Artax brings up one of the places I think you guys can best develop that I briefly touched on earlier; but I believe a part of it is becoming more experienced as you do it. Tightening up your show so there is very little downtime/transition time is something you are all going to want to strive for. Based on two facts/goals: 1) People want as much information as they can get that is interesting. They like it straight to the point, then a bit of juicy detail. 2) People want to spend the least amount of time gaining that information as possible. This leaves more time for more information, or daily activities. The best news follows these two principles; pack in as much as you can in as little time as you can, and keep it interesting. In a news cast, there are likely several topics your interested in, and several you wont be as an average user. As the reporter, you want to make sure that you aren't losing your listeners partway through. Also, the shorter your show is, the more people will be able to fit it into their schedule. (There are a lot of clever ways to present information in edible chunks- break a one hour show into two 30 minute chunks, or even three 20 minute chunks. Each of those chunks should concentrate on communicating as much information as possible into the smallest amount of time possible.) Every good show has exclusives, discussion, commentary, and a little bit of bantering back and forth, but the key is that the show move very fluid, and on to the next topic before any listeners grow tired of the current subject and move on. Not everything has to be over and done with quickly, but it should maintain some kind of balance. You can cover a featured topic in one 20 minute chunk, something like an interview, or information exclusively released to you guys to help draw attention to each podcast, while covering multiple other pieces of information in other segments. Essentially, you are still recording the same amount of time, but you are offering more information by being fluid and concise, and releasing them in smaller 'pieces', so they are more appetizing and available to a larger crowd of listeners. Breaking a show into two segments would do just that. Part of tightening your show up is how you as a crew function together with your commentary- and while you are all discovering your voice, and the personality of the show, you might listen to a few other actual news shows (morning shows would be best) to see the dynamic between members of the cast. Often, its not what you say that defines your personal/character/or who you are on a talk show, but largely how you say it that sticks with the audience. Your tone of voice, the pace of your voice, all play into your personality as much as anything else. You might all decide to isolate a few unique characteristics about yourselves, and focus on drawing those out in the show as you learn how you work with one another- this will help give each of you an identity that is memorable, and will ultimately shape a large part of the character of your podcast. Not everything has to be impromptu either, and as your starting out, you will all probably have to plan a bit more about how you interact than later on, when you will all have a good feel for how your personalities blend together. I'm sure you guys are already working on a lot of what i've mentioned, but i certainly think this is your greatest area of opportunity. Anyone can do a podcast- the challenge before you all is how you will make your podcast exceptional. I imagine you all want to have a show that is known for its quality- so what will you all have to do in order to take it to the next level, meet, and surpass your competition? There is a lot of food for thought there! I'm excited to see you guys taking action and tackling it- it takes a lot of energy, planning, and heart to do something well. Keep in there, and look to continually improve- even the best of the best need to constantly improve to stay on top!