Beyond Conversation: Building Original IP Through Podcast Storytelling
Podcasts have become firmly established across the former Yugoslavia, yet the medium has rarely been used for ambitious narrative storytelling. Opening the session, Galeb Nikačević, founder of Agelast, one of the region’s leading independent podcast platforms, will provide an overview of the regional podcast landscape, exploring its rapid growth, audience dynamics, and the opportunities it presents for creators developing original narrative content. At the center of the discussion is Tragovi (Traces), a pioneering example of original narrative audio IP. Produced by the Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS), with its third season co-produced by Agelast Production, Tragovi combines investigative journalism, documentary sound, serialized storytelling, dramatization, and cinematic sound design into one of the region’s first true crime podcasts. The session offers an inside look at the creative and editorial process behind Tragovi, examining how complex investigations are transformed into compelling serialized audio experiences. Additionally, it explores the growing role of podcasts as original intellectual property with potential for adaptation across film, television, documentary, and publishing.
SPEAKERS
Galeb Nikačević
Founder, AGELAST (RS)
Stefan Marković
Journalist/Scriptwriter, CINS (RS)
Dina Đorđević
Editor-in-chief, CINS (RS)
Zoran Miodrag
Head of Audience, CINS (RS)
MODERATED BY
Nebojša Jovanović
Programmer, Sarajevo Film Festival (BA)
TIME
August 17th, 2026
18:00 – 19:00 (CET)
LOCATION
Festival Garden
Galeb Nikačević
Nikačević-Hasci-Jare Galeb is a journalist, TV personality and podcaster. He studied literature at the University of Belgrade and began his carees at TV Metropolis in 2000. He became the Serbian representative on MTV Adria after winning a competition in 2005. Galeb worked for MTV until 2010 and later joined VICE Media as a journalist and culture editor. He then became the editor-in-chief of the “NOIZZ” portal at „Ringier Axel Springer”. Since 2020, he has focused on his production company, „Agelast Production”, producing the popular podcast „Agelast” that covers culture, education, science, and other informal content.
Stefan Marković
Stefan Marković joined CINS’s investigative team in February 2020. He is a journalist, scriptwriter, and narrator for CINS’s “Glasna žica” and “Tragovi,” the first narrative and investigative podcasts in Serbia.
He was part of the team that won CINS’s second EU award for investigative journalism in 2023, and the special recognition award under “Dejan Anastasijević” award for investigative journalism in 2024, for the podcast series “Tragovi” season “Evil Hour”, covering the two massacres that shook Serbia in 2023.
Dina Đorđević
Dina Đorđević is Editor-in-Chief at CINS and has been an investigative journalist for the past ten years, primarily covering environmental issues. Before transitioning to investigative journalism, she worked as a television and radio journalist. She is a member of the Oxford Climate Journalism Network and a Fulbright Program alumna.
Her work has been recognised with multiple national and international awards, including EU awards for investigations into air pollution and environmental destruction caused by small hydropower plants. Her latest investigation revealed state failures in a Rio Tinto lithium project that might put the environment at risk.
Zoran Miodrag
Although he graduated in journalism from the Faculty of Political Sciences, Zoran did not practice this profession outside of student internships. He has been involved in marketing, digital marketing, graphic design and photography for a decade. He spent most of his professional career in leading publishing houses and the Association of Publishers and Booksellers of Serbia, after which he became a project manager in a company that operates in 13 markets.
He joined CINS in September 2023 and took the head position in the newly formed audience team. He is responsible for all communication and content on CINS accounts on social networks and other communication channels, content creation and promotion.
Nebojša Jovanović
Nebojša Jovanović is a Dealing with the Past programmer. From 2019 to 2024, he was the project manager of Talents Sarajevo, the talent development programme of the Sarajevo Film Festival. He is also a senior teaching assistant at the Production Department of the University of Sarajevo – Academy of Performing Arts, where he serves as an assistant professor. His essays on film theory and history have been published in edited volumes, as well as in film magazines and academic journals.