iHeartRadio has formed a partnership with Barbara Corcoran, one of the regular “sharks” in the reality startup show Shark Tank, to launch the Business Unusual podcast hosted by Corcoran, sponsored by Dell Small Business. It is a monologue format in which the real estate mogul delivers a business lesson (or two) in what is promoted as a “snackable” five-minute show. Continue Reading
Podcast content and advertising company Midroll Media harvested $11-million in first-quarter revenue, according to the Q1 earnings call for parent company Scripps. How that haul filtered down to the bottom line was undisclosed in the call. Continue Reading
NPR, WNYC Studios, WBEZ Chicago, and This American Life have joined forces to acquire podcasting app Pocket Casts. Owen Grover, formerly executive vice president and general manager of iHeartRadio, will join Pocket Casts as its new CEO. Continue Reading
audioBoom is contributing to “Better Hearing Month” (May) by launching the Listen-In Campaign in collaboration with the Starkey Hearing Foundation. Starkey provides hearing aids and healthcare to people with hearing impairment in 100 countries. The podcast company has enlisted at least 16 podcasts it represents to participate in the fundraising. Continue Reading
The 2017 Peabody Awards winners for radio/podcast have been chosen. Serial Productions maintains its success rate, securing a win for its new podcast S-Town. Uncivil: The Raid by Gimlet Media also took a win for its depiction of an event during the Civil War. Continue Reading
Picking up from yesterday’s Part 1 of the conversation between Pacific Media’s Steve Pratt and Google’s Podcasts Product Manager Zack Reneau-Wedeen, today’s installment in the five-part series has Reneau-Wedeen evangelizing audio and planning its rise in Google information ecosystem. “There’s no good reason why audio isn’t a first-class citizen,” he said. Continue Reading
Google intends to double the podcast audience in a couple of years, and correct what it sees as an imbalance in Android’s share of delivery compared to iPhones. Some of Google’s podcast discovery and listening strategy is already implemented, and it shines a meaningful light on Google’s potential power to come from way behind Apple’s 13-year advantage in delivering podcasts to its iTunes and Podcasts app audiences. Continue Reading
Spotify has introduced a new multimedia format that blends video and audio components. The feature is called Spotlight, and it can unite photos, video, or text when listening to podcasts, audiobooks, or news. We located Spotlight in Spotify’s Android app. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Podcasts are now 25% at Slate. YouTube tightens access to ad program. Programmatic and podcasts at Spotify. Continue Reading
This guest column by Corey Layton, Content and Marketing Director at Whooshkaa, boldly predicts th podcast industry into 2018. Even more bravely, this article looks back at Corey Layton’s 2017 predictions. Continue Reading
General Motors is reportedly adding podcasts to the dashboard of about one-million cars. Only a handful of podcasts will be included in a proprietary selection. The most interesting aspect of this venture is GM’s recognition of podcasting as a worthy audio category around which to build business relationships and proprietary distribution products. Continue Reading
The awaited Podcast Analytics suite from Apple has arrived in beta. Whatever its shortfalls in the minds of some industry observers, and however ambivalent some podcast publishers might be about the intrusion of new data, Apple’s reporting of podcast consumption will sharply influence the shape, growth and revenue prospects of podcasting. Details and RAIN analysis. Continue Reading