Every day, more brands are seeing audio in a new light. Not only are they increasing their ad budgets, but they’re also embracing podcasting as a way to connect with consumers. Toyota is among them. The automaker recently launched the second season of its show “Toyota Untold.” Podcast News Daily caught up with Toyota’s Eric Booth to talk about “Toyota Untold,” what’s new for the second season, and how it fits alongside the company’s advertising. Read more

Podcast listeners are a loyal bunch. As has been well-documented, they feel a connection with favorite on-demand programs and their hosts. New data from Civic Science now reveals just how deep that trust runs, with a dramatic factoid. Some 22% of U.S. podcast listeners say they have purchased a product or service after hearing a podcast ad. Read more

Fox Sports Radio (FSR) reported audience growth across several digital platforms, including podcasts, streaming and FoxSportsRadio.com, for September and August. The biggest headline: FSR set a new record for total monthly podcast listens in September, reaching more than 11 million monthly listeners. Read more

Independent audio producers Julien Clancy, Liam Geraghty and Colette Kinsella have founded “The Warren,” a new network launching with six Ireland-specific podcasts. The name “warren” refers to a rabbit’s home of burrows and tunnels, while the logo reflects this with an image of a rabbit hidden underground. Geraghty says, “It also leads to different podcasts.” Read more

The British Royals may be… well, British… but fascination for the multi-generational family seems to be at an all-time high in the U.S. ABC Audio is counting on that with the launch this week of “The HeirPod” podcast. Hosted by ABC News Royal Contributor Omid Scobie, it “takes listeners behind palace walls and dives deep into the latest stories from the House of Windsor with insider interviews and special guests.” Read more

Hipsters, unite. Third Man Records and Misfire have partnered to launch a podcast dedicated to the history of iconic Detroit blues-rock duo White Stripes. “Striped” is hosted by Peabody-winning journalist Sean Cannon, taking a deep dive into the group’s early years “by talking to the people who witnessed it all firsthand,” including active participation from lead Jack White. Read more

Sports media has long driven a conversation about television and radio play-by-play rights. But a growing number of NFL teams think podcasting should now also be part of the media mix—and none perhaps more than the Philadelphia Eagles. The team already has a half-dozen on-demand programs in its portfolio, and it is reportedly preparing to launch three more for the NFL season. Read more

While Halloween is the second biggest retail holiday of the year, it is also shaping up to be a big score for the podcasting pantheon. A number of producers are targeting the day as an opportunity to launch new shows or special episodes of series ready-made for spine chillers. It’s not just horror getting the attention, either. Halloween will also deliver new true-crime and science fiction shows. Read more

Less than a week after Libsyn ushered CFO John Busshaus out the door following an SEC complaint, the podcast host, on Tuesday, announced a settlement with Camac Partners, which owns 6.7% of outstanding shares of Libsyn’s common stock. The agreement, in part, shifts Libsyn’s Board, adding new names at the top. Read more

Stitcher is continuing to work its wares outside of the U.S. The company this week announced two international partnerships with Canada’s The Podcast Exchange, and Australian on-demand audio company Whooshkaa. The alliances will “allow global brands and advertisers to create first-time connections with key audiences, by utilizing Stitcher’s 250+ podcast catalog and established audience demographics,” the company said.  Read more

Grammy-nominated artist K.Flay has launched a “microcast” designed specifically for smart speakers. Produced by audio entertainment marketing company PopCult Worldwide, “what am i doing here” is the first personality-driven programming distributed by SpokenLayer, a provider of voice content for virtual assistants and connected devices. Read more

Audioboom has announced a roster of new podcasts as it launched the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s first UK Podcast Upfronts. The week-long event brings together major podcasting brands to “inform, inspire and educate the advertising community.” Said Senior VP of Global Sales & Development Thomas Mancusi, “Audioboom brings a unique advertising proposition to the UK that has been proven across the more mature U.S. market, through billions of dollars of client spend.” Read more

