For about five years, Tom Jones’ alarm went off every weekday morning at 4 a.m.
The then-Tampa Bay Times sports columnist would leave his house by 4:30 to arrive at radio station WDAE to prep for a morning sports talk show that ran Monday through Friday from 6 to 9 a.m.
Then he’d head to his full-time job at the newspaper.
“That alarm would go off at 4 and there was nothing I wanted more than to go back to sleep, but once I was in the studio and the mics were on, it was a blast every time,” Jones said. “What’s better than sitting around with smart people talking about what you love?”
That’s the spirit he’s bringing to a new Poynter podcast about the news media — and best of all, there’s no 4 a.m. alarm.
Jones came to the Poynter Institute in 2019 following a 30-year career as a sports columnist, mostly at the Tampa Bay Times.
His initial goals for serving as the senior media writer included a podcast, and he’s thrilled to see it finally come to life, thanks in part to the University of South Florida St. Petersburg.
“I think it’s an important part of people’s news and entertainment diet these days, so I always thought that a podcast would be a really interesting way to help explain and describe the media,” Jones said.
The Poynter Report Podcast is set to launch its first episode on Sept. 23, with a biweekly cadence that will feature news industry guests discussing behind-the-scenes issues facing the media news landscape.
His first guest is NPR TV critic and media analyst Eric Deggans, author of “Race-Baiter: How the Media Wields Dangerous Words to Divide a Nation.”
The podcast is being produced as part of an independent study class with adjunct professor Elliott Wiser, a 40-year broadcast journalism veteran and media executive. The team is working on an academic schedule, so the plan is to publish eight episodes in the fall, and then as many as 10 more episodes in the spring. They plan to keep the episodes short and sweet — 20 to 25 minutes.
Jones’ credentials include a long stint as an early-morning radio personality, a role that familiarized him with the power of audio.
“It’s a more personable medium. Not only do people hear your voice, but they hear more of who you are and what you’re about,” he said. “My work as a newspaper columnist meant I had a pretty high-profile job — it got me a lot of exposure. But radio took it to an entirely different level. I think podcasts are the same way.”
Jones said that one of the other goals of the podcast is to expose more people to what journalists are doing and therefore explain the news media better.
“I think there’s a lot of distrust in the media these days, and I think a lot of it is because people don’t fully understand what it is we do, and don’t totally understand how we go about the process — how and why we do the stories that we do,” he said. “This is an opportunity to put more personality and humanity into the media news of the day.”
Jones produces a weekday newsletter, The Poynter Report, which is read by more than 24,000 subscribers daily. The podcast represents a way to deepen his connection with his existing audience and potentially build a new one.
“It’s not going to be just me rattling off my opinions,” Jones said. “We are going to seek out guests who are doing the work that we’re talking about, or have an expertise in the work that we’re talking about.”
“I think the more voices you can bring in, the better this podcast will be.”
Jones’ editor, Ren LaForme, is thrilled to push The Poynter Report and Jones beyond the written word.
“Though I’ve edited Tom Jones every day for four and a half years, representing probably millions and millions of words by now, I still often find myself wishing for even more of his thoughtful takes and analysis. He’s just got such a knack for breaking down media news in a way that’s interesting and approachable,” LaForme said. “The podcast gives us that, and allows him to explore media news topics in more depth, from brand new angles, and alongside some other engaging voices.”
Jones said that whether you’re talking about movies, music or journalism, fans like to get a peek behind the scenes, and that’s one thing this podcast will attempt to provide.
“Maybe the media is not quite as fascinating as how Christopher Nolan put together ‘The Dark Knight,’” Jones joked. “But I do think that if you take people behind the scenes and show them how the news gets done, you’re providing a real service to both them and the journalists, who are — by virtue of their professional ethics — pretty quiet and deferential about the work they’ve done to keep people informed.”
The first episode of the podcast launches Sept. 23. It will be available on all major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and more.
