The Northern Miner publication has been one of the single most reliable sources of mining industry news for more than 100 years. Although the paper was originally intended to report on developments out of Northern Ontario, this news organization now delivers stories from all corners of the mining and exploring world.
Beyond their website and the publication’s reporting staff sharing much of the content on social media, The Northern Miner has been relatively “traditional” in its delivery. It wasn’t until earlier this spring when the paper tried something new: a podcast.
“It’s been interesting to get the feedback from some people from our parent’s generation, saying it’s a really cool idea and they never would have thought to do that,” said Matthew Keevil, the podcast’s host and Northern Miner reporter, during a recent conversation with Clear Creek Digital.
The Northern Miner recently released its 37th podcast episode.
Keevil went on to explain that he now receives word that many executives with 30-years experience in the mining industry now listen to the podcast as they are driving to work. “Podcasting is so huge,” Keevil went on to say, “but for our industry it’s just new.”
Libsyn, one of the most recognizable platforms for podcast hosting, reported 3.3-billion podcast download requests in 2015. And in the United States, more than a fifth of Internet users over the age of 12 reported listening to at least one podcast in the past month. Fortunately for Keevil and his colleagues, The Northern Miner is the most prominent mining podcast on the market, if not the only one.
“We’ve always delivered good content,” says Keevil, “but the overall need now is to deliver content in as many ways possible. And because people can choose to watch or read content in any way they want now, we just want to give our readership the opportunity to consume the content in the way they prefer.”
Keevil and The Northern Miner offer the entire mining industry and its communities much to learn by this. We, as a global audience, are given options in how to receive and digest news content and information. What must be understood, however, is that each medium provides diverse contexts into each audience. For example, a mining engineer using Facebook will have a much different mentality during the experience than when the same individual visits Instagram.
In The Northern Miner’s case, a listener of the podcast will have a much different engagement sensory than when physically reading the publication. At the same time, the podcast is providing an opportunity to cross-promote deeper content within the publication, where revenue continues to be generated within a changing global media landscape.
“The podcast is a way for us to be out there. You don’t have to pay for the material, so it’s not as in-depth as some of the things you will see in the paper. But it’s a nice way to for us to potentially reach new generations in a way that is more sustainable.”
And The Northern Miner is not simply settled with the podcast being their only new medium offered. Keevil mentioned utilizing more video work in 2017 and incorporating that content with the company’s YouTube channel. We look forward to that content and will be sharing those videos throughout the year on our Twitter account.
Listen to a portion of our conversation with Matt Keevil as we discuss the need for personality, mining adopting new media in a traditional industry, and the new fame he has found since launching the podcast.