Podcasts Take Over New York
Podcasting has arrived in New York City. Podnews has laid out the highlights of the week, with three events stacked back to back: the networking-first Sounds Profitable Business Summit today and tomorrow, the 2026 IAB Podcast Upfront on Wednesday (including the official afterparty at Terminal 5), and Podcast Movement closing out the week Thursday and Friday. In preparation for the event, Tom Webster has teased his keynote presentation. He anticipates data from The Podcast Landscape 2026 will spark “consternation, debate, and hallway conversations,” adding that he has spotted “a thing I am concerned about” that he hopes the industry takes seriously.
Q2 2026 Podcast Measurement Benchmark Report
Magellan AI’s latest benchmark report found that roughly 41% of site visits from podcast ads happen within the first seven days. Nearly 76% land within 30 days, meaning an early read can make a campaign look like it underperformed by more than half. The report also reinforced that format matters, with host-read spots posting a 3.22% median response against 2.09% for produced ads and video shows outpacing audio-only. For a video breakdown of key findings from the report, catch the full webinar recording with Sounds Profitable Partner Bryan Barletta and Magellan AI President Jim Ballas.
ADOPTER Media SVP of Client Services Adam McNeal shares his experience debating YouTube’s new view metric change with company founder Glenn Rubenstein. Rubenstein argues platforms need to make a declarative statement that they will only consider the new Engaged View from YouTube metrics, not the public-facing new view that counts even one frame of video played. An update that can nearly double public view counts without changing actual engagement. McNeal initially figured the shift didn’t warrant new contract language demanding “engaged views” reporting until Rubenstein convinced him the term is about setting a standard everyone can hold networks to. Any network keeping its CPM flat on the inflated count “just got a raise,” a definitional one that buyers can only counter by insisting on engagement-based numbers up front.
Substack Adds a Dedicated Podcast Tab
Substack has rolled out a dedicated podcast tab in its app, a discovery space alongside the Read tab that lists shows from Substack creators and, the company says, helps them reach existing listeners while getting found by new ones. Substack tells Podnews that creators publishing podcasts collectively earn over $200 million on the platform, a figure it’s leaning on as it positions itself as a direct-to-listener home for audio and not just longform writing. Podcasting getting its own carve-out within Substack is a particular win from a company that re-branded one of podcasting’s old cohorts – blogs – into just being “a Substack.” Podcasting’s brand is strong enough to justify keeping its name even in walled gardens.
…as for the rest of the news:
- AudioStack rolled out a multi-agent upgrade to its AI-voice production platform that reasons through a brief before generating anything, handling scripting, casting, and broadcast compliance.
- Audacy landed an exclusive multi-year sales and distribution deal for Smosh’s podcast slate starting October 1.
- AI voice replicas of Blue Wire hosts outperformed outsourced announcer reads by 26% on net-new subscriptions for IPVanish, coming within 9% of live host reads.
- Headliner launched a free YouTube Video Clips Automation tool that turns a show’s YouTube playlist into social clips and Shorts automatically.
- Mission Media introduced a proprietary Quality Score that grades podcast inventory as Premium, Long-Tail, or Unverified across signals like downloads, ratings, recency, and invalid-traffic checks.
- PODGO expanded its leadership team, naming Stephen Smith Chief Revenue Officer and David Moses SVP of Advertising Sales.
