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• Podcasts are now live on Pandora, the US-only music service. "We are now introducing hundreds of podcasts", the official blog post says. Techcrunch also covers the news. The app has 76m users in the US.

  • The bottom of their blog post contains details for submitting your podcast.

• Google is trialling a news radio station - kind of - on your smart speaker. The company is planning an equivalent to NPR One, which lets you flick between individual news stories. It's unclear what this means for short-form podcasts currently available on Google's News Briefing; and may be where the 60dB team ended up.

• What's the average age of a podcast? Why, it's 174 days, says Dan Misener.

• Spotify has published the most listened-to podcasts on the platform. Focusing on Spotify-exclusive content, Amy Schumer's much-promoted podcast only reaches #4. Most popular: Fest und Flauschig, a German-language podcast. Erstaunlich!

  • Meanwhile, Canadian public service broadcaster CBC/Radio-Canada have announced that selected podcasts are now available on Spotify.

• Anchor is a divisive podcast host. Rebel Base Media's Mark Asquith thinks they aren't the villain in the podcasting story that the podcasting elite would claim they are.

• Global's DAX has signed to represent OmniCast Media's Something You Should Know.

• In advance of a slew of "what will the future of podcasting be in 2019" articles, for fun you might like to re-read this compilation of predictions for 2018 from Pacific Content.

• The BBC has announced box sets on BBC Sounds, including a slew of new releases. Some content is exclusive to the BBC Sounds app which is only available within the UK.

• After Steven Goldstein's post yesterday about the apparent failure of Google Podcasts to make any headway, Seth Resler points out that they're the only podcast app without a Twitter handle, which speaks volumes.

• The Bello Collective have published their 100 Outstanding Podcasts of 2018 list. Also here's Nick Quah's top 10 in Vulture, and Sarah Larson's Best Podcasts of 2018 from the New Yorker.

• Visual podcast app Entale has added bookmarks to their app; opened the waitlist for their Android app, and announces that they're 91% funded.

• Song Exploder has a new 'guest' host for 2019: Thao Nguyen. Meanwhile, they're fending off very specific listener requests.

• Argentina's La Nacion does a good job of explaining how to listen to their podcast.

• Better at Everything calls itself a zero bulls**t, wholly practical self-help show for anyone who feels stuck. In season one, the podcast aims to help listeners not only conquer procrastination on a daily basis, but understand why it happens. We might listen to it tomorrow. (Macmillan / ART19)
• For the TV show's 15th anniversary Battlestar Galacticast is an "episode-by-episode rewatch of Battlestar Galactica in its entirety". (SYFY WIRE / ART19)
• Health Fact vs Fiction is a frank and fascinating mix of myth-busting and chat about all things health. The podcast aims to get to the heart of a different medical topic each episode, from the menopause and memory, to healthy guts. Bengo Media's first major commercial podcast, it's already achieving good download numbers. (HCA Healthcare UK / Bengo Media / Spreaker)

Thank you to 'podcasting for brands' company Creative Zombie Studios for becoming a supporter of Podnews. You funded us to improve graphics for Podnews's website to use WEBP format when supported, so that images load faster on mobiles and desktop in supported browsers. Thank you!

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• A new radio and podcast conference has been announced: Radiodays Asia will be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in August. From the same people who work on Radiodays Europe and Podcast Day, the two-day conference will contain items of interest for radio broadcasters and podcasters. Podnews is a media partner (and we'll be there).

• Why is the Google Podcasts app failing so hard? Steven Goldstein asks some industry pros; nobody is very polite about it. (Earlier this year, our Editor published how it could grow faster - not much has changed).

• Rebel Base Media have launched Poductivity, with a long blog post explaining what it is - in short, "interaction technology [that] gives you the opportunity to set multiple, time-bound calls to action and interaction opportunities within each episode of your podcast."

• In a tweet, Michael Barbaro notes that The Daily appears to be the most downloaded show of 2018 (in the US), according to Apple. Pod Save America's John Lovett responds "It's cheating to do a show every day", which is a point worth making. The full US list is on Apple's website; there's a different list for every country, of course. Here's reporting on Australia's.

• Podtrac have posted their top 10 new podcasts of 2018, based on US downloads. iHeartRadio has two in the top ten, and one in the top three, which (in alphabetical order) are Dr Death (Wondery), Gladiator (Wondery), and Happy Face (iHeartRadio).

