Jennay Horn gives a tip about content editing

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Jennay Horn: Hi, I'm Jenny Horne.

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I'm the content director

for WeEdit Podcasts.

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And today I'm going to give you

a tip about content editing.

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I'm the content director for We Edit

Podcasts is a female founded full

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service podcast production agency.

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We pride ourselves on high quality audio

and video editing and on always giving

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our clients our best and having one of the

fastest turnaround times in the industry.

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As a content director in general, I

plan out and help execute the overall

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content strategy for the company.

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This includes writing blog posts for

our blog, the podcast digest, together

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with Carly we write the podcast

playbook and we provide our clients

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with scripting and content elements

as part of our custom launch packages.

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And then I also do content

edits for our clients.

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I started listening to podcasts

with one of my dearest friends.

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We were traveling in Italy and it

sounds very glamorous, but it was

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very much Under The Tuscan Sun

at the beginning of the movie.

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We would sit on the patio, build

puzzles that we got from charity stores

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and we'd listen to kind of what I

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classify as classic podcasts.

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So it was Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me,

This American Life and Invisibilia.

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And from there, I just

fell in love with podcasts.

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I love audio storytelling in general

and podcasts were just a natural um,

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next step for me in my adult life.

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So my background is teaching.

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I studied to teach high school and I

did that for quite a number of years.

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I live in quite a small town in

South Africa, so it was actually

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the school that I went to.

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So I taught there for a couple of years

while getting my degree and qualified.

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And then I started working

for a publishing company

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that publishes textbooks.

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So I started off editing textbooks and

then I was writing a couple of my own.

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And then this opportunity came in.

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So the writing side was always

something that I love to do.

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Another dear friend of mine was

working for We Edit Podcasts,

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and when a space opened up for

the content director, she said,

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'please, can I submit your CV?

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It's a fantastic company, great culture'.

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I sent in my CV, had an interview or

two, and then the rest is history.

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What I love about podcasting is

the intimacy of the audio medium.

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Radio, you know you're listening

with a bunch of other people.

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So that's sort of a communication outlet.

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Whereas podcasting, you're part of

the conversation and it's whatever

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your interests are, whether it's

fiction, whether it's crime, spam,

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scams, whatever it is, you get to

enjoy it and you get to be part of it.

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So my big tip is to always edit

with your audience in mind.

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And this can be controversial because

we know that podcasting sounds like a

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very relaxed sort of medium, but often

there's a lot of editing that goes

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behind the scenes to make sure that your

audience is always getting high quality

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content from you.

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So sometimes a question

doesn't go according to plan.

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It doesn't offer your audience what you

hoped it would, and it's okay to cut that.

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You want to make sure that your

episode is full of value from the

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first second to the last second.

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And taking that stuff out, as

long as it doesn't change the

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overall flow of the conversation,

totally okay to cut that out.

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Save it.

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Don't lose it.

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Content always can be used in bonus

episodes, extended episodes, but

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just edit with your audience in mind.

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You want to give them value.

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Sometimes a side note, a rabbit

hole doesn't give them what

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they need from your episode.

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So it's to kind of take yourself out

of the equation, think about your

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audience and do your editing from there.

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You can find me at LinkedIn and you

can find my links in the show notes.

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Thanks for listening to podcasting people.