Samantha Henig has joined BuzzFeed as its new executive editor of strategy. She joins the media company after several years with The New York Times, where she was editorial director of audio and helped launch The Daily. Continue Reading
Jane Manchun Wong, the tech blogger who has built a reputation for finding unreleased features, turned her eyes to Spotify once more. She found that Spotify’s latest test emphasizes the easy podcast creation tools it picked up with the Anchor acquisition. Continue Reading
Spotify has another new feature idea being tested by some of its employees. The tool is called Social Listening, and its a way for a group of people to share control of their playback. Continue Reading
Samantha Hennig, Editorial Director of Audio at the New York Times, has announced that she is leaving the organization at the end of the month. In her role, Hennig helped create The Daily, a top U.S. podcast. Hennig was a featured speaker at the 2018 RAIN Podcast Business Summit in New York. Continue Reading
Steve Pratt of Pacific Content examines assumptions and realities of blog publishing frequency. Is daily the best setup for success? Is weekly optimal? Not necessarily in either case. Continue Reading
The drumbeat of Luminary exits reportedly continued over the weekend. Nick Quah, Hot Pod creator and author, cites unnamed sources reporting that podcast app and sales company Stitcher and PRX have joined the exodus. Podnews reports that iHeartRadio is also out. Continue Reading
The great Luminary rollout continues. Today’s ruffle is less about publishers withdrawing from the platform, and more about technical issues. Twitter arguments in progress. And Luminary suggests that hyperlinks in show descriptions are security risks. Continue Reading
After a lengthy back-and-forth negotiation, Gimlet Media appears to have recognized its production staff’s efforts to unionize. On Friday, the union Twitter account posted that the union has been recognized. A Gimlet producer tweeted that the production staff has had a re-vote on the plans and that a majority was in support of the union. Continue Reading
After much speculation and apprehension, in which Luminary was fearfully criticized as a potentially ruinous force in podcasting which could blot out traditional free listening, the app is in hand. As of today, Luminary is a routine podcatcher that presents “hundreds of thousands” of shows, and offers a premium subscription for original, ad-free programs laced with celebrity names. Continue Reading
Sonos has added partial support for Apple Music to its smart speakers. For now, the streaming service is only accessible on Sonos One and Sonos Beam devices. This is a big move from two businesses that have been slow to adopt new partners in the smart speaker space. Continue Reading
Gimlet Media’s production staff announced plans to unionize with the Writers Guild of America, East two weeks ago. However, the team’s efforts may not have an easy or straightforward path to success. Continue Reading
The podcast creation staff at Gimlet Media has decided to unionize with the Writers Guild of America, East. The union will cover branded and editorial Gimlet employees, but not managers, marketing, or sales team members. Continue Reading