LAST CALL TO REGISTER: The Podglomerate and Sounds Profitable are hosting a webinar on strategic podcast awards budgeting. How (and Why) to Budget for Podcast Awards in 2026 kicks off TOMORROW, Thursday, December 11th at 1:00 p.m. EST
The Creators 2025
A follow-up to the original 2022 study of creators in the industry, The Creators 2025 from Sounds Profitable and Signal Hill Insights is built from an online study of 5,034 Americans aged 18+. One in six people who have consumed a podcast have tried creating one themselves. Of the creators surveyed, 71% incorporate video into their workflow. Video has had a lot of growth in recent years, and The Creators 2025 shows today’s creator is just as likely, if not more likely, to be creating video podcasts as they are audio. A sign of the diverse nature of podcasting as a medium.
Spotify Wrapped is for advertisers, too by Jennimai Nguyen
In addition to users rushing to Bluesky and Discord to share their “listening age” from Spotify Wrapped 2025, advertisers are getting their year-end numbers too. Though these are a bit more actionable than finding out you’re in the .01% of fans for TWRP. For the first time in four years of Spotify releasing some form of year-end advertising metrics, now individual advertisers using Spotify Ads Manager can log into their account and find their own Wrapped for the platform.
Why Blue Wire Podcasts shifted from influencers to athletes by Alyssa Meyers
As the company has grown, Blue Wire Podcasts has transitioned from podcasts hosted by influencers towards putting professional athletes in the recording booth. Cam Newton, Dwight Howard, Michael Irvin, and D’Angelo Russell all have been signed to Blue Wire with their own shows. Founder Kevin Jones positions it as the best of both worlds: athletes (especially the seasoned retired football players Blue Wire has focused) have valuable media training, and hosting a podcast means it’s easier than ever for brands to get an athlete endorsement of their product without spending prime-time TV ad dollars. And, of course, established athletes come with their own built-in fanbases, such as Cam Newton’s 1.7 million YouTube subscribers independent of his flagship Blue Wire podcast.
You can now A/B test titles and thumbnails on your videos! 🥳
It’s not often that I get to include an emoji in a headline. For quite some time YouTube has had the ability to run A/B testing for video thumbnails, serving one of three options to YouTube users as they browse around the app. Now with this update that extends to titles as well. For two weeks the video will A/B test titles and thumbnails and then deliver results indicating which were the most successful, or if they performed similarly. A move that both allows creators to test what best sells their video, and has a side effect of getting multiple chances at convincing a user, who might’ve passed over the first iteration of title/thumbnail, to click on it.
The Washington Post debuts AI-personalized podcasts to hook younger listeners by Sara Guaglione
The new tool, located within the Washington Post app, allows users to generate a “personal podcast” by choosing topics, host voices, and episode length. Adopter Media founder Glenn Rubenstein calls the feature a “seriously innovative” use of AI for audio podcasting, though challenges the idea that the feature qualifies as “a podcast” since it lives exclusively within the WP app. Terminology aside, he sees the tool as a sign for future interactive elements in podcast advertising that could harness generative AI, such as interactive ads that respond to listeners’ comments.
As for the rest of the news…
- Flightstory has signed a seven figure investment deal in Hot Smart Rich host Maggie Sellers Reum.
- The Evergreen Podcasts-produced series Northern Disclosure welcomes journalist and attorney Ari Melber as a special guest to discuss the politically-charged season three episode of Northern Exposure titled Democracy in America.
- The Dr. Gundry Podcast and PodcastOne celebrate a five-year partnership this week.
- Digiday has a collection of different studies looking at industry expectations for the creator economy in 2026.
- Madison & Wall, similarly to WPP, anticipates U.S. ad spend to increase 6.6% next year (not counting political spend).
