Australia’s 2m Daily Listeners, NYT Launches Podcast Tier, & More

Australia: two million podcast fans listen daily

A new study from Australian podcast production house Deadset Studios and market research agency Insightfully surveyed 1,607 Australians aged 15+ who listen to podcasts at least monthly. Key findings include 25% of respondents listen to podcasts daily, which when applied to the country’s population comes to two million daily listeners, as well as four million weekly listeners at 47% of respondents. YouTube and Spotify take the lead for top platforms used to listen to podcasts, with Spotify in first place at 58%, YouTube at 30%, and Apple at 28%.

Top Podcast Advertisers for August 2024 – Magellan AI

It’s that time of the month again, where Magellan AI reveals the top 15 spenders in podcast advertising tracked in their data, as well as the top movers and shakers. The top three spenders in podcast advertising for the month are T-Mobile, Amazon, and BetterHelp. For top movers and shakers, the biggest overall spender is telehealth company Ro, going from $127,000 in July to $714,600 in August. The larger percentage change is Intel, with a 5,791% increase from just under $9k to $512,500. For in-depth analysis of the data, the Market Update webinar is slated for this Thursday (9/26) at 11:00 A.M EST.

Digiday+ Research News Subscription Index 2024: Washington Post, Vox shift their strategies by Li Lu

With the media ecosystem in a state of flux, news publishers are implementing different strategies to find income. In addition to layoffs and downsizing, the suspended death sentence of the third-party cookie has pivoted plans for how to shape ad strategies. Companies that previously paywalled all articles are experimenting with metered gates (free access to a limited number of articles), as well as hybrid gating that keeps certain forms of content permanently paywalled but allows limited free access to others. Of the 11 publications charted, four have member-only podcasts. One of which is the focus of our next story.

New York Times to Launch Podcast Subscription Plan for Shows Like ‘The Daily’ by Ashley Carman

This October the paper of record is launching a podcast subscription plan that will paywall back catalogs of popular NYT productions. The $6/month subscription (also available at $50/year) will be available through both Spotify and Apple Podcasts. While subscribers to the New York Times are grandfathered into the content, the new package allows for just access to the podcasts. Once this plan is live, only the three newest episodes of The Daily will be available on open RSS. A business move that shows podcasting can be much more than a value-add to existing content. It can be an independent income stream.

As for the rest of the news…