Speaking as a Wesleyan grad who majored in something that literally has the word “social” in the name, it’s really weird timing to be writing about a genre that includes Ben Shapiro. But whatever, this column has been a few weeks in the making, so let’s just roll with it. I’d like to begin by […]

iHeartMedia strikes multiyear creative partnership with Cloud10, the Los Angeles-based podcast network and production studio founded by Sim Sarna. Cloud10 is known for building out a portfolio of distinctly celebrity-driven shows like Work in Progress with Sophia Bush, Minor Adventures with Topher Grace, and Busy Phillips is Doing Her Best, and the studio itself comes […]

Last week, my eye was caught by a press release about a newly formed partnership between Bitcast, an iOS podcast clip sharing app, and Podcast Notes, a website that summarizes podcasts. The story used phrases like “a new paradigm in social audio” and “podcast clips emerge as an incredibly powerful new medium” — market clichés […]

Here’s a technical experiment that caught my attention recently. For about a week and a half starting on Election Day, the Washington Post ran automated AI-powered audio updates reporting local and national election results at the top of episodes from three of its podcasts: Post Reports, Can He Do That?, and The Daily 202’s Big […]

Quick thing… Apple Podcasts has rolled out a new web embed player feature, which has been a long time coming for the dominant podcast distribution platform. Also: Content creators John and Hank Green, best known together for their Vlogbrothers YouTube channel among a plethora of other projects, seem to have parted podcasting ways with WNYC. On […]

The Swedish audio streaming platform announced the move this morning, stating in the official press release that it has “entered into a definitive agreement” to buy the podcast hosting platform currently owned by Graham Holdings. The deal is expected to come in at around $235 million, pending review, according to a person familiar with the […]

All three podcast content companies that were acquired by Spotify since early 2019 — Gimlet, Parcast, and The Ringer — have officially unionized with the Writers Guild of America, East, and this morning, they’ve issued a joint statement pushing the Swedish audio streaming platform to engage them in “prompt and good-faith” contract negotiations. Here’s the […]