Insider: September 24, 2019
– Pocket Casts switches its business model
– Descript raises $15 million Series A, acquires AI company
– “Moving product”
Reset: Vox Media Podcast Network’s Next Big Swing
This has been in the works for a while, but it’s finally coming out soon. On October 15, Vox Media will officially launch Reset, its upcoming technology news podcast that was originally announced back in February as part of what Axios described as a “multi-million dollar deal” expanding the partnership Vox Media struck up Stitcher […]
Slate is doubling down on What Next
Slate is doubling down on What Next, its daily news podcast. The company is dramatically expanding its team in a few directions, including: installing Mary Wilson as dedicated politics editor to chart the show’s coverage of Washington and the 2020 presidential election cycle, moving producer Jayson De Leon onto the special projects team that will […]
Tracking: September 17, 2019
At NPR, Pod $$ projected to beat Broad $$. Over at Current, Tyler Falk reports that NPR is expecting its podcast sponsorship revenues to surpass broadcast sponsorship revenues for the first time next year… which, you know, is a pretty big marker. That projection was given during the NPR membership meeting that took place on […]
Insider: September 12, 2019
– Vox Media’s Recode will debut Reset, as part of its expanded partnership with Stitcher, on October 15
– The Athletic and Wondery are making a daily sports news baby
– More on the strategic aspect of the NPR Morning Edition on Smart Speaker product
Platisher, Ye Cometh
Spotify has made two interesting personnel moves to bolster its podcast development pipeline around two key genres, sports and news, according to a report by The Information that dropped on Friday. Firstly, the company has hired Amy Hudson, most recently the sports media partnerships lead at Facebook, to oversee its sports programming assets. Secondly, David […]
NPR’s New CEO
Last Thursday, NPR’s board of directors announced Jarl Mohn’s replacement as the chief executive of the public radio mothership: John Lansing, a veteran media executive who currently serves as the head of the US Agency for Global Media (formerly known as the Broadcasting Board of Governors), the federally-funded agency that oversees government-owned international broadcasters like […]
Tracking: September 10, 2019
The thing about the Apple App store… The New York Times published a report yesterday, which essentially revisits a Wall Street Journal article from July, about how Apple’s app store seems to often privilege the company’s own apps over everyone else’s. It’s a topic that fuels broader on-going complaints over anti-competitive behavior by big technology […]
Insider: September 5, 2019
– Axios: Himalaya might not actually have $100 million in funding
– Sword and Scale creator threatens legal action against the creator of Obscura
– NPR’s Morning Edition can now be streamed over Alexa smart speakers, local content included
What happens in the absence of recognition?
“I’ve achieved a peculiar sort of success,” said Nate DiMeo, creator of The Memory Palace, when we spoke over the phone last week on the occasion of the podcast being featured as the subject of a Radiolab episode that dropped last week. By “peculiar,” DiMeo was referring to what he perceives as the podcast’s cult […]