The Walt Disney Company didn’t become a global media powerhouse for making decisions willy-nilly. So the announcement that Disney Music Group has launched its first podcast may say more about the medium than the actual show. That show is a new podcast series called For Scores that features interviews with film and television composers from its various brands, including Disney, Marvel Studios, Pixar and in the future, Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox. Read more
When McDonald’s launched its “investigative podcast” The Sauce last year it was meant to be a tongue-in-cheek marketing move designed to cash in on the fast-growing appeal of podcasting. But the three-episode series had an unexpectedly large number of downloads and showed the fast food giant the potential of branded podcasts. Read more
Who says a money advice podcast needs to be boring? In a mash-up of a financial how-to and a celebrity chat show, the iHeartPodcast Network is shaking up the advice genre with a new show called Hush Money. iHeart says each episode is tightly structured, using co-hosts Jason Feifer and Nicole Lapin’s “he said/she said” debate as a springboard for genuine financial advice. Acelebrity judge will then join the podcast and decide who is right. Read more
The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror each year gives out awards for the genres’ biggest movies and TV shows. And while they’re not yet recognizing the best horror, sci-fi or fantasy podcasts, as part of a “reinvigoration” to the event, the Academy is launching a podcast to promote next month’s 45th Saturn Awards. And a podcast award may be next. Read more
Her previous late-night television talk show tucked viewers into bed. Now a podcaster, Chelsea Handler is waking people up. Through tomorrow (August 22), the host of the iHeartPodcast Network show Life Will Be The Death Of Me is offering Amazon Alexa owners the option of waking up to a special greeting from her. Read more
FirstCom Music, the music production library used by radio, podcasters, television and other mediums, is partnering with the iconic Capitol Studios to create a new production music label, Capital Studio Masters. The first-time collaboration between the companies will make some of the best-known artists available to content producers. Read more
The New York Times- produced The Daily remained No.1 for the ninth consecutive month, based on U.S. unique monthly audience. Meanwhile, the back and forth for the No. 2 position continues between the iHeartPodcast Network show Stuff You Should Know and This American Life. And the true-crime podcast Sword and Scale made the top 20 for the first time after host Mike Boudet returned. Read more
“I don’t think podcasts require explanation anymore.” That is the assessment of Giles Martin, Executive VP of Client Strategy at the performance marketing agency Oxford Road. He’s not alone. Podcast’s ad community says it’s never been easier to get not only direct response clients to say “yes” to the medium, but also a growing number of brand marketers. Read more
For some podcasts the pre-roll ad may soon become an endangered species. At last week’s Podcast Movement conference, several producers said they are toying with how to place the first spot break in their podcast. It’s just one of the ways data is being used to bring another level of sophistication to how Artificial Intelligence and other technology are being put to use to make podcast ads as effective as possible for clients. Read more
Shattering any doubt about the importance of podcasting for Hollywood, Variety has just put the medium on the cover with one of its most successful TV-turned-podcast hosts. It also reports cover boy Conan O’Brien’s production company, Conaco, has just signed a “mid-seven figure” co-production and distribution deal with Stitcher/Midroll Media to keep his Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast going for at least another 72 episodes. Read more
The content delivery network and streaming media provider StreamGuys has added several new features to its streaming and podcast management system designed to help broadcasters more easily monetize the on-demand content they create from live programming. Another update is still on the drawing board. StreamGuys says it’s working on a feature that will allow for live broadcasting directly onto social media platforms. Read more
The defendant featured in the breakout first season of Serial failed in his bid to get a new trial when Maryland’s highest court rejected the bid in a 4-3 decision handed down in March. Now attorneys for Adnan Syed have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to overrule the state court and order Maryland to give him a new trial. Read more
