Before I get into our top story, a quick reminder that tomorrow at 11 a.m. EST Quill is hosting a webinar with founder Fatima Zaidi and Sounds Profitable partner Tom Webster. Over the 45 minute presentation, they will cover how to understand who your listeners are, how to track listener journeys across platforms, how to align podcast performance with business goals, and how to improve podcast ROI. Registration is free and available here. See you there.
American Public Media Parting With Brains On! Universe
This afternoon a representative from American Public Media made available to Sounds Profitable an internal memo from APM president Chandra Kavati regarding Brains On! Universe, a collection of educational kid-focused podcasts. The brand, including award-winning series like Brains On! and Smash Boom Best, are now for sale as APM looks to find a new owner for BOU. Kavati says the sale is motivated by the realities of monetizing and growing Kids & Family content, which have shifted to favor enterprises with more capital and scale than memberships, grants, and sponsorship revenue can provide. In the interim fifteen positions are to be eliminated, with a BOU production team being given the option to extend two more weeks to thoughtfully inform the younger audience of BOU winding down production until a new home is found. Interested parties may contact Kavati.
Study: Podcast Ads Can Help Radio Brands Fill The Gender Gap by Cameron Coats
RadioInk covers Tom Webster’s latest article sharing data from The Advertising Landscape. As Webster points out, respondents to the Advertising Landscape survey show the difference in recall for podcast ads is 1% among genders. So small it’s statistically insignificant (the full numbers are 86% for men, 85% for women). By comparison, AM/FM radio has a gap of 86% recall for men and 75% for women. Coats goes on to highlight podcasting’s synergistic relationship with traditional radio, and how podcast ads can help bridge that existing gender gap. The second chapter of The Advertising Landscape, focusing on Attention and Trust metrics, debuts this Wednesday at 2 p.m. EST. You can sign up here both for Tom Webster’s webinar and to be among the first to receive the report after the show.
Internet advertising spend reaches $4.2billion in March 2025 quarter
As the headline says, IAB Australia’s new Internet Advertising Revenue Report, published today, finds the market grew 11.6% year over year in Q1. 79% of agencies surveyed plan to increase their podcast investments this year. Audio investment overall grew 18% y-o-y, reaching $77.3 million AUD.
How We Actually Sell Podcasts to Skeptical Decision-Makers
JAR Audio has published an article going over the process of pitching podcast production to decision-makers who still need convincing. Decision-makers likely even listen to podcasts and academically understand their popularity, but moving to commit money to podcasting is the big step. JAR starts with “don’t pitch what you love, pitch what they actually care about.” They also start with existing pain points before weaving in the story of why a podcast would be a good idea. Few CEOs are actively stressing about not having a branded podcast for their company, but they likely are thinking about things like content budgets and stagnant growth (things podcasts are a good fit to help with).
As for the rest of the news…
- After 16 years and over 1600 episodes, WTF with Marc Maron is set to end this fall.
- Moguls of Media, in partnership with Forever Dog, has kicked off Pride month with the launch of RnR with Courtney Act.
- Forbes covers Steven Bartlett becoming co-owner of creator commerce platform Stan.
- A new festival circuit trailer for Age of Audio, a documentary about the evolution of podcasting, has been uploaded ahead of its June 29th premier at the Oak Cliff Film Festival. Interviewees featured include Ira Glass, Kevin Smith, and Tom Webster.
- iHeartMedia is launching a broadcast-to-podcast series titled True Crime Tonight, which will air live on iHeart radio stations followed by a podcast version uploading the following day.
- Eight Kids & Family podcasts have teamed up to emulate summer reading initiatives with the Summer Listening Challenge, in which participating kids are to listen to two tie-in episodes from each participating podcast and log them in a downloadable tracker that rewards completion with congratulatory videos from all eight hosts.
- The Information covers venture capitalists who are interested in voice AI startups.
