Business Ears Show #042: The Rapid Rise Of The Bury Black Pudding Company
Business Ears show #042 was released recently and profiles Debbie Pierce and this business she founded The Bury Black Pudding Company.
Bury and black pudding have been synonymous for over 100 years and Debbie’s company are the only manufacturer currently based in the town.
The business is quickly becoming the leading black pudding brand in the UK, having expanded rapidly from its humble roots of a stall on the World famous Bury Market to now appearing UK wide on the shelves of major supermarket chains like Asda, Tesco and Selfridges.
In the interview Debbie describes how the business got off the ground, outlines what’s driving its growth into supermarkets and shares some of her most valuable business lessons.
You can listen to Debbie’s interview here and to check out previous shows visit www.businessears.co.uk
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US Podcast Audience up 22% since last year
Edison Research today released their annual joint study, with Arbitron, of Americans’ radio consumption habits – and it shows that podcasting continues its steady, unrelenting growth.
According to the report, the podcast audience has grown by 22% since last year, expanding from 18% of all Americans in 2008 to 22% in 2009.
Edison’s study, “The Infinite Dial 2009” (pdf) details how we listen (and, with online video, how we watch) to online radio offerings, including podcasts.
Among the study’s findings:
- Social Networking: Listeners to online radio are more likely to have a profile on a social networking site (like MySpace, Facebook, or even LinkedIn), 54%, than the general population, of whom 34% have a social network presence.
- Internet Video: As you probably expected, Internet video consumption exploded last year, with approximately 69 million, or 27% of people, watching online video sometime in the past week. That figure is up from 18% in 2008.
- Portable Media Players: More than four in ten people (42%) own an iPod, iPhone, or other kind of portable media/mp3 player, and among the 12 – 44 year-old crowd, that percentage jumps to above 50 percent. The “key radio demographic” of 35-to 54-year-olds are becoming more frequent online radio listeners.
- Podcast Audience: Forty-three percent of Americans are aware of podcasts, up from 37% last year. Twenty-two percent of Americans have ever listened to a podcast (up from 18% in 2008), and approximately 27 million (or 11%) have listened to one in the past month (up from 9% last year).
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European Podcast Awards – and the Winners are…
The winners of the first European Podcast Awards have been announced.
Choosing from ten participating countries across Europe and over 750 nominations, a panel of judges awarded the inaugural European Podcast Awards to five winners from Germany, England and Spain.
The European podcasts of the year 2008/2009 are:
- Schlaflos in München [Sleepless in Munich] / Germany
- The Naked Scientists / United Kingdom
- Comunicando Podcast [Communicating Podcast] / Spain
- CoffeBreak Spanish / United Kingdom
- ComputerClub 2 / Germany
David Prest, BBC producer and the English member of the panel of judges, says: “The award does a much needed job all over Europe in recognising excellence in podcasting. These podcasts are clever, creative, imaginative and extremely valuable programmes with high production values.”
About the European Podcast Awards:
More than 750 nominated podcasts from 10 countries were judged by a combination of online voting and an international jury in four categories. Entries were evaluated on the basis of consistently defined criteria and awarded up to 625 points. Point totals were then used to determine national winners and the leading European entries. Jury members hail from all represented countries and include radio producers, journalists and podcasters.
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UK primary school pupils to study Twitter, podcasts and blogs in curriculum shake-up
In a recent article, The Guardian reports that under new proposals, UK primary schools may soon ditch studying topics such as the Victorians or the Second Word War in favour of Twitter, blogs, Wikipedia and podcasts.
The proposed curriculum, which would mark the biggest change to primary schooling in a decade, strips away hundreds of specifications about the scientific, geographical and historical knowledge pupils must accumulate before they are 11 to allow schools greater flexibility in what they teach.
The proposals would require children to leave primary school familiar with blogging, podcasts, Wikipedia and Twitter as sources of information and forms of communication. They must gain “fluency” in handwriting and keyboard skills, and learn how to use a spellchecker alongside how to spell.
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Public Sector HR Podcast releases new show on Insourcing
Public Sector HR Podcast show #016 was released recently with a focus on Insourcing.
As the recession bites, much has been reported about the strong demand for outsourcing and as a consequence, profits of some of the bigger providers have soared. But according to research recently carried out by the Association of Public Service Excellence, many local authorities have been bringing services back in-house and this trend seems set to continue.
In this month’s show, we look at the results of APSE’s research to find out why some councils are finding insourcing a realistic service delivery option. Paul O’Brien is Chief Executive of APSE and he talks to me about the reasons for conducting the research and highlights some of it’s key findings.
To listen to the show click here and to check out previous shows visit www.publicsectorhrpodcast.co.uk
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New video and audio podcasts for the IDeA
One of our latest client projects went live recently – audio and video podcasts for the Improvement and Development Agency for local government (IDeA).
The podcasts were recorded at an event in Manchester exploring how the integration of workforce strategies can support partnership working. The day also included a review of the key learnings from the integrated workforce strategy project.
To see the podcasts ‘in-situ’ on the IDeA’s web site click here.
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Business Ears podcast profiles global ironwork entrepreneur Brian Rourke
Business Ears show #035 was released on Friday and features an interview with Brian Rourke, founder and Managing Director of one of the most successful manufacturing SME’s in the North West – B. Rourke & Co. Ltd.
Now Brian’s story is a colourful and inspirational one – having left school without any qualifications and after a national service spell in the RAF, he started his ironsmith’s business by converting a ‘hen hut’ on his sister’s Lancashire farm into a forge.
Over the following 48 years, his vision and persistence have seen the business grow, both in the UK and abroad – it today exports to over 30 countries and has an office in the USA…not bad for a lad from Bacup!
Brian’s humour and modesty make this one of my favourite shows we’ve produced to date, you can listen to the interview here and to check out previous shows visit www.businessears.co.uk
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Bono to podcast his New York Times column
U2 front man Bono is to become a regular columnist for The New York Times. The 48-year-old singer’s first column entitled ‘Notes From the Chairman’, for which he also recorded an audio podcast, appeared yesterday.
According to the paper, Bono’s column will cover a diverse range of topics and will regularly appear in both print and podcast form.
It’s interesting to see such a major media brand integrating podcasts further and further into it’s online publications.
Check out the column and listen to the podcast here.
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Hollands Pies profiled on Business Ears – The North West Business Podcast
One of the regular podcast series that we produce is a monthly show called Business Ears – which is basically a programme all about ‘inspirational businesses and business people’ from the North West of England.
The show has been running for 18 months and has steadily grown in popularity, both locally and abroad. The majority of the audience come from the North West – but we also have listeners from as far away as Australia, India, China and the USA.
The latest Business Ears show was released over the weekend and features a profile of one of the North West’s most iconic food brands Holland’s Pies.
To check out the show visit www.businessears.co.uk
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New Workforce Strategy Video and Audio Podcasts for Local Government Employers
Our latest project for LGE went live last week – we planned and produced a set of new video and audio podcasts focusing on ‘Local Government Workforce Strategy’.
The podcasts featured an array of the UK’s leading experts on the topic including Joan Munro – National Advisor Workforce Strategy at the IDeA, Jan Parkinson – Managing Director of LGE, Phil Howe – Assistant Chief Executive Human Resources at Rotherham MBC and Liz McQue – Chief Executive of North West Employers.
Check out the video and audio podcasts on the LGE podcast page or have a quick look at the video below.
Posted in: General
