Questions to consider before starting a podcast

Time and budget considerations

• What is your budget?
• Do you have recording equipment, microphones and editing software? If not, how much are you willing to spend?
• How much time can you devote to researching and recording your podcast?
• Who will produce and edit the podcast? Will you outsource that work, or do it yourself? If you are doing it, how much time can you devote to editing and producing?
• How will you market the podcast and grow the audience? Do you have a budget, time or staff to devote to marketing?

Type, style and audience considerations

• Who is your audience? Is this for stakeholders, faculty, students, alumni? A lay audience or academic/scientific audience?
• What is the primary focus/topic of your podcast, and what sets your podcast apart from every other podcast?
• What kind of podcast are you hoping to produce: an interview-style podcast with limited editing, a host-driven podcast with mostly the host personalities talking (think talk radio), a highly produced and/or scripted podcast, or an in-field documentary podcast with multiple interviews?
• Do you plan to release episodes daily, weekly, monthly or seasonally? Can you commit the time and resources to continue regular episodes for a year or more?
• What will you name the podcast? Have you done a search to ensure that there are no copyright infringement issues?
• Will you be posting to a website or pushing out to podcast platforms, or both?