How City Cast picks its new cities by David Plotz and Andi McDaniel
City Cast focuses on producing podcasts and newsletters for specific cities, keeping the content hyper-local. In this piece, Plotz and McDaniel break down the decisions that went into expanding the company’s coverage to two new markets: Seattle and the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul). Factors including frequent ‘purple’ stories that spark conversation instead of one-sided political leaning, a healthy local news ecosystem, over-indexing for podcast listenership, and a growing population of new residents who want a sense of place but didn’t grow up with the local news.
RAJAR MIDAS Report – Winter 2024 by Adam Bowie
UK analyst Adam Bowie is back with another breakdown of the quarterly MIDAS report from RAJAR. The Winter report is built from fieldwork over late November/early December 2024, sampling 1,668 respondents in the UK aged 15+ who kept 7-day online diaries of their listening habits. As usual, live radio has a strong foothold in the UK with 88% overall weekly reach, getting up to 92% with the 55+ demographic. On Demand music dipped slightly from 39% in the Fall to 37% in Winter. Podcast listening rose from 23% to 26%, with the biggest demographic being a 35% weekly reach with the 35-54 demographic.
Podcasting’s Shift to Video Comes with Pitfalls by Dan Granger
Oxford Road and Veritone One CEO Dan Granger looks at the current state of video in podcasting and where it could go. As the Cumulus Media and Signal Hill Insights Podcast Download report from Fall 2024 shows, YouTube has consistently grown as the place respondents most access podcasts, from 15% in 2019 to 34% in October of 2024. While the video-fication of podcasting benefits YouTube, Granger warns podcasting to stop and see the forest for the trees. In pivoting to video, there’s the danger of losing the appeal of podcasts in a race to create short-form-friendly TikTok-able content. He calls for brands and publishers to start demanding transparency and to work with publishers to push standardized measurement options from third-party tracking services that will help bridge the gap between fractured measurement across audio and video platforms.
Cost-Cutting in Podcasting [Multiple Sources]
Reuters reports on a recent announcement that Amazon has cut a “small number” of jobs at Wondery. An anonymous source told Reuters both content and advertising teams were impacted and “dozens” of workers let go, though an Amazon rep says the number is lower. Meanwhile, in Australia: ARN, exclusive operator of iHeartRadio in Australia, has announced a $40 million cost-cutting plan to be implemented over three years. As Podnews coverage notes, ARN saw flat revenues in 2024, with digital audio increasing 28% year over year. We’d like to remind readers that the Sounds Profitable job board is both free to apply through, and submit new positions in the business of podcasting.
AdWeek received exclusive data from Mantis tracking over 460,000 page views between December 28th and January 27th. A master blocklist built from several ad agencies flagged 3,161 pages, representing 56% of total views, as problematic for advertising due to keywords. Similarly, blunt keyword blocklists nuked 57% of tracked content related to this year’s Super Bowl and the Paris Olympics last year. In the case of the Oscars, simply mentioning the subject matter of nominated movies can catch a block, if not the title of popular franchises (The Walking Dead, Star Wars, and oddly enough Thor are in the master blocklists Mantis examined).
Industry Opportunities
In this semi-recurring section we like to spotlight opportunities for everyone in the business of podcasting. First:
SXSW is just around the corner and one of the events coming to the Podcast Stage this year is The Podcast Ad Performance Playbook, featuring Indeed, SiriusXM, Ad Results Media, and Podscribe. By the by, if you’re a partner of Sounds Profitable and going to SXSW, get in touch. We’re whipping up special “meet me at SXSW” graphics to spruce up your SXSW posts on socials!
Second: This year’s Podnews Report Card is only open for feedback about major podcast platforms one more week, ending on March 9th. If you’ve got thoughts about podcast hosting or platforms in general, submitting feedback to the Podnews Report Card helps give a more informed view of the state of podcast hosting.
As for the rest of the news…
- Audacy has expanded their multi-year exclusive sales and distribution partnership with CBS, now including the CBS Entertainment, Media Ventures, News, and Studios podcast slates.
- Linkfire has published a new Customer Spotlight blog, this time interviewing Lemonada Media’s Amber Gerardy Robinson
- Edison Research’s annual Infinite Dial study is set to debut Thursday, March 20th, at 2 p.m. EST in a live webinar. This year’s edition is supported by Audacy, Cumulus Media, and SiriusXM Media.
- Podcast Business Journal recently interviewed Coleman Insights Vice President and Consultant Jay Nachlis.
- Over on LinkedIn, Chris Peterson takes a look at iHeartMedia’s Q4 earnings call and the recent announcement of their partnership with the government of Qatar.
- Variety’s Podcasting Brunch at SXSW, presented by YouTube, is set to be headlined by Hot Ones host Sean Evans, Mythical Entertainment cofounders Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal, and tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee.