• Deezer has signed an agreement with Triton Digital for programmatic ads within their music and podcast app.

• Swedish podcast company Acast has raised $35m in a funding round. Its total funding now stands at more than $67m. The company pioneered dynamic ad insertion, and - among many other clients - monetises BBC podcasts outside the UK.

• Australian podcast host Whooshkaa's chief technology officer Semin Nurkic covers the growth of the company in an interview for Startup Daily.

• American actress Jana Kramer recorded a podcast while giving birth.

• Blubrry report enhancements to their "pro podcast statistics", with hourly reporting, regional breakdowns for more countries, and reporting for US by DMA ("Designated Market Area").

• Have trouble remembering your passwords for all those podcast stats websites you use? We think a bear will help. Remembear remembers all your passwords, is simple, secure and handsome, works on everything, and there's nothing better to keep intruders out than a bloody big bear. Go get it. (Affiliate)

• In case you missed it: Google Play Music Podcasts isn't the same as Google Podcasts. We wrote a big FAQ all about Google Podcasts a while ago, and how to make sure you're listed (you probably are). We've responded to five confused posts on Facebook groups over the last couple of days: you'd have thought Google might have sorted this out by now.

• Straight Up Parenting helps parents of Ages 8-18 years navigate uncertainty with practical, experienced advice from other parents, counsellors, teachers, authors and experts. Created and hosted by two first generation immigrant moms, the goal is to bridge the gap between parents and children, and between schools and parents. (Powerpress)
• You can now binge the full first season of The Sugar Baby Confessionals, focusing on Ruby, a self-confessed "sugar baby". The podcast is "thought-provoking, charming, funny and candid" according to reviews. (Fable Gazers / Libsyn)

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• Chris Dawson, the subject of the Teacher's Pet podcast, was arrested this morning and is to be charged with his former wife's murder. A new episode of the podcast is being released today.

• Could smart speakers give us podcasting's next big moment? The folks behind the Canadian Podcast Listener research crunch the data.

• RadioPublic's "Paid Listens" feature is paying out at double rates in December. The loyal listener bonus is now at US$2 per listener who hears more than three episodes.

• Panoply's Megaphone has announced a number of hosting deals with companies like the San Francisco Chronicle, networks like Starburns·audio, and Pat Flynn's Smart Passive Income.

• Audioboom have also announced new talent partnerships, including TV and radio broadcaster Jonathan Ross, top selling Sony recording artist George Ezra, celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal, reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, plus journalist and television personality, Nina Myskow. They've also announced more hosting deals, including from Metro, the UK's highest-circulation newspaper.

• Audio search company Audioburst says it's working with LG's in-car entertainment division. The product, to be unveiled at CES, offers "new ways to access and explore voice search and content"; the company includes podcasts in the audio sources that it transcribes and indexes.

• Rebel Base Media have announced their new Podcast Design Studio product, featuring fixed-price graphic design for podcasts.

• Sean Hiland in Atlanta GA, USA has produced a five-part video guide on how to do a podcast, which comes recommended to us by one of radio's top talent coaches.

• Podcast information website Podchaser has put their 'creator' pages live. Here's an example, showing guest appearances as well as owned podcasts. During December, creators can claim free gifts and services.

• The President and CEO of NPR, Jarl Mohn, is to step down next June. NPR is the world's largest podcaster.

• Malcolm Gladwell and Jacob Weisberg's audio company, Pushkin Industries, is to be represented by Cadence13.

• The CEO of Australian commercial radio broadcaster Southern Cross Austereo has done a bullish interview, where he says he wants "to turn original podcasting into SCA’s biggest profit growth driver". He anticipates significant profits from branded podcasts by... 2021.

• Apple is releasing "most downloaded podcasts of 2018" lists in most countries. Here's Australia's. For noting: it's "most downloaded in Apple Podcasts", which is responsible for about 60% of all podcast downloads.

• Awards: the 2nd Annual Canadian Podcast Awards are open for nominations. Entries are free; nominations close on December 29th.

• Job: Resonate Recordings are looking for a Sales Representative in Louisville KY, USA.

