes with the writers. You get to know how they tackle their stories. What difficulties they have to surmount and things that they wanted to put on the magazine but can't because of space. Each week, different writers will talk on the podcast, bringing with their their personality on air.

At the end of the podcast, you'll get a clear picture of what happens behind all the story gathering to make up what you see on the magazine. Although you'll probably never see these people in real life, but after the podcast, you will feel as though you have met them.

BW has managed, through the podcast, to break down the barrier of mystery that surrounds the news making industry. But that's not to say that they reveal all the secrets of their trade. But other media companies can definitely learn something useful from them.