The latest signal that the era of the big podcast companies merely being creators of content is over comes with iHeartMedia’s announcement that it is buying Voxnest. Launched in 2018 following the merger of Spreaker and BlogTalkRadio, Voxnest brings to iHeart a suite of advertising capabilities and tools including podcast analytics, enterprise publishing, programmatic integration, and targeted ad serving. Terms of the deal weren’t immediately released. iHeartMedia had owned a minority stake in Voxnest. Read more

A common thread through many of the discussions at this year’s virtual Podcast Movement conference is talk of growth, and how to capitalize on a media that is seeing its audience and revenue expand. Since the industry gathered for last year’s event in Orlando, there have been several more large deals reshaping the industry. Executives think that means not only more consolidation but a growing focus on the kinds of ad tech that are bringing brand dollars to the space. Read more

For podcasters who still view their business as budding, billionaire Mark Cuban has a sobering sentiment to share: The hour is much later than you think. “When you see aggregation and consolidation like we’re seeing now with Spotify buying these podcasters, that doesn’t mean it’s early days,” Cuban said Thursday during a Podcast Movement virtual event. “It means it’s late days — because that business has matured enough that they decided to buy into it rather than create.” Read more

Now that Stitcher has new owners in SiriusXM, it has unveiled a redesigned podcast app that it says will offer a more personalized listening experience. The new Stitcher platform has been revamped end-to-end, from the technology backbone to the front-facing user interface. The company says a simplified design prioritizes a new, more customizable experience that fits the myriad ways users manage their shows and personal app experience. Read more

Podcasting gets a new subscription-based company with the launch of Quake Media … Spotify has reportedly taken four podcasts out of distribution for promoting far-right QAnon conspiracy theories … Google is making it easier for users to play podcasts on its smart speakers using Spotify … Wondery is releasing a new season of its popular Business Wars podcast, but in a move to help boost sales of its Wondery Plus subscription service the show will only be available to paid users. Read more

A trio of executives with experience beyond podcasting and media are planting a flag in the audio segment. Hospitality and live event executives Robert Tuchman and Brett Sklar and sports marketing executive Stephen Master have partnered together to establish the newly formed Amaze Media Labs. The new venture will create branded content and experiences including branded podcasts and live and virtual events for marketers. Read more

The holly jolly of Christmas music has long filled radio airwaves and in a year when a pandemic continues to fill the headlines Americans are craving even more cheer. A joint project by iHeartMedia and Podtrac will offer opportunities for podcasts too, as holiday travel plans come together. An iHeart survey shows three-quarters of podcast listeners are looking for experiences that improve their mood this holiday season. And trends point to continued growth in downloads. Read more

It is a pretty good bet most Porsche Taycan buyers won’t select the sports car based on the availability of Apple Podcasts. But once they are in the driver’s seat, they will now find the newly updated dashboard includes support for Apple Podcasts. It is the first-ever full integration of Apple Podcasts in any vehicle. The automaker says adding podcasts embodies the “pioneering spirit” of Porsche and its first all-electric car. Read more

Just days after closing its $325 million deal to buy Stitcher, SiriusXM presented its quarterly update to investors. It includes insights into how all of its podcasting assets fit into the satellite radio company, where ad revenue is heading, and why broadcast radio is still audio’s top dog.  Read more

Amy Brown and iHeartMedia will co-produce a slate of health and wellness podcasts under a new partnership. Brown, the co-host of iHeartMedia’s “The Bobby Bones Show,” launches The Amy Brown Podcast Network this week with a trio of titles: “OUTWEIGH with Amy Brown & Lisa Hayim,” “You Need Therapy with Kathryn DeFatta” and “The Truthiest Life with Lisa Hayim.” Read more

Graham Bunn, former host for USA Networks’ “RealCountry” and Mount Wilson FM “Go Country 105” KKGO Los Angeles, launches a new podcast series, Country Shine with Graham Bunn, Oct. 27. Bunn’s podcast, which will premiere new episodes twice a week, is part of an overall podcast development deal between Spotify and Scooter Braun's Ithaca Holdings. Read more

Since its premiere in January 1987, Unsolved Mysteries has been one of the longest-running programs in the history of TV, and the first series to introduce an audience-interactive “call-to-action” that requests viewer tips to help solve real cases. That has built it a big following that producers now look to bring to podcasting. The show’s creators Cosgrove/Meurer Productions have partnered with Cadence13 to develop a weekly podcast set to launch in early 2021. Read more