Even as podcasters have carved a piece of the media day, traditional media brands have been slow to embrace the opportunity. NBC News is one of the exceptions, having launched several original series during the past year. Steve Lickteig, who heads NBC’s podcasting effort, told the Podcast Movement conference in Orlando last week that NBC now averages 18 million monthly downloads across all of the podcasts it publishes. Read more
Crime Junkie, the hit podcast co-hosted by Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat, has pulled down several episodes after accusations surfaced that the show was using source materials without giving proper credit. The charges first came to light last week when a reporter from an Arkansas newspaper accused the show of using exclusive information and quoting from her newspaper series about a local murder case directly without attribution. Read more
Jasmyn Belcher Morris, lead producer of the StoryCorp podcast and the NPR “Morning Edition” feature by the same name, is branching out into the true crime genre. Morris is hosting the new Hit Man podcast from the iHeartPodcast Network. Hit Man takes a deep dive into the triple murder story of Lawrence Horn, a famous Motown Records producer and the hitman he hired to kill his family. Read more
Guy Raz, the public radio fixture who’s become one of the highest-profile podcasters, thinks his success is built as much on luck and timing as anything else. And as podcasters decide what success is, he told the Podcast Movement conference last week that download numbers may not be the right tool by which to measure. Raz and new podcaster Reza Aslan also defended doing subscription-only shows. They said they’re “pro-creator,” since podcasts that could be shunned by advertisers can still get made. Read more
During the past year commercial radio groups have ramped up podcasting efforts. But in many markets, public radio already has a head-start in the medium, and its experiences could help some of their for-profit cousins avoid some of the pitfalls when entering the podcast space. Read more
As the former head of Fox International Channels, Wondery CEO Hernan Lopez is well steeped in the international media marketplace. So the announcement by Wondery that it’s joining the ranks of podcasters aiming for audiences beyond the U.S. borders was probably a matter of when, not if. We now know the answer. Wondery says it will re-release its hit podcast Dr. Death in seven additional languages. Read more
Marvel and Stitcher have already released a pair of Wolverine-themed podcasts. Now their partnership is expanding to a new character. Marvel will release a new fictional podcast series this fall that will be available exclusively on Stitcher Premium until 2020 when it will see a wide release across all podcast platforms. Read more
The rising tide of podcast listeners over the past few years has been matched by surging advertiser interest. It’s on full display this week in Orlando where big marketers and ad agency media buyers descended on the Podcast Movement conference. Podcast executive say it’s not just growing audience figures that help sell the medium, but also better technology, measurement and industry metrics that’s making it easier for buyers to gobble up inventory. Read more
The door is cracking open to music use in podcasts and that could open up new on-demand opportunities for radio stations. This is according to executives behind PodcastMusic.com, the just-announced licensing clearinghouse that will begin allowing podcasters to legally put songs in their shows starting next year. On Thursday at the Podcast Movement in Orlando, the company also filled in details about how the service could work, including how much a song could cost a podcaster. Read more
Ask any podcaster how much of their listening is on a smart speaker, and the answer undoubtedly will be some variation of “not so much.” But like traditional radio, podcasters expect listening on the devices to grow. At Podcast Movement in Orlando Thursday, the consensus was that there is still much to be figured out before voice-activated opportunities are fully realized. Read more
There is much discussion in radio circles about how podcasting might expose broadcast content to new listeners, while giving radio groups a new product to pitch to clients. But in recent months podcasting has shown it can reverse the flow and share content over the AM/FM airwaves. One broadcaster now says podcasting is also helping bring new local clients to traditional radio stations. Read more
In the latest “Math & Magic” podcast, iHeartMedia CEO Bob Pittman again visits with a fellow C-Suite associate from his MTV past. John Sykes, who has since worked at the label level, as well as radio, music publishing and artist management, now is again with Pittman, as President of Entertainment Enterprises at iHeart. Today, he says, “There’s a changing of the guard across all entertainment.” Read more
