The Australian’s The Teacher’s Pet podcast jumps to top of charts

The Australian’s latest podcast ­series has gone straight to number one on iTunes, racking up 15,000 downloads in just over two days.

Harvey Norman chief executive Katie Page. Picture: Steve Baccon.

The Australian’s latest podcast ­series has gone straight to number one on the iTunes podcast chart, racking up 15,000 downloads in just over two days.

The Teacher’s Pet, by ­national chief correspondent Hedley Thomas, who spent six months investigating the probable ­murder of missing Sydney ­mother Lynette Dawson, took the top spot at the weekend after being released on the Whooshkaa platform.

The family of Dawson has backed the series, saying it may be the best chance to solve her sudden disappearance 36 years ago.

Sponsored by major retailer Harvey Norman, The Teacher’s Pet follows the success of the Walkley Award-winning Bowraville podcast in 2016 on the murders of three Aboriginal children and the Lost in Larrimah podcast about a missing man in an outback town.

Harvey Norman chief executive Katie Page told Media she is an avowed fan of podcasts and a regular listener to Serial, an investigative journalism podcast hosted by US journalist Sarah Koenig.

“Where is Lyn Dawson?” Ms Page asked. “A loving mother leaves her children without a word? How devastating for the family not to know what ­happened.

“Like the Serial, I’m confident Hedley’s presentation of the story and known facts will bring to light a re-look at a case that was never solved. His narrative will be compelling. I listened and met Sarah Koenig a couple of years ago.

“As she said, this type of presentation is not new. Podcasts today were yesterday’s serials on radio. For a journalist like Hedley it takes long-form journalism that can be complex into a digestible format for the public.”

The Australian editor-in-chief Paul Whittaker said The Teacher’s Pet was one of the biggest journalistic projects by The Australian in recent years.

“We are very encouraged by the feedback and reviews from ­listeners who can hear the quality in The Teacher’s Pet investigative podcast series,” Mr Whittaker said. “The public demand for our true-crime production saw it go to number one position on iTunes very quickly.

“It is early days, but we have some remarkable material in this series and we expect to gather momentum as people follow the story week by week.

“These investigative undertakings involve large investments of time and journalistic resources, as well as the efforts of highly skilled sound engineers and ­musicians like Slade Gibson.”

The Teacher’s Pet is uncovering new evidence and bringing compelling stories with the voices of key witnesses talking to ­Thomas. “Podcasts are quickly becoming a powerful new arm of journalism as The Australian and other mastheads reach a new audience,” Mr Whittaker said.

“The level of sophistication of these productions in terms of their sound and audio quality is ­increasing all the time.”

The audio and music production on The Teacher’s Pet was handled by Slade Gibson, a former guitarist for Savage Garden.

Consumer appetite for on-­demand podcasts has exploded in the past year. Part of the reason for the growth is improved accessibility with the rise of streaming making it no longer necessary to download large MP3 files.

For newspapers, podcasts are a way to encourage potential digital subscribers to sample the brand.

True crime has provided newspapers with a rich vein of material to unearth — The Daily Telegraph recently launched a crime podcast series.