• WNYC have launched 10 Things That Scare Me, "a tiny podcast about our biggest fears". The press release calls this an "audio listicle format", and also transcribes Anthony Scaramucci's ten fears: see if you can guess who he calls "the worst people I’ve ever met in my life".
• Postcard Academy is a travel podcast that features people who packed up everything to start a new adventure in another part of the world, aimed at the type of traveler who loves to get off the beaten path. Host Sarah Mikutel has been living and working abroad for the past eight years. We thank Sarah for her support.
• If You Give A Ric A Podcast is a new children's podcast from Beasley Broadcasting, a US commercial radio broadcaster.
• From Australia, a new podcast called Sound of Mind - "strange journeys told with humour and empathy" - contains produced interviews that help understand deeper issues.

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Schedule notice: Podnews will be publishing as usual every day over the holiday.

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• Radio Stakhanov podcast The Football Ramble is being advertised across thirteen subway stations in London. They were visible yesterday and today (and will be again on Dec 7) in stations like Oxford Circus and Waterloo. (video)

• The first edition of Post Reports, the Washington Post's new daily podcast, was published yesterday afternoon. Chartable report it's #17 in the US Apple Podcast trending charts. Of note: you can subscribe to the podcast by email.

• Voxnest's Spreaker has partnered with Deezer to increase the amount of podcasts available on Deezer's platform, especially in Latin America. The region has a population of 640m people, and is experiencing rapid growth in streaming services. (We also list Deezer's submission page in our big list of where to add your podcast).

• Former US Senator Al Franken has released "a podcast" (just an audio file on Soundcloud), seen by Time magazine as a tentative return to the public eye since his resignation last year.

• The IAB has released their 2019 Digital Audio Buyers Guide, "an excellent resource for marketers looking to invest in Digital Audio".

• Scripps has formally concluded the purchase of Triton Digital. Scripps also own Stitcher and Midroll; the purchase of Triton Digital was US$150m, and Triton Digital's current management team will continue to head up the company.

• A podcast festival has been announced in Brighton, UK. Wave: Brighton Podcast Festival, which bills itself as the "UK's first podcast festival in the South East", features hit podcasts like No Such Thing As A Fish, Ctrl Alt Delete and Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast. (The annual London Podcast Festival was held for the third time earlier this year).

• There'll soon be new podcast studios in Sheffield, UK. "With space for up to four podcasters using state-of-the-art podcasting equipment, Rebel Base Studios will open in Q1 2019 and will be supported by our other Rebel Base Media brands & technical teams to ensure that podcasters have a full suite of tools available to them to launch and grow their show out of the UK".

• MD, USA-based BitPlatter promises "search and analytics" for podcasts, according to a profile in Technical·ly.

• Google Hangouts, a popular choice for podcasters wanting multiple hosts from across the world, looks set to either close at some point or seamlessly merge into a new product, says a confused set of rumours. Meanwhile, Google Play Music Podcasts is bizarrely still available and has no closure date set, in spite of Google's launch of an entirely separate app, Google Podcasts, earlier this year.

• He's kind of a big deal: Ron Burgundy is coming to podcasting.

• Serial season 3 was the biggest ever for the show, with an average 5.23 million downloads per episode.

• Becoming a parent can be the greatest and the hardest thing you’ll experience, says the description of Navigating Parenthood, a new podcast from Australian health insurance company HCF, hosted by broadcaster Gretchen Miller. (Hardie Grant Media / Nearly / Omny Studio)
• Classical music fans rejoice: Aria Code is produced in partnership with The Metropolitan Opera, and "pulls back the curtain on some of the most famous arias in opera history, with insight from the biggest voices of our time", says the press release. (WQXR / The Metropolitan Opera / WNYC Studios)
• The Female Gaze "spotlights culture that views women and nonbinary people as subjects-not-objects, through conversation with filmmakers, musicians, authors and other thought leaders and creators." It launched this week.
• Podchaser write a profile on Curiosity Daily, a short daily podcast that helps you understand the world better with "a timely blend of cultural trends, life hacks, and developments in science and technology". One of the hosts bought us a coffee once.

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Welcome to new subscribers from Spotify, Acast, Mumbrella, Fairfax Media, NY Public Radio, Wondery, Enders Analysis, Gimlet, Westwood One, the BBC, Whistledown, and a large amount of UK book publishers.

• In Australia, the ABC's true-crime podcast Trace has resulted in a 38 year-old murder case being reopened. The podcast included revelations about possible suspects and a forensics bungle.

