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• Exclusive: The Between Two Beers podcast, New Zealand’s most popular long-form interview podcast, has signed a multi-year deal with Acast. The partnership will include ad and sponsorship opportunities on the audio podcast, video podcast and associated social channels. The show was previously with NZME.


• Reasons to be cheerful: at Signal Hill Insights, Paul Riismandel is optimistic about podcasting in 2025 - pointing out that much has changed in the ten years since Serial. Not least - there’s a 3.4x greater chance of finding an audience in 2025 than in 2014.


• “You’re not buying enough podcasts”: Cumulus Media’s message to advertisers in the company’s 2025 Audioscape. No brand is coming close to saturating podcast audiences, says Pierre Bouvard.

💰 Join the High Rollers Club with Supporting Cast — Radiolab, Dunc'd On, The Tennis Podcast, Dateline, Savage Lovecast, and other shows will earn up to seven figures this year using the Supporting Cast membership platform.

🎧 Drive Podcast Downloads on Player FM — Use Player FM’s self-serve ad platform to boost impressions, plays, and engagement for your show. Affordable plans available to fit any podcaster. Launch your campaign now!

• Podscribe added an “audience overlap” tool, which allows advertisers to evaluate listener duplication across channels, shows, campaigns and publishers.


• Podtrac has added two new features for customers of its $20/month “grow your show” plan - Smartlinks, to measure the effectiveness of online promotions, and rankings from Apple Podcasts and Spotify.


• What’s in and out for 2025? Lauren Passell and Arielle Nissenblatt have written a blog post, and will discuss the post in a LinkedIn event this Friday.


• Just before Christmas, Podnews investigated Licensync, a “collection agency” which was sending invoices of more than $7,300 to podcast directories. One month later, we note that their website has been suspended. Your support of Podnews did that. Thank you.

Thank you to Jennifer Henczel, the founder of the Women Podcasters Awards and of the Women Podcasters Network for becoming our latest personal supporter. It’s people like Jennifer who allow us to dig deep into stories like Licensync (above), people like Jennifer are paying for everyone to access Podnews without a pay wall. You can support us here.

People News

• Jim Lawson has joined the Collective Heads consulting group. Lawson moves from KOSI Denver, and iHeart Media to the company, which offers, among other things, a set of podcast support services.


• Bailey Sarian has been signed by Underscore Talent. She hosts Audioboom’s Murder, Mystery & Makeup, as well as a wildly successful YouTube channel, and other outlets.


• John Morris has been hired as Chief Product Officer at SoundStack. Morris worked at Abacast, WideOrbit, and Audacy.

Focus

Since 1996, The Webby Awards has been recognized as the preeminent international honor for Internet excellence. Winners are selected by a community of artists, innovators, and creators spanning all facets of digital culture. When you enter The Webbys, your work is seen by the judging body, the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS).

Judges for Podcasts this year include: Adam Pincus, CEO, Best Case Studio, LeVar Burton, Actor, Podcaster, and TV Host, Ashley Flowers, Founder & CCO, Audiochuck and Host, Crime Junkie Podcast, Jay Shetty, Host, On Purpose, Jen Sargent, CEO, Wondery, and Rory Brown, Chief Brand Officer, Patreon.

Don't miss your chance, enter the 29th Annual Webby Awards by the Extended Entry Deadline on February 7th, 2025!

Tips and tricks

• What are the most popular names? In 2021, we discovered that the most popular podcast name was “Les podcasts de Graffiti Urban Radio” which is a bit weird. But, there are 270 shows called “Real Talk”, and 185 shows called, er, “Podcast”. Read the rest of the list to avoid.

Podcast News

• With Airwave: According to Big Picture Science's latest episode, the best things in life are tree(s). Seth Shostak says: “Airwave's expert services free us to use our creative energies to make the best show we can. Without a doubt, our program is simply better thanks to the efforts of Airwave.”


• The subject of LEONARD: Political Prisoner, Leonard Peltier, has had his sentence commuted to home confinement. It was one of the last actions of outgoing President Joe Biden. America's longest serving Indigenous political prisoner, he will return to Turtle Mountain Reservation, where he was born, to serve out the remainder of his life sentence.


• The new John Lee Dumas simulcast MicroStrategy Today: Daily insights of MSTR has exclusively signed with YAP Media for sales support. The daily show covers news, updates and insights related to this new investing topic; it's in video in YouTube and Spotify.


• The Ballen Studios and Wondery podcast REDACTED: Declassified Mysteries with Luke Lamana launches on video today, "and can be accessed on both YouTube and the Wondery app" (though no mention of Spotify).


• The Daily Mail has launched its first US podcast - Welcome to MAGAland: Inside Trump’s Second 100 Days. The show is hosted by the Mail’s DC Editor, Kelly Laco and NY-based Chief US Reporter, Germania Rodriguez, and promises the gossip; the scandals; the fashion; the family; the accusations; and – of course – the biggest political news stories of the day.


• The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson is new from Premiere Networks and iHeartMedia this week. We're promised "unfiltered insights, exclusive interviews, and honest commentary you won’t get from the mainstream media", according to the press release. For the record, iHeartMedia reaches 9 out of 10 Americans every month with a greater reach than any other US media company: the literal definition of mainstream media.


• Making sense of sustainable farming is new from Tortoise in the UK. After a winter of discussion about farming, the series exp