On its first quarterly earnings call in 20 months, iHeartMedia changed formats, so to speak, with a rare appearance by Bob Pittman on the call. After emerging from Chapter 11 May 1 and returning to the public markets July 18, new investors are sizing up the company and the Chairman & CEO used the occasion to reintroduce iHeart to the public equity world. He brought a big picture perspective while stressing that podcasting plays a starring role. Read more
AI technology and solution provider Veritone has announced an agreement with podcast hosting, content management, monetization and measurement platform ART19, in which the latter company will use Veritone’s aiWARE to run cognitive analysis and topical extraction on publisher podcasts that are hosted on the ART19 platform. Read more
The past year has been “consequential” for podcasters, according to Edison Research VP Tom Webster. The platform has added 14 million weekly listeners while roughly a third of Americans aged 12+ have now listened to a podcast. But as new listeners come onboard, changes in how podcasts are being discovered and consumed are threatening existing definitions. And new Edison data prompts the question: Just what is a podcast anyway? Read more
Radio and podcasting may be close cousins, but the two audio formats are distant enough that each is serving as a discovery mechanism for the other, helping to determine their individual strengths and weaknesses. As more broadcasters explore podcasting, several radio executives told the Podcast Movement conference in Orlando Wednesday that there are lesson to be learned from one another. Read more
While the fastest-growing podcast revenue format is branded podcasts, a top iHeartMedia marketing executive cautioned during this week’s Podcast Movement that the industry shouldn’t let the number of these shows grow unbridled. Not only are there worries about turning off listeners, but Senior VP Andy Kelly believes podcasters need to make sure the format is developed in the best way to be effective for advertisers. Read more
The halls of Podcast Movement continue to attract a growing crowd from traditional radio as the industry moves beyond the discovery phase and into making podcasting part of its digital strategy. Perhaps no radio company has invested more in podcasting than iHeartMedia. And so, as the annual conference’s “Broadcasters Meet Podcasters” track got underway, iHeart’s Conal Byrne was a fitting opener as he discussed how his company is marrying the two mediums. Read more
In an effort to more effectively compete with Apple and Spotify, Pandora will begin accepting podcasts “for consideration” to be included in its posse. Those aiming to be included on the platform simply submit their feed address, answer a few questions about the specific podcast—and then hope. Read more
Canada’s public broadcaster, CBC, is launching its first-ever development slate of podcast-to-television series, as five popular, original CBC podcasts are adapted for the small screen. The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. currently offers on-demand programming covering 20 genres, including investigative reporting and true crime, comedy, human interest and audio fiction. Read more
A new podcast organization has assembled its founding Board—and holds its first formal meeting—just in time for the annual Podcast Movement gathering this week. The International Podcast Association (IPA) “seeks to bring together the podcast community and to support and accelerate the growth and success of every individual and organization within podcasting.” Read more
Spotify continues to show it is getting behind podcasting in a big way, as it shifts its “Spotify for Podcasters” dashboard out of beta this week, allowing hosts and producers access to deep listener analytics. Podcasters can now see such data as music taste, age, gender, location and how long they listened to a particular episode. Read more
The fifth annual Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Podcast Upfront 2019 will feature a slate of name brand influencers, including Authentic, ESPN, iHeartRadio, Market Enginuity, Meredith Corp., Midroll/Stitcher, NPR, Pandora, Slate, WarnerMedia Podcast Network and The Roost (divisions of WarnerMedia), Westwood One and WNYC. The full roster was released Wednesday. Read more
Add digital audio tech and measurement provider Triton Digital as the latest vendor to win over the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) for implementing its new version 2.0 measurement guidelines. The company joins both Podtrac and Libsyn, which also won approval this week. The IAB arrived at a set of industry parameters more than a year ago. Read more
New survey data from Coleman Insights reveals that podcaster brand building isn’t keeping up with the growth of the medium. In data presented Wednesday at the Podcast Movement conference in Orlando, Coleman president Warren Kurtzman showed how some podcast listeners are associating the medium with networks—not shows. And unlike when many radio brands took root, podcasters face some bigger challenges. Read more