• There are now 609,000 podcasts in the Apple Podcasts directory. Daniel J Lewis posts that 158,000 podcasts have three or fewer episodes; and that 43% of all podcasts haven't released a new episode in 2018.

• Jack Rhysider posts how blackhat marketers are ruining the Apple Podcast Charts. In case you missed it, the latest episode of his podcast Darknet Diaries focuses on the people who manipulate the charts. Separately, AV Club is the latest publication to highlight the manipulation of the chart, which we first reported in May.

• Registration is open for Podcast Day 2019, by Radiodays Europe. The event is in June in central London; and the link above goes to a "super early bird" ticket. Podnews is a media partner.

• The Google Podcasts app is preparing an 'episode search' feature, allowing you to search within episodes (presumably, search the show notes for guests and topics discussed). The feature was first seen in the source code in July.

• Lots of data about podcasts in Puerto Rico. The most popular hosts for the podcasts surveyed are Anchor, Libsyn and iVoox.

• Apple Music is now available on Amazon Echo smart speakers.

• Koo! is a "social network for short-form podcasts", profiled in TechCrunch. It's similar to what was once called Audioboo, the original incarnation of Anchor, and SoundMite.

• Podcast Brunch Club (it's like a book club, but for podcasts) is trying something new for December, recommending a binge listen of Last Seen.

• Ho, ho, ho. The Santa Daily has been launched by UK children's radio station Fun Kids. Santa Claus has a podcast of his own, and he's letting us know what he's up to.
• Unstructured has hit episode 100. Eric Hunley chats with forensic linguist James R. Fitzgerald who is behind the capture of the Unabomber and worked many other cases.
• Last week, Sydney's 2SER launched the second season of History Lab. It starts with a curious tale of the first deposit into the first ever bank in Australia. (Whooshkaa)
• Everyone fails once in a while. How do we use it as a catalyst for success? Art of Failure talks to people who've failed - and then succeeded. (Libsyn)
• Thunder Bay focuses on the Ontario town in Canada, which has "the highest homicide rate in the country. A mayor and his wife charged with extortion. A police chief put on trial for obstruction of justice. Nine tragic deaths of Indigenous teenagers. Why does it all happen here?"
• Irish website The Daily Edge really likes the podcast Table Manners with Jesse Ware, which recently won an award: they describe it as "warm, charming, and funny".

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• Anchor launched Sponsorships yesterday. The company says: "Anchor Sponsorships gets podcasters paid by matching them with sponsors and helping them easily create custom advertisements for their shows. It’s a new world for podcast advertising, and anyone can be part of it." - not quite "anyone", since the feature is currently limited only to US podcasters. Sponsorships are host-read, and based on a cost-per-thousand basis based on plays. Anchor takes 30%.

  • Anchor also claims in the article that the company powers 40% of new podcasts.

• Global, the UK broadcaster, has added 1,500 third-party podcasts to its popular Global Player and radio apps (iOS only for now). Here's how they're promoting it, and more details from Digiday. The podcasts added come from variety of publishers, including the BBC and Serial; and also contains some 'Global Original' podcasts, made by the company. Global also owns DAX, a programmatic audio ad platform, in the UK, US and Canada.

• Acast have launched personalised podcast ads, working with AMillionAds, a UK company that produces over 20,000 versions of ads using external data like location, time of day, and device details. The first ad, for iD Mobile, calls out different cities based on where the listener is, different deals depending on what they’ve heard before, different messaging depending on when they’re listening and different podcast names based on what show the listener is hearing. (Watch - from Next Radio in 2016, Sam Crowther from AMillionAds gave an overview of how the technology works.)

• Reflecting planned expansion at the company, the owner of Podcast Websites is now known as Rebel Base Media, with Podcast Websites making up one product within a suite of platforms created to help podcasters grow their audience and their audio influence. Today, they announced a new "growth-orientated" podcast hosting platform, Captivate·FM. The service is open for pre-registration in preparation for launch in January 2019.

• Media lawyer David Oxenford covers the recent news of a prominent podcaster being sued for copyright infringement by a set of record companies. Oxenford says: "The bottom line – don’t use music in podcasts without getting permission."

• In Baltimore, the Maryland Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in Adnan Syed's case, the subject of the Serial and Undisclosed podcasts.

