Award-winning podcast company Mags Creative celebrates five years

Founded in 2018 by sisters Hannah and Faith Russell, Mags Creative marks its fifth anniversary on 11 May as a multi-award-winning podcast company.

Described as having ‘their fingers firmly on the pulse’ at the 2022 British Podcast Awards, the women-founded and women-majority company has grown organically over the last five years, eschewing investment to build a sustainable business model with multiple revenue streams.

This includes pioneering a standalone podcast marketing service and creating branded podcasts that reach millions of ears with the likes of Meta, Puffin, and Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.

Mags has launched hit shows with platform partners including Spotify, Amazon Music, Podimo and BBC. The in-house team has also developed its own Originals repertoire ranging from innovative, multi-award winning, sound-rich story of the climate crisis Life Sentence to Blended with Kate Ferdinand, serving as a celebration of blended families.

Faith and Hannah Russell, who started the business as freelancers from their kitchen table, commenting on the success of the business, said: “We’re seeing in our fifth birthday with an incredibly talented team of 20 who are consistently developing quality content that tap into the societal zeitgeist and resonate with listeners around the world.”

Talking about their roots, Faith comments: “The business was named after our grandma Maggie – a strong, fearless storyteller – and we feel we’ve really honoured her legacy. We’re obviously women-founded and we’ve always put women at the heart of what we do, building an impressive roster both in terms of talent and production expertise.”

As signatories to the Audio in Equality pact, as well as having run three years of the Summer Podcast Academy to mentor underrepresented voices within the podcasting space, Mags Creative is an active advocate of diversity and inclusion within the industry. The business promotes a positive workplace culture by being signatories to the Sanctus Mental Health Pledge.

The management team is made up of Head of Marketing Alisha Dandridge, Head of Audio Kit Milsom, Head of Commercial Charlotte Newing and Head of Production James Norman-Fyfe.

Touching on what’s next for the company, Hannah says: “Looking ahead, our focus remains on continuing to serve mass audiences and stay at the forefront of content innovation. With a passionate team and a commitment to this goal, we truly believe that this is just the start for us”.