The audio drama “Carrier” and its female trucker lead have been on the road for weeks as the dramatic thriller starring Tony-, Grammy- and Emmy-winning actor Cynthia Erivo heads toward its big reveal when the final podcast is published Aug. 20. The show is an original scripted thriller from QCode and Hollywood veteran Dan Blank. Podcast News Daily caught up with Blank to talk about how “Carrier “came together and his first experience in podcasting. Read more
Disney is launching new podcast “Radio Disney Country Spotlight,” featuring interviews with country artists each week, hosted by Radio Disney Country’s Betsy Spina. Debuting Friday, Aug. 16, the first episode offers discussions with Hunter Hayes and Mickey Guyton. It is available on Spotify and Apple Music. Read more
Nielsen last month unveiled its Podcast Listener Buying Power Service, a qualitative measurement service that shows insights into podcast listeners’ buying habits. Nielsen says the new service will leverage Nielsen Scarborough’s nearly 30,000-person database. Just six months after the project was hatched inside Nielsen, five podcast companies are just weeks away from getting their hands on the first data. Podcast News Daily caught up with Nielsen’s Bruce Supovitz to get an inside look at the service and what may be next for Nielsen in the podcast business. Read more
Group Nine’s digital brands – Thrillist, NowThis, The Dodo and Seeker – are making the move into podcasts and the company has partnered with iHeartMedia to make it happen. The two companies will work together to produce a series of podcasts slated to debut this fall. The deal will also include an advertising alliance. Read more
The podcast measurement company Podtrac has become the latest vendor to win over the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) for implementing the new version 2.0 measurement guidelines. The IAB confirms Podtrac’s download and listener numbers comply with the parameters established by the industry more than a year ago. Read more
The podcast industry has no shortage of conferences with regional events dotting the calendar year-round. But today the largest gathering of podcasters gets underway as Podcast Movement hosts the sixth, and what’s expected to be its largest-ever conference with an anticipated 3,000 attendees in Orlando. Read more
The podcast hosting and monetization company Art19 quietly launched a podcast marketplace in April that it said would match advertisers with podcasts on a listener-by-listener basis. Now four months later, the company says the marketplace is selling ads across more than 200 podcasts and both brand and direct response advertisers have seen early success. Read more
In a move designed to help independent podcasters get their show off the ground, Voxnest has created an incubator program using the resources of its hosting platform Spreaker. The program that they’ve named Bloom, will select a group of shows to receive the company’s support for such things as content curation, technology and promotion. The podcast selected to launch the program is Flatrock: A Cold Case Podcast, which publishes its first episode today. Read more
Page Six, the gossip scoop machine of the New York Post, is hatching a new podcast. Sources Say: A Page Six Podcast will translate its no-holds-barred approach to gossip and news from the worlds of entertainment, culture, the media, fashion, real estate and politics. Page Six editors Maggie Coughlan and Ian Mohr will host the podcast. It becomes the New York Post’s first foray into podcasting, and more titles are on the horizon. Read more
Market Enginuity, the ad rep firm that sells ad time for independent podcast networks as well as public radio and television stations, is beefing up its podcast team. The company has hired Laurie Belleau as VP Digital Innovation and General Manager of its Podcast Group. And in a second move, Market Enginuity has promoted SVP National Podcast and Network Broadcast Sales Jim Lally to Chief Podcast Sales Officer. Read more
You by now saw the Inside Radio/Podcast News Daily list of the Top 10 Most Powerful People in Podcasting (read it HERE). At the top is Conal Byrne, President of the iHeartMedia Podcast Network. We caught up with Byrne to talk with him about where he sees podcasting today and where it’s heading in the year to come. That includes nearly 100 new original shows in the iHeart podcast pipeline. Read more
With its reach and accessibility to a massive and captive audience, radio’s embrace of podcasting is helping take the burgeoning medium into the mainstream. Many radio groups are now aligned with podcast publishing platforms – or have simply gobbled them up – while they are also aggressively promoting the platform, often resulting in increased downloads and chart-topping success. Read more
