Monocle 24 offers viable audio platform to premium advertisers

Other advertisers to have signed up so far include General Electric, Mercedes-Benz, Rolex, Zegna, Krug, J Crew and Pictet — the majority of which have traditionally eschewed commercial radio as a platform.

In an interview with Campaign, Monocle founder and editor-in-chief Tyler Brûlé (pictured) said the decision to launch the service had sprung from the positive uptake of Monocle’s podcasts, which have notched up around 600,000 downloads a month. He pointed to a gap in the market for premium global audio programming and said the service would aim to be “commercial in an elegant way”.

Monocle 24 will offer four live shows each weekday and daily live shows at the weekend, along with hourly news, global weather reports and dedicated programmes covering business, culture, design and urban affairs. Brûlé said the content would serve as a more immediate expansion of the premium print product.

He explained that each programme would have a single brand sponsor, cutting out the “pollution” inherent in regular commercial radio where listeners are typically “assaulted by eight different brands” during the breaks. He added that while the advertiser would receive a good amount of branding during its designated segment, editorial content would be kept strictly separate from sponsored content, with no “funny grey areas”.

As with Monocle’s print magazine, the advertising is tailored to fit the platform, with clients in some cases working directly with Monocle for development.

The service will broadcast year-round from Monocle’s London headquarters. The bulk of content is produced in-house, but will also be drawn from partnerships with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Reuters and Sky News.

Looking ahead, Brûlé said he aimed to add a global political affairs show to the station’s content lineup. “Monocle 24 offers a whole new layer of editorial,” he said, describing radio as a “very evocative” medium. “It expands on what the magazine does but goes off in its own direction as well.”

Monocle 24 is available on monocle.com, iTunes and a dedicated Apple application.