Three Podcast Leaders on How They Got to Scale, and Why It’s Still Early by Fatima Zaidi
In a guest piece for Sounds Profitable, Quill & CoHost Founder Fatima Zaidi interviews Acast CEO Greg Glenday, Oxford Road CEO Dan Granger, and Triton Digital CRO Sharon Taylor at Podcast Movement NYC about how their companies reached scale. Glenday credits alignment and says Acast narrowed its identity to infrastructure for independent creators, Granger describes integrating Oxford Road and Veritone One after their October 2024 merger, and Taylor points to easier access to capital at an established company. All three flag inconsistent measurement as a core industry problem, with Granger noting that Oxford Road established the Alliance for Measurement in Podcasting in July 2025 that would eventually release the AMP Accords. Glenday and Taylor say oversized minimum guarantees are unsustainable. Glenday estimates that roughly 400 of the top 500 global advertisers have room to increase or begin podcast spending, and says the industry is still “at the basement.”
International Podcast Day Roundup
Happy International Podcast Day! I’ve got an armful of IPD-timed announcements, so let’s do a lightning round. Podcast Movement has posted 82 sessions from Podcast Movement NYC for free on YouTube and announced that Podcast Week NYC will run Sep 13-17 next year, with Podcast Movement Evolutions at SXSW on Mar 15-16. Headliner is giving one podcaster $250 in Podcast Promo credits in a new giveaway. Podigee has released a short film titled The Voice Carries. Podigee has also unveiled a redesigned platform that combines browser-based recording, audio and video hosting, distribution, analytics, and monetization, and adds an MCP server for connecting external tools. Finally, Flightcast has launched Collaborative Publishing, which lets multiple team members edit the same episode through an auto-saved working copy with a review step and audit logs (available to Legend plan customers and above).
Shifting search and social budget into audio increases profit
Radiocentre’s Sound Profits research, with analysis from WPP Media, models what happens when brands move existing search and social budgets into audio without raising total spend. For brands with an average annual media budget of £12.7 million, shifting 15% of generic PPC spend or 20% of paid social spend into audio could add £1 million in full-term profit. Moving 10% and 20% of generic PPC spend increased full-term profit ROI by 8% and 16%, while the same shifts from paid social increased it by 11% and 21%. A Radiocentre survey of 6,000 UK adults found that audio builds familiarity and trust, which Radiocentre says makes people more confident clicking search and social ads, a “priming effect.” The study builds on Radiocentre’s earlier High Gain Audio research, and full findings will be presented in a November webinar.
Scalable: Agents vs. Managers – Creator Representation in the Creator Economy
The Scalable newsletter examines major talent agencies moving into creator representation. CAA partnered with TPG’s Integrated Media Company on a $250 million holding company to acquire creator businesses, has signed Rhett & Link, The Stokes Twins, Betches Media, and The Female Quotient, and is reportedly negotiating with Alex Cooper, who left UTA in July. UTA and CAA have each built dedicated Creators divisions over the past two years that include podcasting talent. Underscore Talent co-founder Reza Izad says the line between agents and managers is blurring, with managers now distinguished mainly by smaller client rosters.
…as for the rest of the news:
- Hubbard has named John Goforth President of Gamut Podcast Network after 47% revenue growth in two years.
- AdExchanger’s James Hercher reports that Apple’s iOS 27 is blocking The Trade Desk from serving ads on Safari, after WebKit added TTD’s core ad request domain to its blocklist. The issue is ongoing as Apple investigates a GitHub report from TTD.
- True Native Media welcomed back Ame Fuhlbruck as Senior Agency and Brand Strategist after her time at RedCircle.
- PAVE Studios announced its fall lineup, including What the Fact and Season 4 of Khloé in Wonder Land (both September 30), Mother Knows Murder (November 10), Declassified (December 1), and Reddit vs. The Record (December 3).
- Audiohook acquired Podscan and is opening most of its data for free, including transcripts and brand-suitability analysis for creators, networks, and publishers and brand monitoring for advertisers.
- Guy Raz acquired ownership of How I Built This from NPR and is partnering with Vox Media to launch video episodes on YouTube and social platforms this fall.
- The Ankler’s Like & Subscribe newsletter reports that Netflix is hiring a Head of Podcasts who would report to VP of nonfiction and sports Brandon Riegg, with the role not yet formally posted.