For podcasters who wonder whether big-name celebrities are good for the industry, consider what actor Will Ferrell just achieved to promote the new season of The Ron Burgundy Podcast on the iHeartPodcast Network. Last Thursday night Burgundy turned up as a surprise guest on six late-night television talk shows and in each case gave his podcast a plug—not only promoting season two of his show but exposing the medium to viewers who may not yet be podcast listeners. Read more
Two Dallas-based podcast ad sales pros have left their positions at Himalaya Media and turned their attention to their own podcast sales representation firm, Podcast Ad Reps. It teams up Rick Selah and Anthony Savelli, who rather than fold PAR into Himalaya, saw the future too bright in podcasting not to hang out their own shingle and focus entire on the advertising side of the business. The podcast ad market is “booming,” says Selah. Read more
As ESPN sees its podcast audience grow—the company says it had 5.8 million unique listeners to its podcasts during July, a 17% increase over a year ago—the network is also increasingly filling theaters for live events tied to its podcasts. “The podcast crowds are the most consistently avid fans we meet on the road,” says Elizabeth Paige Fierman, Senior Manager of Event Marketing at ESPN Audio. Read more
The podcast hosting and monetization company Libsyn has joined the ranks of podcasters that have secured certification from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) for implementing the new version 2.0 measurement guidelines for reporting podcast downloads, impressions and listeners. Read more
Univision and Pop Sugar, the online brand targeting women, are teaming up to create a new bilingual podcast targeting Latinas. Juntos We Shine (Together We Shine) is hosted by Andrea Chediak, fashion reporter for Univision’s “Despierta América” morning TV show, and it will receive on-air promotion across the company’s radio, television and online properties, including primetime TV spots. Read more
SourceAudio, the music licensing company that provides music technology to broadcasters, publishers and production companies, is making a leap into podcasting. The company has teamed up with SoundExchange—the music royalties collections agency—to create a music marketplace for podcasters. PodcastMusic.com will give shows access to SoundExchange’s music creators and offer licensing for label and publisher-owned music. Read more
“After a long back-and-forth with iHeart, a few lawsuits, two mysterious deaths and a whole lot of memories we are back in our studio,” said Ron Burgundy as he opened the second season of “The Ron Burgundy Podcast,” a co-production of the iHeartPodcast Network and Funny Or Die. The show will become the first to be featured on iHeart’s new “Sunday Night Podcasts” show this weekend. Read more
The focus on digital audio continues to deliver growing revenue for the E.W. Scripps. The company reports its podcast arm Stitcher saw revenues soar 71.2% during the second quarter and the online audio measurement company Triton Digital saw growth too. “Podcasting is going to be one of the most important platforms,” CEO Adam Symson said. Read more
While Tom Brokaw admires the fact that numerous platforms are now able to deliver the news at any moment from any place—“I’m not one who says we ought to go back to the old days”—he is concerned about the potential negative impact of social media. In the latest “Math & Magic” podcast, the iconic news anchorman says, “You can raise holy hell by not ever telling the truth, and it goes bang around the world.” Read more
Podcasting is quickly becoming a digital money-maker for radio companies. Cumulus Media reports its podcasting revenues shot up 139% in second quarter. “It’s now a meaningful contributor to the company’s top and bottom line,” CEO Mary Berner told analysts. And she said Cumulus’ monthly podcast downloads are up to 67 million. That’s nearly twice what they were a year ago. Read more
The startup Glow, the podcast platform that allows show producers to offer “memberships” to fans who in exchange gain access to ad-free content, has just done some fundraising of its own. The Seattle-based company has raised a combined $2.3 million from investors. Glow has been beta-testing its concept and says more than 100 podcasts have begun to use its platform. Read more
The country-by-country battle between Apple Podcasts and Spotify continues to intensify. The latest report from Voxnest shows Spotify has overtaken Apple in three more countries in Europe: Austria, the Czech Republic and Romania. That’s after topping the tech giant in three others a month earlier. Read more