Host-read ads have been the cornerstone of podcasting’s monetization efforts for years and new research from Nielsen reinforces that strategy. In findings released today from its Podcast Ad Effectiveness survey, Nielsen says ads that hosts read drive more brand recall than non-host-read ads. Read more

Isolation, loneliness, and stress – such emotions hang over 2020 as home and work lives continue to be disrupted by a pandemic no one saw coming. That rapid change in America’s psyche may be helping drive more people to spoken word content and podcasts. Edison Research Senior VP Tom Webster told the Podcast Movement conference that podcasting, long labeled as an “intimate” media, has become a “companion medium” in 2020. “Podcast audiences have changed,” he said. Read more

True crime podcasts have not only proved to be compelling listens, but as producers dig into the past they are increasingly shining a light into dark corners of history that people have tried to keep secret. The latest example comes from the Apostrophe Podcast Network and Acast, which today (Oct. 21) debuts a true-crime podcast that examines a 1979 death in South Florida that tipped investigators off to more than they expected. Read more

On the heels of its five-week “The History of Alternative” takeover, Cumulus Media alternative WKQX Chicago, continues the theme with its companion podcast and a new four-hour Sunday morning program, hosted by morning man Brian Phillips. The podcast of the same name debuted during the five-week programming block and is hosted by WKQX’s James VanOsdol and Jon Manley. Read more

In a move to increase monetization of the podcasts its hosts, Sounder has integrated Triton Digital’s dynamic audio ad insertion technology directly into its platform. The move enables podcast creators to monetize both new and back-catalog episodes within the same platform. The dynamically-inserted audio ads will be heard not only on Sounder, but wherever listeners stream the podcast. Read more

NPR has become the latest network to subscribe to Nielsen’s Podcast Buying Power service. The deal the public media company access to insights spanning 18 genres and numerous listening preferences that can be cross-referenced among a variety of consumer purchase behavior patterns and services usage. And while podcasters only see data on their own shows, ad buyers will get information on the more than 150 individual podcast titles measured. Read more

Coca-Cola is one of radio’s longest-running advertisers, dating back decades. But as the audio medium finds new resonance among marketers, the soft drink brand is taking a fresh look at how it fits into the media plan. Mindshare Executive Director Ritu Trivedi says advertisers have to start by looking at media plans holistically. They no longer have “why audio” but “how audio” conversations as they look at ways to make it part of a media plan. Read more

One of podcasting’s biggest shows is on the sidelines this week. Host Joe Rogan took to Instagram on Tuesday to announce show producer Jamie Vernon has tested positive for COVID-19. “I tested negative, and the rest of the staff tested negative but we’re shutting everything down until we get an all-clear from our doctor,” said Rogan. Read more

Spkr, the audio platform that’s focused on podcasts and other short-form content, has been acquired by the streaming video company Loop Media. Spkr was co-founded last year by former CBS Radio President Andy Schuon. As part of the rollup, Schuon will assume the newly created role of Head of Loop Media Studios and will be responsible for all content and programming creation and acquisitions. The value of the all-stock deal was $3 million, according to a filing with the SEC. Read more

Podcast downloads slid four percent last week, according to Podtrac, which reports that among the shows and publishers it tracks the rate of growth was still undeniably double-digit — downloads were up 50% compared to the same week a year ago. The Arts category showed the only week-over-week download growth among the major genres, with Business showing the biggest dip. Read more

Graham Holdings, the media conglomerate that owns the podcast-hosting platform Megaphone, seven local television stations and online media like Slate, sees a bigger future for itself in podcasts. But while some publishers are targeting national and global audiences, Graham sees its opening on the local front. It has reunited with former Slate Editor-In-Chief David Plotz to launch City Cast. The company says it will be a national network of daily local podcasts. Read more

With COVID quarantine restrictions lifted in some areas, audio listening is shifting from the home and back into the car, new data from Edison Research shows. The latest research from Share of Ear, conducted in early September, shows in-car listening grew from 20% in Q2 to 28% today, approaching but not quite equaling the pre-COVID level of 32% of all listening. Meanwhile, there is an uptick in at-work listening. Read more

Two spots – one pre-roll and the other mid-roll – is the optimal advertising maneuver. That is according to a new Podsights study that examined the number of ads placed in an episode and where they were inserted to determine the best return on ad spending for marketers using the medium. It also found that overall, embedded ads had a higher conversion rate than dynamically inserted ads. Read more