Wonder if financial podcasts are hot? Just ask Dave Ramsey, consistently rated among iTunes top 20 programs. Two within the category continue to gain traction, with new fall line-ups just announced. First, Emmy winner Rushion McDonald has loaded up guests for his hit podcast “Money Making Conversations”; while “The Contrarian Investor” from veteran financial journalist Nathaniel E. Baker, continues quizzing prominent personalities from the investing world. Read more

There’s a new kid on the block among Podtrac’s September top 10 Podcast Publishers. Coming in at No. 10 is Kast Media, whose website describes it as a turnkey podcast management company. Mind you, the entity is no newbie when it comes to traction in the industry: It offers 54 active shows, with a U.S. monthly audience of 5.1 million and some 25.8 million monthly downloads. Read more

John Busshaus has resigned from his post as CFO of Libsyn. According to an Oct. 2 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, “The company has eliminated Mr. Busshaus’ responsibility for financial reporting and related functions and responsibilities that he performed.” His exit is related to a complaint filed by the SEC related to Busshaus’ actions as former CFO of FAB Universal, Libsyn’s previous parent company. Read more

Stationhead may not call itself a podcast company, but it is allowing users to create an on-demand version of music-based streaming radio shows. That’s about as close to a music-based podcast as the industry has at the moment. Even more intriguing: It has found a way not to pay royalties for the music it relies on. Read more

Retired professional athletes Kobe Bryant and Alex Rodriguez now have something even bigger that they share in common: Both have entered the podcasting business in their post-pro sports career lives. Mind you, how Rodriguez and Bryant are going about that task is completely different. Read more

While the world of podcasting and podcasting conferences, in general, are exploding, it is somewhat surprising that the Christian world—often one of the fastest to embrace a new medium—is seemingly playing catch-up to the power of collecting a large delegation to talk about all things podcasting. Read more

The British Podcast Awards is shelling out £50,000 ($61,600) in financial support to UK podcasters to enhance their shows. The BPA Fund, a partnership with Wellcome, “creates an exciting new opportunity for podcasters and their listeners to champion conversations around how science affects our health,” the organizations said. Read more

It’s not just U.S. podcasters that are finding success leveraging their content for television producers. Netflix will tap the Danish podcast “Equinox 1985” for a new six-episode original series. It is described as a supernatural thriller about a young woman who is affected by the unexplainable disappearance of a school class in 1999. It topped Denmark’s Apple Podcast chart when released two years ago. Read more

The fading of America’s newspapers and the inability of broadcast news outlets to give every politician the coverage he or she believes they deserve, has created a convenient entryway toward podcasts. Even though some local shows don’t get significant download numbers compared to national hits, they’re reaching a targeted audience of potential voters. And that has big appeal to political operatives. Read more

As the National Geographic’s podcast “Overheard” launches its second season, the biggest takeaway moment may actually come in its final episode. Hosted by editor-at-large Peter Gwin, the show will host a live recording event Dec. 5 that invites listeners to bring their questions and curiosities to National Geographic headquarters in Washington. Read more

The global streaming music service Deezer has been rapidly bulking up its podcast offerings during the past year. Now, thanks to a tailwind of growing consumption worldwide, the company says its monthly podcast usage has soared 250% during the past two years. The Paris-based streamer says listeners have also quadrupled the amount of time they’re listening to podcasts on the platform. Read more

Group Nine this month announced it has partnered with iHeartMedia to extend its digital brands – including Thrillist, NowThis, The Dodo and Seeker – into the podcast age. For a media company that reaches a majority of American twentysomethings, the expansion into podcasts was an easy decision. “They have a grasp on what works, so we don’t have to guess,” VP Brett Kushner told PubEx. Read more

Austin-based uStudio, a podcasting distribution platform focused on the training and internal communications needs of enterprises, has been deemed one of the top 25 “Best Entrepreneurial Companies in America” by Entrepreneur magazine. The list comprises a total of 360 small businesses that “are mastering the art and science of a growing business.” Read more