With podcasting growing at a meteoric pace, it’s tough to keep track of who the movers, shakers, visionaries and innovators are. In that spirit, Podcast News Daily has compiled a list of the Top 10 Most Powerful People in Podcasting. It’s intended to recognize a few of the many individuals working to advance podcasting as a business and entertainment outlet. Read more
For two years, iHeartMedia has been using its portfolio of 850 radio stations to give some podcasts high-profile on-air launches on an ad hoc basis. Now as part of its “Podcast, Meet Broadcast” initiative, the company is formalizing that strategy with the launch of the weekly radio show “Sunday Night Podcasts.” Read more
Over a billion people a day are searching on Google for podcasts, according to the tech giant. Starting today those search results will include direct links to a show on Google Podcasts. And Zack Reneau-Wedeen, Product Manager at Google Podcasts, says the results will go right down to the episode level. The move will not only help show discovery, but also boost listening on Google Podcasts, which has been an also-ran to date. Read more
Is making popular U.S. podcasts available to international audiences in their native language the next big step in cementing podcasting within the mainstream and expanding its influence? That’s the belief of iHeartMedia which announces plans to translate and distribute a slate of its hit podcasts across the globe by first quarter 2020. Read more
There are a lot of ways to measure the growth of podcast. From the podcast hosting and monetization company Libsyn comes one read on the continued growth in content. It reports a 26% increase in the number of podcasts hosted by the company during the first half of 2019. Libsyn also reports unique monthly audiences grew to 116 million. Read more
As podcast companies race to sign big-name talent to some of the most lucrative deals the industry has seen to date, PodcastOne is taking a step in the opposite direction. It has unveiled Launchpad Digital Media, a new division that will focus on helping small, independent shows. The move puts PodcastOne up against some of the industry’s established podcast hosting companies like Libsyn and Blubbry. Read more
For the second time this week a podcaster is announcing they’re adding distribution on Deezer, the global music streaming service. The podcast hosting company Blubrry says after working quietly for the past year behind the scenes, it has struck a deal to begin distributing shows it hosts on Deezer beginning next week. Read more
In a signal that Entercom plans to make podcasts a bigger part of digital audio platform Radio.com – and a vote of confidence for on-demand audio – the radio group is making its biggest investment in podcasting to date. Entercom will acquire Pineapple Street Media for $18 million and buy the 55% of Cadence 13 it didn’t already own. CEO Field said he sees “symbiotic cross-platform opportunities” between the radio stations, its streaming platform, and podcasts. Read more
The big podcast headline from Entercom on Wednesday may’ve been its acquisition of Cadence 13 and Pineapple Street Media, but podcasts will also play a key role in another digital expansion also in the works. Entercom’s Radio.com Sports Digital Network will launch later this month with a mix of daily live sports talk programming and more than 75 hours of original podcast content weekly. “Together these moves will make Entercom a powerful leading player in this rapidly growing segment of the audio market,” CEO David Field said. Read more
Audio ad agency Veritone One has launched a new advertising platform targeting podcasters, YouTube vloggers, Instagram influencers and bloggers. Branded as Influencer Bridge, the pay-per-performance ad platform is geared toward helping the vast majority of shows that aren’t on the radar of media buyers. Read more
Just like fashion evolves, so too do media habits. And that’s led GQ magazine to launch its signature podcast series. Airplane Mode is a weekly series that will be hosted by GQ writer Clay Skipper. Like the magazine it’s born out of, the show will cover a wide range of topics and include interviews with business leaders, writers, fashion designers, comedians, pro athletes, and artists. Read more
Jess Cagle is trading print for audio. In making the leap, the entertainment journalist will also enter the world of podcasts. The former People magazine editor-in-chief has been hired by Sirius XM Radio as its chief entertainment editor. As part of those duties, Cagle will host and produce several podcasts for Pandora in addition to hosting a daily pop culture and entertainment chat show each afternoon on SiriusXM. Read more
PRX, the parent of the podcast network Radiotopia, has made a pair of hires geared toward beefing up its content and growing its audience. PRX has announced it hired Charlotte Cooper as Director of Audience Growth and Marketing and Jason Saldanha has been brought on as its new Content Director. Read more