SiriusXM now occupies a larger role in podcasting after it closed a deal on Monday to buy Stitcher from the E.W. Scripps Co. The $325 million deal includes the Midroll advertising rep firm; owned-and-operated podcast networks including the comedy-focused Earwolf; and the Stitcher podcast listening platform. Stitcher CEO Erik Diehn and Chief Revenue Officer Sarah van Mosel will remain with the company, now a sister to Pandora, AdsWizz and Simplecast. Read more

The 50th anniversary of Muhammad Ali’s historic comeback fight is Oct. 26. It is also the anniversary of a mysterious heist that took place during the after-party which began one of the largest armed robberies in U.S. history. The two events will be revisited in a new true crime podcast. Fight Night, a co-production of the iHeartPodcast Network, Doghouse Pictures and Will Packer Media will also touch on the racial tensions of the 1970s that resonate in 2020. Read more

The Media Rating Council has revoked accreditation for Triton Digital’s Webcast Metrics Local service. The MRC said the certification had previously been suspended. It also reported that the accreditation of Triton’s Webcast Metrics service has been suspended since May 2 pending the resolution of “non-compliance situations.” But the company says it’s working to fix those issues. Read more

Chartable, the podcast analytics and attribution company, has rolled out a number of major changes in the works announcing what it is calling “Chartable 2.” That includes delivering statistics and download reports more quickly. It reflects a change in the industry itself. Since starting its RSS feed integration two years ago, the company has gone from tracking thousands of download requests per day to over 100 million, adding up to over a billion unique downloads per month. Read more

The IAB says branded podcasts represented just three percent of industry revenue last year. But that segment of the business has continued to grow and a survey of local advertisers suggests that more may be coming from that part of the business.

A survey of small and medium-sized local businesses by Borrell Associates shows that content marketing is gaining favor among small and medium-sizes businesses during the COVID era. Read more

Plenty of podcasts are talking about President Trump and Joe Biden and the upcoming election, and one of the two candidates is spending on podcast advertising too. Magellan AI reports the Biden campaign was the tenth-biggest podcast advertiser during September, spending an estimated $163,000 on the medium. That’s seven times more than the Trump campaign. Overall, Magellan said BetterHelp was the top advertiser on podcasts it tracks. Read more

Sir Martin Sorrell has never been short on opinions, building a reputation during his decades working in the advertising world where he built WPP into what at one point was the biggest ad agency holding company on the planet. Today Sorrell, 75, is immersed in the world of digital and when he sat down on the latest episode of iHeartMedia CEO Bob Pittman’s podcast Math & Magic, the question of podcasting came up. In typical Sorrell fashion, he pulled no punches with his host. Here’s what he said. Read more

While some podcasters are purposefully keeping transcripts away from listeners out of concern they will reduce actual listening, the podcast-hosting platform Buzzsprout has launched a new feature that will allow producers to easily distribute their own episode transcripts to listeners. The company said adding this feature to its feeds is “critical” to search-engine optimization. Podcast Addict has become the first to integrate Buzzsprout’s new transcript distribution toolset into its app. Read more

The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) has during the past two years grown its ranks of digital journalists, including a roster of podcast companies where writers, producers and hosts have turned to the union to help protect their rights in the fast-growing industry. Its newly-launched WGA Audio Alliance now aims to organize the writers who are working on high-budget scripted podcasts to receive what the union says is fair compensation, pension and health benefits, and credit for their work. Read more

From music on the radio to commercials on television, it seems DJ Khaled has his hands in just about every platform where people consume media. So it was probably only a matter of time until he launched a podcast. The First One is his new show that features the Grammy winner delving into the biggest hits of all-time with his favorite artists, many of whom he has worked with during his two decades in the music business. Read more

Actor Joshua Jackson will replace Jamie Dornan in the TV adaptation of Dr. Death … Actress Taraji P. Henson is making a move into podcasting … Audible has acquired the Podcast.com and Podcasting.com URLs … Google has added a new feature that it says will better help shows get discovered in Google Search …Tenderfoot TV has teamed up with Lights Up to develop a pair of podcasts. Read more

The vast array of podcasts means advertisers have more options than ever before to reach their listeners. For a growing number of clients, that is allowing them to move from embracing a specific podcast or two to placing ads across a genre or two of shows and target audiences and not just the people who hear a specific show. Read more

Apple, Google, Amazon and now Sonos. The audio device makers each have come to the same conclusion — they want in on podcasting. Sonos is the newest entrant as it has become a significant investor in the podcast studio QCode. That is the podcast studio launched last year by former CAA agent Rob Herting. QCode has raised $6.4 million in a Series A funding round, led by Sonos with participation by C Ventures, a Hong Kong-based venture capital firm. Read more

