Specialist podcast producers Daisy Media have teamed up with Capital Gold radio presenter Alex Belfield to launch a series of free celebrity audio interviews, starting tomorrow.

Ricky Tomlinson, Jordan and Sir Ian McKellan are among 30 celebrities featured in the series; Piers Morgan also shares his thoughts on Jeremy Clarkson.

Co-founder Giles McMullen said the project has been driven by the team's focus on producing podcasts with the same standards as professional radio.

The quality of interviewing is below par on many podcasts, said Mr McMullen, but Alex Belfield's interview skills and experience on national broadcast platforms means he can tease information from celebrities that other interviewers might not get.

"You have to respect the medium whether it's via the web or by tuning in to traditional radio, and for listeners it has to sound right and be engaging," he told journalism.co.uk.

"You have to apply all the concepts of radio production - what we've learnt over the past 100 years - to podcasting."

After an initial three-month trial promoted through the iTunes platform and the Daisy Media site, producers will be looking to set up partnerships with celebrity-focused news sites and niche blogs to promote the 20-minute interviews. Advertising would be introduced on a similar sponsorship model to radio adverts, but the content would remain free to users.

"Radio pays for itself through advertising. Podcasts cost less to produce but there's an opportunity for a different kind of advertising," said Mr McMullen.

"It's aimed at niche markets but the sum of those is really quite big."

He added that advertisers will pay extra for more effective, targeted adverts and that online advertising also provides more exact figures on audience and delivery than radio can.

"The delivery of media, audio and video is going to change the traditional media more than we can imagine," said Mr McMullen.

"People's media habits, and the way we watch and listen, will be almost unrecognisable from what they are now."

Daisy Media produced the news podcast for the city business newspaper City AM, launched in February.

• Alex Belfield's interview with Piers Morgan is now available to download at http://www.daisymedia.co.uk/alex.htm.

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