“Off Book” departs Earwolf to ART19, for hosting and exclusive ad sales

The comedy podcast Off Book: The Improvised Musical Podcast has jumped from Earwolf, a division of Stitcher, to ART19 which will host the show and handle all sales.

“We love Off Book,” said ART19 CRO Lex Friedman. “There are no other podcasts that can promise advertisers improvised songs about their brand, so it’s a joy to sell — and listeners look forward to every single episode!” Friedman is an ex-Stitcher executive.

Off Book, hosted by comedians Jessica McKenna and Zach Reino, launched in 2017 as the world’s first improvised musical podcast. Now more than 180 episodes later, Zach and Jess have crafted musicals in real-time on topics like love, grocery stores, aliens, and time travel — with an impressive roster of guests including Rachel Bloom, Paul F. Tompkins, Felicia Day, and Conan O’Brien.

In a statement, Jess and Zach said, “You need a statement for a press release? Does it have to rhyme? We’re mostly excited that we’ll be able to keep making musicals every week, and that over time our fans will have access to all our old episodes for free again, too!”

Off Book feed followers knew something was in the wind when the January 5 show dropped with these episode notes: “Today begins with a special message from Zach and Jess as they celebrate their very last show on Earwolf.” Since then the show hosts have announced and promoted a listener patronage effort at Memberful.

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