Checking In: Hotel News Now is 14, Alternate Story Formats

It's been a while since I've checked in with you all, but know I haven't forgotten.

If you don't mind, I would like to reflect a little as we've been up to a lot. Sept. 17, for instance, marked Hotel News Now's 14th birthday. Soon we'll be able to drive.

Additionally, the Hotel News Now team recently returned home from an internal meeting with our news team counterparts at CoStar News, Thomas Daily and BusinessImmo in Washington, D.C., and Richmond, Virginia.

While we were with our teammates, we had the chance to experiment with a story format that we haven't yet dipped our toes into: podcasts. While we're accustomed to video interviews, such as these below, this was new for us.

Our assignment was centered on the theme of "Every Building Has a Story." From there, we teamed up, did research on a building of our choice, wrote a script that brought the structure to life through audio and recorded it.

We quickly realized we have the capability of successfully producing podcasts in-house. If you remember, Hotel News Now had our own off-site staff meeting at the end of August, and podcasting was among the topics we were all interested in.

I think our team is ready for more change as we embark on our 14th year. Take for instance, we launched a new biweekly Europe, Middle East and Africa newsletter today. You can subscribe to that here.

In a way, I think we're leveling up to reach a wider audience. It's our teen angst era, after all.

However, I'd love to hear input from those of you who consume our content daily. Would listening to quick-hit podcasts be of interest to you? Are there certain topics you'd like us to discuss more in-depth or bring on industry leaders as guest speakers? Aside from the idea of a podcast, is there anything else you'd like to see within our existing content?

Research shows that average time of listening is highest when podcasts are under 5 minutes in length. We know that our audience has hectic schedules. You all are dealing with day-to-day operations — and, some dealing with a hurricane.

But if we can provide our audience with some lively audio-based storytelling, and maybe even some comedic relief within our daily news, I'd count that as a win.

Here's a list of hospitality podcasts already out there. A newer one that I'm particularly excited to tune in to is the NextGen in Lodging podcast by Davonne Reaves, Chris Henry and Omari Head.

As always, we are open to feedback and suggestions on how we can further serve our readers. Thank you for your continued support. Send me a note via email, Twitter or connect with me on LinkedIn.

The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Hotel News Now or CoStar Group and its affiliated companies. Bloggers published on this site are given the freedom to express views that may be controversial, but our goal is to provoke thought and constructive discussion within our reader community. Please feel free to contact an editor with any questions or concern.

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