As the 2020 campaign season gets rolling, new research shows traditional AM/FM radio remains far and away the leader in reach for campaign teams looking to secure votes. That’s probably not a big surprise. But what is revealing is podcasts now have bigger reach among potential voters than streaming music services or satellite radio. Read more
In a bright sign for digital media like podcasting, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) reports U.S. advertisers spent 18% more on digital advertising resulting in the industry’s strongest Q1 on record. Total ad spending hit $28.4 billion. The IAB didn’t release any specific data on how each of the digital segments including podcasting performed, but with such strong growth it’s likely podcasting ad revenue experienced similar growth. Read more
Beasley Broadcast Group is making headway in growing its podcast audience. CEO Caroline Beasley told investors Monday that the company’s line-up of podcasts saw more than a 15% increase in total podcast downloads during the second quarter with more than 10 million downloads during the period. That’s an increase of 1.3 million downloads from the first quarter. Read more
Deezer, the global music streaming service, is ramping up its podcast portfolio. It has struck an alliance with Libsyn allowing Deezer users to access over 62,000 active podcasts currently hosted by Libsyn. The partnership could help U.S. podcasters gain listeners in global markets where the Paris-based Deezer has a bigger footprint. Read more
New York-based rep firm Focus 360 has cast its lot with podcasters. The company has made an investment in Lipstick and Vinyl, the podcast publisher that focuses on delivering underrepresented voices, with a concentration on female voices. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed although Focus 360 is said to be acquiring a minority stake. The move unsurprisingly means that Lipstick and Vinyl will now rely on Focus 360 as its ad sales rep firm. Read more
For the past year ESPN’s Ryen Russillo has had one foot in ESPN and another in The Ringer, where he’s hosted the Dual Threat podcast since last August at the same time as hosting The Rusillo Show podcast and The Ryen Russillo Show and SVP & Russillo podcasts under the ESPN Audio umbrella. Now he’s jumping completely into The Ringer. Read more
AWeber, the developers of the Curate mobile app that allows podcasters to embed audio directly into an email, will hold its second free, one-day virtual conference designed to help podcasters improve their marketing and monetization of podcasts. The second Podcast Virtual Summit will take place Sept. 18 and feature a number of podcasters who’ll share their advice on how to increase subscribers and engagement for their shows. Read more
AWeber, the developers of the Curate mobile app that allows podcasters to embed audio directly into an email, will hold its second free, one-day virtual conference designed to help podcasters improve their marketing and monetization of podcasts. The second Podcast Virtual Summit will take place Sept. 18 and feature a number of podcasters who’ll share their advice on how to increase subscribers and engagement for their shows. Read more
Podcast listening growth continued last month as Podtrac reports a 50% year-over-year increase in the monthly unique U.S. audience among the publishers it tracks. The audience size was essentially on par with June. NPR remained the No. 1 publisher while iHeartMedia was once again the biggest commercial podcaster. Read more
An estimated $3.6 billion will be spent on marketing by healthcare and pharmaceutical companies in 2019. Podcasters are working to capture as much of that for the audio industry as they can. “This is a perfect medium to enter into a trusted environment,” iHeartMedia Podcast Network President Conal Byrne told a recent pharma conference. Read more
The second most downloaded show in 2018, according to Apple Podcasts, is the biggest brand in podcasting in 2019, according to a just-released survey. The research conducted by Coleman Insights finds The Joe Rogan Experience has the highest unaided awareness of all podcasts among monthly podcast users. Serial ranked second, followed The Daily in third place. Read more
Enrique Santos, head of iHeartLatino, is the producer and driving force behind the creation of iHeartRadio’s first-ever podcast hosted by a kid. In this case, two kids. The podcast is hosted by entrepreneurs Brandon Martinez and Sebastian Martinez, the brothers that created the charity sock company Are You Kidding Socks. Their show aims to help young people find creative ways to give back and benefit Stand Up To Cancer. Read more
Westwood One has staffed up its podcasting team with four production experts who’ll work to manage a variety of on-demand shows. With career histories that include The Wall Street Journal, Cadence 13 and Fox News Channel, all four new hires will report to Executive Editor John Wordock. Read more