• A new microphone might be on the way from RØDE - the PodMic appears in the company's video for their Rødecaster Pro.

• Apple Podcast Chart manipulation is the focus of the next episode, due tomorrow, of Darknet Diaries. It's "all about the people who are gaming the Apple Podcast charts. I called up six of the promoters, and talked with them, and got pictures from them, and so much more," says the podcast's producer, Jack Rhysider.

  • Meanwhile, The Verge covers Apple Podcast Chart manipulation, mainly sourced from a story in Podnews from Oct 22.

• Libsyn have unveiled a new podcast directory, showcasing Libsyn-hosted podcasts.

• Job: the Washington Post is looking for an Audio Associate Producer.

• 10 scary podcasts to listen to in the dark (The Verge)

• We Listened To A Lot Of Podcasts In 2018. Here Are 31 We Loved. (HuffPost)

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• ESPN Podcasts have released their monthly podcast figures for October, quoting "43.6m IAB compliant downloads" from RawVoice, and "6.3m US unique audience" from Podtrac.

  • Wait a minute. Podtrac claim ESPN achieved 59.7m downloads in October. We looked into it - and can reveal today that 'IAB compliance' means surprisingly little.

• Enterprise podcast host Omny Studio has announced a partnership with Rubicon Project that enables pre-roll video advertising for podcast plays on the web. Omny Studio clients include many radio broadcasters, who use Omny Studio's web player within their websites.

• Omny Studio has also announced an upgrade to their automated transcription service; transcripts can now be published to the web. This video has more information; and this episode from Monocle24 is an example of a transcript within a playback page.

• Magellan has posted the top 15 brands that used podcasting within the US to advertise in September. Security company ADT is new; Robinhood, a gangster in medieval Britain who robbed the rich to feed the poor, is also profiled. (The company is actually an investment service.)

  • The Melbourne Podcasters Meetup is next Wednesday, 5th December, and marks an end to the monthly meetings. The final guest is Anouska Taylor, a Certified Vocal Instructor.

• Fans of plugins for their DAW might like this new de-esser plugin from Waves, which "uses Organic ReSynthesis spectral filters to identify undesirable bursts of sibilant energy, then completely separates the nuances of sibilance from the vocal signal, leaving the rest of the signal untouched".

Podnews is in London today and tomorrow. Our briefing is briefer than usual today, therefore, due to having been on a plane for most of the last 24 hours.

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• Podcasting solution provider Voxnest announces today that it has partnered with DAX to help monetise UK audiences. Voxnest customers, including those on the company’s Spreaker platform, now have the benefit of DAX monetisation, while advertisers can take advantage of advanced targeting and measurement solutions. Voxnest President Francesco Baschieri says: “It’s an exciting time to be involved in this medium, and we’re confident that our easy-to-use, efficient and scalable solution for creating, monetizing and distributing audio content will have a catalyzing effect on creators worldwide.”

• Castro, the well-received iOS podcast app, is now part of Tiny, owners and investors in a range of companies including Dribbble and Flow. Oisín and Pádraig post that "for the first time in five years of work on Castro, we’ll have the resources to focus exclusively on it as product designers and developers." Congratulations to them.

• Jaclyn Schiff from Pod Reacher listened to over 800 episodes of Marketing School to produce How Neil Patel and Eric Siu Grew Their Podcast to 750,000 Downloads Per Month in Two Years

• Leon Neyfakh from Slate's Slow Burn podcast, and some of his team, are leaving the company, he's announced on Twitter.

• Job: The University of Chicago is looking for a Podcast Producer. "The University Podcast Producer leads podcast production, marketing and distribution at the University of Chicago. The role is vital to growing podcasting at the University, with the producer building content and audience for individual shows such as Big Brains and Capitalisn’t as well as the larger UChicago Podcast Network".

• "Podcasting vs Radio" still is a thing, it seems. When making podcasts, it turns out you have to unlearn some of what you learnt in network radio, says Richard Davies. Meanwhile, Leslie McMurtry, Lecturer in Radio Studies, University of Salford, compares podcasting to radio.