Bad reviews have been a tool, some say even a weapon, in the battle between rival podcasts. In some cases the use of automated bots has been deployed, with the Apple Podcast review system easy to game. The impact may lower a show’s ranking on the Apple rankers, but does it matter to advertisers and ad agency buyers? Podcast News Daily caught up with Sean King, Executive VP at the audio ad agency Veritone One, to get his take. Read more

Podcasting is growing up. With a greater emphasis on metrics and standardization—perhaps none more emblematic than the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s V2.0 standards that look to standardize what a “download” is—there is more consensus that the industry has moved beyond its “Wild West” days. Read more

The pace of political news will obviously only accelerate in the coming months and that’s led NPR to expand the NPR Politics Podcast to a daily show, publishing each afternoon through Election Day 2020. The show will run about 15 minutes and include a rundown of the day’s top political stories, interviews, quick analysis and some deep dives. Read more

Online news portal Slate expects to garner nearly half of its 2019 revenue not from stories on its website, but via podcasts that it pushes. Slate President Charlie Kammerer says the company has built a “healthy eight-figure business” from podcasts, which a year ago accounted for less than a third of its revenue. “The brand guys are coming in a really aggressive way,” he said. Read more

The ABC 2019 Podcast Survey presented at Australia’s podcast industry conference, OzPod, revealed that listeners are mighty engaged: Among those who tuned into any podcast over the previous week, an average of six podcast episodes were listened to. Respondents also said they prefer original content over replays or reimagined radio podcasts; the vast majority (76%) of episodes listened to in the past month were original. Read more

The latest signal that the audio market is hot? The Interactive Advertising Bureau says its annual Podcast Upfront has sold out and it’s now wait-listing people who want to attend. Those brand managers and media buyers that are allowed entry through the doors of Luce Auditorium at Meredith’s Manhattan headquarters on Oct. 16, will witness a lineup of 12 companies and what they have in store for the coming year, showcasing the value of the rapidly growing medium to Madison Avenue.  Read more

The annual bipartisan Politicon convention, which gathers later this month in Nashville, has aligned with iHeartMedia and Krantz Media Group Networks for an “audio activation strategy.”  Coverage will include real-time podcasts, a live 24/7 channel and live audio featuring the biggest names in politics, entertainment and media. Read more

The podcast industry is marching toward a billion dollars in revenue, which led Voxnest to wonder where those ad dollars are being spent? So it examined which categories of podcasts are capturing the most ad sales among shows that are part of the company’s network. It found no category did better than sports. Read more

An activist shareholder has succeeded in his mission to get a special shareholders meeting to be called to consider installing a new board and potentially a new management team at the podcast hosting and analytics company Libsyn. Carmac Partners wants to oust the current board members, including CEO Chris Spencer, and put in a slate of new directors to oversee the company. Read more

Conan O’Brien has become the biggest show in the Stitcher portfolio with more than 55 million downloads to date. That number will get a boost starting Oct. 7 when the second season of Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend debuts. The new season will benefit from a number of high-profile guests that have been lined up, including Ellen DeGeneres, David Letterman, Paul Rudd, and Tina Fey. Read more

Listening to podcasts in some General Motors models is about to get easier. GM has announced that it will bring Amazon Alexa to millions of Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac vehicles via the new in-vehicle Alexa in the first half of 2020. The move means a driver simply needs to ask Alexa to play a specific podcast and Alexa can fulfill the request by bringing up available streaming services. Read more

The Harvard Business Review is signaling it has more podcast plans up its sleeve. The business and management-geared website has hired podcast veteran Anne Noyes Saini as a senior audio producer. TalkingBizNews reports she’ll be offering editorial guidance for new podcasts on the HBR Presents network and creating new HBR podcasts. Read more

“Torn from the headlines” has been the mantra of television news magazine shows for years, and more podcasters are using the same tactic to attract listeners. Veteran music industry executive Jason Flom, who created and hosts the Wrongful Conviction podcast, is doing that just. His show just scored the first-ever interview with Brendan Dassey, whose case was the center of the “Making a Murderer” documentary series on Netflix. Read more

