And there you have it: Stitcher will have a new parent company. The Wall Street Journal’s Anna Steele had the scoop last night, reporting that SiriusXM will buy Stitcher from EW Scripps in a deal that’s valued at around $300 million, citing people familiar with the matter. That value would make this the biggest podcast […]

This Week in Spotify. Two stories that are part of the same thread: First, today, Spotify is releasing localized versions of Sandra, Gimlet’s scripted podcast series from 2018, in four non-English speaking markets: Brazil, France, Germany, and Mexico. According to the corporate blog post, the effort involved script alterations, casting choices, and local production teams […]

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We were on track to have a very different kind of 2020. That’s an obvious understatement, but it’s a statement worth making nonetheless. Podcast listenership had continued to grow at a steady and dependable pace. According to the latest Infinite Dial report, an estimated 104 million Americans over the age of 12 now identify as […]

ICYMI. Probably the biggest “whoa, if true” story from last week: The Information reports that EW Scripps is shopping Stitcher around for a sale. SiriusXM and Spotify were cited as possible suitors. As a reminder, Scripps paid over $50 million for Midroll Media in 2015 and about $4.5 million for the Stitcher app in 2016, […]

One of the biggest stations in the public radio system, WBUR has long been notable to this newsletter for its alumni network of podcast talents — among them: New York Times Audio executive producer Lisa Tobin as well as Rococo Punch’s Jessica Alpert and John Perrotti, who I should note I work with on my […]

This Week in Spotify. More content deals from the Swedish audio streaming platform: one with Kim Kardashian-West to produce a criminal justice podcast that will distributed under the Parcast banner — which increasingly appears to be the most interesting of all Spotify’s acquisitions thus far — and one with Warner Bros and DC, which opens […]

Today, we’re launching Servant of Pod, my new weekly podcast about podcasts that I’m making in partnership with LAist Studios. It will be, for the most part, an interview/conversational show, though we’ll see what else we can do with the format as we get our feet under us and start building out some muscle. My […]