Why Mid-Tier Creators Are the Industry’s Next Big Growth Opportunity by Brian Conlan
AdvertisingWeek brings on DAX US president Brian Conlan as a guest writer to discuss the spending gap between how much audience influencers reach versus how much is actually invested in them. He outlines five actionable steps that any brand, regardless of size or budget, can use to more effectively employ mid-tier creators (those with tens of thousands of followers vs. tens of millions). Steps that combine to create an atmosphere where a campaign can safely test the waters of someone like a new-to-the-brand podcaster who can deliver relevance instead of vanity metrics. 40,000 leaned-in weekly podcast listeners who tune in for 40 minutes per week is an incredibly attentive audience in comparison to a multi-million view social media post.
The Microphone is Democratized, The Platform is not by Byron Green-Calisch
Dr. Green-Calisch, EVP of Culture & Inclusion at PRX, writes about his experience working with Sounds Profitable and Podcast Movement to build out new guidelines for promoting equity and diversity in the podcast conference space. As The Creators 2025 shows, multicultural creators are outpacing white podcast creators in starting podcasts by up to 2x, yet the stages and platforms don’t represent that. To reflect the diversity of podcasting, it’s on the business side to build an equitable and inclusive space, a space where attendees can see themselves represented on stage and welcomed into the space. From thoughtful panel selection, to physically building accessibility into environments so something as simple as an executive in a wheelchair feels welcome at a conference instead of a nuisance who requires special attention any time they wish to participate. As Dr. Green-Calisch says: equity has to be built and nurtured.
Podcast Movement Evolutions Unveils First Wave of SXSW Talent
Podcast Movement is coming to SXSW and we’ve got the first wave of featured talent for the conference. As a reminder, PME is taking place March 13 – 15th at Sky Box on 6th Street in Austin, TX. Attendance is free but building capacity is a natural limitation, so pre-registration is encouraged. This year’s lineup includes John MrBallen Allen, a live recording of Table Read performing a script by director Dani Hanks, and a live episode of Scaleable. This year also features the debut of the Discovery Track, a special series of 50 minute sponsored panel sessions following ten minute spotlight talks designed to give attendees more opportunities to quickly discover new perspectives in the business of podcasting.
Podcast Growth Starts with a Health Check by Jonas Woost
Woost breaks down a process Bumper has dubbed a “Podcast Health Check,” often used to address podcasters who feel their audience has plateaued and there’s no obvious way to restart growth. The health check looks at three core metrics: people, plays, and time. It’s deceptively difficult to figure out how many real, distinct humans are consuming a podcast. Bumper uses Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube numbers de-duplicated over time to build a Verified Listeners/Viewers stat. With these three core metrics, Bumper and the podcaster build out from there looking at things that impact the known audience. How many are new vs. returning listeners? How many episodes, on average, are those people consuming? What topics are the host(s) hitting on regularly? How are similar shows performing? With these levels of analysis, a creator can begin to find the gaps that siphon off growth momentum.
2026 Outlook: A Snapshot of U.S. Ad Spend, Opportunities, and Strategies for Growth
The IAB has published an outlook for ad spend in the U.S., with a specific look at projected change to U.S. ad spend year over year by channel. In general, ad spend is expected to grow 9.5% this year thanks to cyclical events like the Winter Olympics, the World Cup, and midterm elections. Podcasts are the fourth fastest-growing channel projected for this year, expected to grow 9.6% in spend compared to 7.9% growth in 2025. Some of that growth is presumed to be pulling from overall digital audio budgets, as the digital audio spend forecast (excluding podcasts) is at 3.8% for 2026, nearly a point less than 2025.
As for the rest of the news…
- Ausha has a new blog in which they ran Edison Research’s new Top 50 podcast list through Ausha’s podcast search optimization (PSO) benchmark to find metadata patterns and publishing habits shared between chart-toppers.
- Creator Exchange has announced they are partnering with The Ebro, Laura, Rosenberg Show as their exclusive monetization and advertising representation.
- The Verge covers a developing story of YouTube cracking down on generative AI “slop channels” to, as CEO Neal Mohan says, “reduce the spread of low quality AI content.”
- Digiday has a piece looking at how advertisers are keeping flexible in 2026 as economic uncertainty remains as wibbly-wobbly as it was last year.
