GIJN offers podcasting course for reporters

Investigative podcasts are now a real newsroom format, not a side project. But the gap has been obvious for years — lots of reporters know how to chase documents and interviews, yet far fewer know how to turn that reporting into strong audio. GIJN is trying to close that gap with a podcasting masterclass inside its new Academy push. The session teaches reporters how to report, write, and produce an investigative podcast, with audio producer Susanne Reber leading the training. ### What exactly did GIJN put out? GIJN’s offering is a masterclass video called “Producing Investigative Podcasts.” It sits inside GIJN Academy, the organization’s training hub for journalists, and it is framed as practical instruction rather than a broad theory lesson — how to shape reporting for the ear, how to write for audio, and how to build a compelling show from raw tape. ### Who is teaching it? (gijn.org) The class is led by Susanne Reber, described by GIJN as an investigative reporter and audio journalism producer. That matters because this is not generic “start a podcast” advice. The training is aimed at investigative work, where the challenge is usually turning dense reporting into scenes, voices, and momentum without flattening the facts. ### What does the class actually focus on? (gijn.org) The useful bit is that the course seems built around field-level craft. Reber talks about finding the human texture in a moment, getting interviewees to tell stories in a more visual and vivid way, and noticing the details that make audio scenes work. GIJN highlights one blunt rule from the session: “If it’s not on tape, it’s not gonna make the show!” That is basically the whole discipline of audio reporting in one line. ### Why is that rule such a big deal? Print reporters can lean on notebook detail, documents, and reconstruction. Audio is harsher. If the key emotion, sound, or scene was never recorded, the producer has far less to work with. So the reporting process itself changes — you have to think ahead about ambient sound, scene-setting, and how a source says something, not just what the source says. That is why podcast training for reporters is its own skill track, not a simple extension of text reporting. (gijn.org) ### Why is GIJN doing this now? Because GIJN is expanding its training operation. In April 2026 it launched GIJN Academy as a global hub for courses, workshops, and newsroom training, with both free and fee-based offerings. The podcast class fits neatly into that strategy — give reporters concrete production skills while building a more formal training pipeline around investigative journalism. (gijn.org) ### Is there really that much demand for investigative podcasts? Yes — and GIJN has been documenting that for years. It has published launch advice for investigative podcast teams, annual roundups of standout shows from around the world, and case studies on how newsrooms are using the format. One GIJN guide from 2025 boiled the challenge down to topic choice, audience retention, and business model — which tells you podcasts are now being treated as editorial products, not experiments. (gijn.org) ### Who is this most useful for? Probably reporters and editors who already have a strong investigation and need help with the format shift. Freelancers could use it too, but the biggest win is for teams sitting on document-heavy stories that might work better as narrative audio. The class is less about podcast branding and more about reporting discipline for sound. ### So what’s the bottom line? GIJN is betting that investigative journalism increasingly needs audio fluency. (gijn.org) This course will not magically turn every reporter into a podcast producer — but it does target the exact pain point that trips up text-first newsrooms: getting the right moments on tape before the story is gone. (gijn.org)