The 25th Hour by Tom Webster
This week for the Sounds Profitable newsletter, Tom Webster proposes a reframing of how podcasting is sold to accommodate people who would listen to podcasts if they weren’t time-starved by other activities. Using the time management analogy of a jar filled with rocks and sand, where rocks are the larger important tasks while the sand is smaller things that fill in available time: podcasts are the sand, and there’s more room for sand that one might think. Learning a language takes many hours of practice, yet Duolingo managed to transform it from a big rock into sand by focusing on bite-sized 3 minute lessons and promoting continuing daily streaks. Translated to podcasting, this can mean net-new shortform podcasts, as well as bite-sized “snacks” of audio to complement a full-length podcast. [Source]
Podcasts are key tool for TV discovery, research shows by Adam Shepherd
A new report from Hub Entertainment Research surveying 2,500 US consumers finds 47% of podcast listeners aged 16 to 74 have discovered new TV shows through podcasting. When narrowed to just young adults, the percentage rises to 57%. Of those who consume TV-related podcasts, 92% said the podcast helps keep their interest in a current show while it’s between seasons, while 85% of respondents who listen to podcasts about completed shows say they’re listening to create interest in searching out and watching older TV. [Source]
Amy Poehler to Keynote at Podcast Movement Evolutions
The PodMov newsletter announced this morning that Pohler will appear on a keynote with Jenna Weiss-Berman, EVP of Podcasts at Audacy and co-founder of Pineapple Street Studios. The keynote address comes after the recent launch of Pohler’s pseudo-scripted improv comedy podcast Say More with Dr? Sheila, in which Pohler giving relationship advice in-character to couples played by guest stars. On the topic of Podcast Movement Evolutions: A quick reminder that the “super duper early bird sale” pricing for tickets ends tonight, and ticket prices will increase tomorrow. [Source]
TikTok gains favor among Gen Z over Google for searches by Jeremy Goldman
A new Adobe study finds nearly 10% of Gen Z respondents now prefer TikTok over established search engines like Google when looking for information. This echoes similar findings in a HerCampus study that reports 74% of Gen Z respondents use TikTok for search and 51% of those respondents prefer it to Google. The platform is apparently embracing this growing trend, as in September it began testing third-party features like integrated Google Search and incorporating Wikipedia entries into search results. It’s also worth noting that TikTok has search prompts natively built in, with the app placing a button with the most common search term on a video if it generates enough search engagement. As far as podcasting is concerned, this search preference trend shows TikTok is still an important destination for podcasting to be on, even if their native podcast feature was canceled. Their audience is younger, and is showing signs they’re happy to stay in the TikTok ecosystem. [Source]
Daily Beast Podcast Secretly Records Paul F. Tompkins, Reframes Discussion
Comedian and long-time podcaster Paul F Tompkins has taken to Threads to highlight a post from The Daily Beast promoting a recent episode of The Last Laugh with Matt Wilstein. The post promotes Tompkins’ appearance on the podcast with a short video clip of Tompkins in a video call. Tompkins says the post is “incredibly misleading” about the actual conversations had in the episode, and that he was never told his video feed was going to be used. Paul F. Tompkins has been a prominent figure in comedy podcasting for 14 years and has enough clout to openly call out a show from a sizable platform engaging in this behavior. If it’s happening to Tompkins, of all people, there are likely many more guest hosts who’ve been soured to the idea of podcasting because similar things happened they didn’t feel comfortable publicly disclosing. [Source]
…as for the rest of the news: WARC Media predicts global ad spend will break $1 trillion this year, Marketing Brew gives a “way too early” look at cookie-less internet browsing, and ExchangeWire asks several experts for their predictions on podcasting and digital audio this year.
Research Database Snapshot
What it says: The latest ranking of top podcasts by average weekly downloads according to Triton Digital
What it means: Triton’s Podcast Metrics service measures participating publishers and is certified by the IAB Tech Lab
Why it’s cool: NPR podcasts are now back in the ranker, with 14 NPR shows in the downloads ranker and 15 in the Listeners charts. Taking these shows into account, the top 10 for downloads now includes three NPR series with News Now, Up First, and Fresh Air.