Prompted by declining users and the addition of podcasts nearly a year ago, Pandora has unveiled a redesigned mobile app that includes several new ways to personalize and discover content. Those include a new feature called For You that the streamer says will be a discovery feed of custom-curated podcast recommendations and music. Pandora says the feed will be based on a user’s unique listening histories, day of the week, and even the time of day.  Read more

Broadway reporter Frank DiLella is expanding his coverage of New York’s live theater scene in a new iHeartPodcast Network show. Show & Tell will be a new weekly show and part of the lineup of the nine-month old iHeartRadio Broadway channel. New episodes will be available every Monday starting Oct. 7. Read more

Ramsey Solutions, founded by financial radio host Dave Ramsey, is launching a campaign to help students and families survive the national student loan crisis. The company has created tools and resources that will educate people on the student loan process. The campaign includes a new podcast and a scholarship giveaway contest. Read more

The podcast based on an all-female fantasy football league is making the real world leap to broadcast. Cumulus Media’s sports “Jox 94.5” WJOX-FM Birmingham, AL will now air the Jasmine Sadry and Amy Voss-hosted First & 10s podcast each Wednesday. For a show that promotes “spicy” opinions, it did take one adjustment: making one of their weekly podcasts FCC compliant. Read more

Television’s longest-running drama series is now also a podcast. NBC and Wolf Entertainment have created a behind-the-scenes podcast for “Law & Order: SVU” that will give fans a fresh way to connect with the show. Squadroom is being positioned as an “after show” with new episodes released each Thursday night following the East Coast airing of the series. Read more

It’s been just over a week since ABC Radio joined the growing list of companies to excise the word “radio” from its name, as the radio network officially adopted ABC Audio as its umbrella brand. On the ABC News podcast Perspective, Bob Iger, Chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Co., discussed what the shift means for the company at large. Read more

Today is International Podcast Day and iHeartMedia is marking the day by announcing the return of the iHeartRadio Podcast Awards. The showcase of the best of what the medium has to offer will be held Jan. 17, 2020 in Los Angeles. The second annual event will honor the most entertaining and innovative podcasts of 2019 and will span 30 categories. The awards show will be streamed and also broadcast live across iHeartMedia-owned radio stations nationwide. Read more

After years of what felt like broadcasters apologizing for no longer being shiny and new, radio in 2019 has triumphantly evolved into “audio,” pivoting on the integration of digital assets and podcasting alongside its continuing dominance over the air. That mindset permeated the Radio Show in Dallas this year, leading one industry executive to conclude “radio is no longer the rustbelt.” Read more

Local broadcasters thinking about expanding their brands into the crowded podcast market got some direction – and a dose of hard-nosed reality – from those who have already taken the plunge at last week’s Radio Show in Dallas. Amelia Robinson, columnist, reporter and podcaster at Cox Media Group Dayton, urged those thinking about jumping into the pool to think it through first. “You don’t need to do a podcast,” she said. Read more

Playlists will be more than just music on Spotify. In response to what Spotify says was a frequent request by users – and in the “true spirit of audio first” that was illustrated by its expansion into podcasting – the service will allow users to combine music and podcasts on the same playlist for a “mixed-media” experience. Users can also set up a playlist of multiple podcasts in a row. Read more

Tech pioneers sometimes get antsy after the company is built and that’s apparently what has led in part to Audioboom CEO Rob Proctor to announce his resignation, effectively immediately. Stuart Last, Audioboom’s Chief Operating Officer and its top executive in the U.S., has been appointed interim CEO as the company’s board begins searching for a permanent replacement. Read more

DAX, the digital advertising platform owned by the U.K. broadcaster Global, has hired Chris Blackburn as Executive VP for Sales and Business Development. He’ll be responsible for DAX’s U.S. sales strategy and will lead the strategic sales division. That includes growing the company’s user and revenue base. Blackburn joins DAX from SoundCloud, where he was Global Head of Sales and Strategic Partnerships for the past four years. Read more