Sabeena Karki made her mark as a radio presenter for the last 15 years. Now she is the host of Sabscast, a popular podcast. She is a podcast trainer who helps amateur, aspiring people to open up their own podcast.
In conversation with Republica she talks about the challenges and her experience on moving from a traditional media to a digital media platform.
Why did you start your own series of podcasts?
I feel podcast is the future as it is easy to listen to wherever you are. Poadcasts are audio interviews that are available on various digital platforms like iTunes, Soundcloud, Playstore or on other websites. My podcast ‘Sabscast’ can also be listened via these platforms. Podcasts are getting popular around the world and I felt it was an interesting idea to explore and it had been in the back of mind for a really long time. There aren’t any boundaries to what I want to share to the world and I can manage it on my own as per my interest.
What inspires you to get going every day?
One of my friends from the United States told to me that I already have 15 years of experience and that I should no longer be bound to a managerial hierarchy. Because I have a large following, Podcast would be a great platform for me to share my views on what I am passionate about. This message always inspires me to go further and I am confident on my experience and I excited to explore this new exercise in life.
How is it different from your previous works?
I am close to the audience now more than ever. With the help of the internet, I can create a two-way communication with the audience. The data, statistics and comments provide me a feedback from the people. Most of my listeners reside in Nepal and there are international followers from the Middle East and the United States as well. It is easier to manage with very limited human resources and I can give my full priority to this as it seems more like a client business.
The necessity of diversity in the digital newsroom
How do you earn from this business?
I monetize my podcasts and get advertising revenue from mentioning my sponsors in the podcast and I decided to put banner advertisements on my website which gets moderately good traffic on my website.
Can people sustain financially with Podcasts in the long-run?
Yes, I believe so. This is a relatively a new platform, compared to radio programs. But this is the age of internet which allows mediums like podcast to have a bright future ahead.