For any podcaster who has wondered if their RSS feed is properly functioning, the newest tech update from the podcast hosting company Blubrry is for them. The company has relaunched Cast Feed Validator, a free service podcasters can use to ensure their RSS feed is working correctly. Read more
The U.S. still dominates global podcast listening. That’s according to the latest statistics released by Libsyn. It reports that 63.7% of all downloads of shows on Libsyn servers during June went to American listeners. VP of Podcaster Relations Rob Walsh said on the monthly The Feed podcast that mobile downloads were “up a smidge” in June with 84.1% of podcasts being downloaded directly to a mobile device. Read more
Many Americans may not know who Wendy Clark is, but chances are they’re familiar with some of her work: “Avis…We try harder.” “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.” These and other indelible marketing slogans came from the respected ad firm DDB, where Clark is Global President and CEO. “It is about becoming part of culture,” she tells iHeartMedia’s Bob Pittman in the CEO’s latest “Math & Magic: Stories from the Frontiers of Marketing” podcast. Read more
Spotify’s spending spree to carve out a place in the podcast industry isn’t any secret. But the company has so far been reluctant to reveal just how much it paid for a trio of companies. As a public company there’s only so long such things can be kept from shareholders. And now just-filed documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission give a specific accounting of what Spotify has spent on Gimlet Media, Anchor FM and Parcast. Read more
There aren’t a lot of details but word that Dolly Parton was working on a podcast with RadioLab host Jad Abumrad quickly ricocheted around the industry Thursday. Abumrad announced on social media that he and producer Shima Oliaee are working on a nine-episode podcast called Dolly Parton’s America for WNYC Studios. The show will be released this fall. Read more
The Los Angeles Times podcast push brings a new show that discovers the identity of a man on life support for more than 15 years and finds the family that feared the worst. Also this week a new Stitcher podcast explores the secret life of a New York drag club maven and mob wife. And one of the shows that’s part of the PRX/Google Podcasts creator is released. Here’s some of what’s new this week in podcasting. Read more
The podcast hosting company Blubrry has joined the ranks of companies offering dynamic ad insertion. In the past it says swapping out ad inventory has been an expensive proposition but it has just-launched a Full Ad Insertion platform without adding “crazy cost” to the process. Read more
Nielsen CEO David Kenny says the ratings company sees “a lot of potential” in its audio business and that includes podcasting. “Media is not only about what consumers watch it's about what they're listening to and consumers are listening across multiple platforms,” Kenny said during his company’s quarterly earnings call with analysts. Read more
There’s no international market more similar to the U.S. than Canada and Nielsen’s latest research from north of the border offers a snapshot of trends that could very well be mirrored stateside. Nielsen data shows 33% of consumers are listening to more podcast content than they did a year ago. And that number is even higher among Millennials. It means less time with TV and even their friends. Read more
Put a city dwelling married couple and their dog in an RV and send them on a cross-country road trip to visit America’s national parks. That’s the experience Brad and Matt Kirouac have just completed as they turn their journey into the new podcast Parklandia! for the iHeartPodcast Network. Read more
A changing of the guard at TuneIn has Juliette Morris as the new CEO of the streaming audio platform, rising from Chief Marketing Officer. Morris succeeds John Donham, who had overseen the company for nearly a dozen years from its collection of radio station streams to a full-scale audio streaming and on-demand platform now offering a wide array of free and premium content. Read more
Could a Presidential hate-tweet help draw attention to a new podcast collaboration from Luminary and New York magazine? We’re about to find out. The two companies have chosen Ivanka Trump as the subject of their premiere season to the podcast Tabloid. Hosted by journalist Vanessa Grigoriadis, the show they’ve titled The Making of Ivanka Trump will offer what they’re calling a “full-life inquiry” into the First Daughter. Read more
The marketing consulting firm Reed-Edwards Global has launched PodCo Media Network, which will focus on business podcasts. PMN launches with four shows under its umbrella and says it plans to expand to 30 podcasts during the next 18 months. Read more
