• by Alex Weprin , March 12, 2019

The local television giant Tegna is launching a digital content studio called Vault, with a heavy emphasis on original podcasts.

Tegna, which owns 49 TV stations in 41 local markets across the U.S., is planning to utilize its archive of investigative reports as a starting point for original content.

True crime and mysteries have become two of the most successful genres in podcasting, and Vault will lean into them at launch.

Vault’s first podcast,“Bomber”  will delve into the story of how police in Austin, Texas, hunted and ultimately caught the serial bomber that terrorized the city in 2018.

The launch of “Bomber” coincided with a TV special produced by KVUE, TEGNA’s ABC affiliate in Austin.

“Engaging with our audiences in new and innovative ways — across multiple platforms — is essential to our growth,” says Adam Ostrow, Tegna’sChief Digital Officer.“Vault will draw on our decades of outstanding local journalism in areas such as true crime, cold cases and unsolved mysteries to create new content offerings for today’s digital consumer.”

While podcasts will be the first product out of the studio, other types of storytelling will follow.

Podcasting has become big business, with platforms such as Apple and Spotify trying to aggregate listeners in now place, while audio content startups and large media companies invest in new storytelling.

The IAB expects podcast ad revenue to more than double between 2017-2020, ultimately hitting over $650 million.