On the heels of new research showing spoken-word content continues to nab more listening time from music-based programming, Spotify has announced that it is rolling out the test of a new radio-like feature that will allow users to mix both music and spoken-word segments into a single audio stream. Spotify said it makes it possible for creators to “leverage the power of music streaming in their talk shows.” Read more

A time capsule of the strangest year of our lives, and a timeless meditation on love in all its forms. That is how the international podcast studio Paradiso is describing Love Under Lockdown. The new podcast — its first in English — is an audio diary that follows four couples navigating the highs and lows of quarantining together amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. It has debuted this week ad-free on Stitcher Premium. Beginning October 29, the series will be available on all podcast platforms. Read more

The disrupted school year did not disrupt the NPR Student Podcast Challenge during the last school year, with 2,200 entries from 46 states and Washington, D.C. submitted. School life has still not returned to normal, but NPR is pushing forward with a third year of the competition with an expansion. NPR is opening up the contest to anyone pursuing their associate’s or bachelor’s degrees, in addition to middle and high school students. Read more

A new podcast series “Anything for Selena” hosted by WBUR’s Maria Garcia explores the rise and tragic death of Tejano crossover pop star Selena Quintanilla, while weaving in Garcia’s personal story as a queer, first-generation Mexican immigrant. “Selena defined my childhood and her legacy has stayed with me into adulthood,” Garcia says. Read more

More than half of Americans have listened to a podcast and the growing popularity of the on-demand format is helping to re-slice the audio content pie. The second annual Spoken Word Audio Report, which Edison Research produced with NPR, shows 19% of spoken-word listening now goes to podcasts, a 12% increase from a year ago. “Over the past six years, spoken-word audio has been chipping away at music listening,” said NPR Chief Marketing Officer Michael Smith. Read more

Spoken word’s share of audio listening has grown by 30% during the past six years according to Edison Research. That includes an eight percent increase in the past year. But why are people listening? The second annual Spoken Word Audio Report, which Edison produced with NPR, offers ten insights into what is behind that changing listening habit. Here’s what they found. Read more

Eight months after it hired an outside financial advisor to examine “strategic options” for the company, including a potential sale, Audioboom has ended the process. Despite having advanced talks with several parties, the board ultimately decided the price the potential suitors were willing to pay was less than what they believe Audioboom is worth. The company has instead brought on a Singaporean investor. Meantime, the company says revenue grew 15% during the third quarter. Read more

The podcast-hosting platform Sounder is teaming up with DAX – the Digital Ad Exchange – to help show producers secure more revenue for their podcasts. When the service launches later this month, networks and individual podcasts with more than 25,000 monthly streams will be eligible for partnerships with the hundreds of nationally recognized brands in DAX’s network. Both host-read and dynamically inserted ads will be available to ad buyers. Read more

Curtis Flowers, the man at the center of the acclaimed APM Reports investigative podcast In the Dark, will sit down with the show for the first time. In an episode to be released today (Oct. 14), Flowers will tell his story to Madeleine Baran, the podcast’s host and lead reporter. It will be Flowers’ first full-length interview since becoming a free man. “Up until now, we’ve been missing the voice of the central figure in this story,” said Baran. Read more

Apple has unveiled the new HomePod mini smart speaker device, which promises to provide impressive sound, a Siri-enabled voice assistant and smart home experience packed within a 3.3-inch compact design. Priced at $99, the new addition to the HomePod family works with Apple Music, iHeartRadio, Radio.com and TuneIn. Access to Pandora and Amazon Music will be added soon, the company says. Read more

Keywords drive much of digital ad targeting, and they now play a greater role for podcast ads sold by Acast. The podcast publisher has expanded its targeting capabilities to allow marketers to home-in on their target using specific keywords uttered during an episode. Powered by an AI engine transcribing thousands of hours of podcast episodes, it will ensure advertisers’ campaigns appear alongside the most relevant content possible while taking into account the nature of that conversation.  Read more

The Podcast Academy, the industry effort to raise awareness of podcasting, has seen an awards show as part of its strategy since the organization came together last spring. More details about that plan have been released. What is being called The Ambies is slated to take place next March 28 in Los Angeles. For the initial debut of The Ambies, there will be a total of 23 categories, with any show that’s released three episodes in 2020 eligible to compete. Read more