• The Super Awesome Science Show is a brand new series that was launched yesterday. It's hosted by researcher, educator, and Canadian-bestselling author, Jason Tetro, better known as "The Germ Guy", and explores the answers to today’s burning science questions, from climate change and blockchain, to sleep and artificial intelligence. (CuriousCast / Omny Studio)
• The MAS*H cast are due a reunion: on Alan Alda's Clear + Vivid podcast, USA Today reports. Alda says: “Loretta Swit and I will be talking from New York, Mike Farrell will be in a studio in L.A., Jamie Farr will be on the phone from his house in Bell Canyon and Gary Burghoff will be on the phone from Northern California.”

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• Universal Music Group and a further six major record labels have filed a lawsuit against the UK company iBus Media Ltd. They allege 46 copyrighted songs have been used 253 times by the company in their PokerNews podcasts; and they're requesting $150,000 damages for each use. Digital Music News, a campaigning website for musician's rights, covers the story in more depth.

• We note that the RSS feeds for most PokerNews podcasts have been removed (they use a mix of hosts including AudioBoom and Podbean). PokerNews Romania still exists at the time of writing, hosted on Podbean, and the latest episode starts with Bennie Goodman's Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing).

• We've published a guide on how to use commercial music in your podcasts, including fair use, non-commercial usage, and other elements.

• Chartable, a podcast analytics product, has added integration for Apple Podcasts Analytics. To use this, however, you need to share your Apple username/password with Chartable; the company told Podnews that "we triple encrypt all usernames and passwords with the same technology used by sites that ask for the same information for bank accounts". They've also launched Trackable, a redirect stats service much like Podtrac or Blubrry. (We're trying it out for our podcast).

• Panoply writes about Apple Podcast ratings, and what we can learn from them. Their conclusion? "Pay extra close attention to the first few hundred ratings and reviews you get".

• The New York Times interviews Guy Raz, host of How I Built This.

• The Washington Post's new podcast? Digiday posts an important correction to the story we linked to yesterday: "An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the Post is estimating 1 million downloads per episode, rather than per month."

• A podcast is the audio equivalent of desktop publishing, says Dutch commentator René de Monchy.

  A modern communication department must come up with a good reason why they employ a "desk-top publisher" employee who publishes text (on paper and digital), but not a "desk-top audio" publisher who publishes audio.

• Someone in the UK suffers from a stroke every five minutes (and in the US, every 40 seconds). When UK radio broadcaster Mark Goodier suffered a series of strokes in 2016 and 2017, he realised there weren't many resources you could use to help your recovery. Stroke Stories is the answer: in every episode, a different stroke survivor, and a different story of recovery. (Wise Buddah / Acast)
• REAL Talk features the real-life experiences of high profile people and their unexpected journeys with mental health, despite a seemingly ‘perfect’ external life, and aims to transform the mental health conversation in each personal and moving episode. The latest episode features Australian TV personality Osher Günsberg's journey out of alcoholism and relationship with medication. (Heart On My Sleeve Movement / NOVA Entertainment / Acast)
• Chartable Radio is a new podcast that discusses charts and podcast statistics. (Libsyn)
• The Guardian covers their own daily podcast, called Today in Focus.

Thank you to the Weird Tales Radio Show who are our newest silver supporter. They've helped us be able to spend time today on our image resizing script, significantly making all our supporter logos look better and clearer on the web, whatever device you have.

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• The winners were revealed for the Audio Production Awards in London late last week. Podcast winners include a gold for Jessie Ware, the presenter of Table Manners, and Muddy Knees Media won bronze in the sports producer category for their Totally Football Show. Want a full list of the winners? Here they all are.

• Meanwhile, in Spain, the Ondas Award for best podcast has been given to Pablo Romero for an investigative podcast into the terrorist murder of his father, Las Tres Muertes de Mi Padre.

• The Washington Post has confirmed the launch date for its new podcast, Post Reports - it'll launch on December 3. Digiday tells us it's the first multi-part podcast from the newspaper, and will be about 20 minutes long, being published for 5pm every weekday.

• Podcasting is sluggishly growing in Singapore, report Asia RadioToday. "As a small country geographically, we don't drive or commute for very long."

• A co-host and co-producer of Ear Hustle, Earlonne Woods has had his sentence commuted, and he'll soon be released on parole. One reason given? The podcast he works on. "Through his podcast [he] has shared meaningful stories from those in prison." He'll continue working on the podcast on the outside.

• Erik Jones interviews the team behind WNYC's Undiscovered podcast.

• Wondering where else to add your podcast, apart from Apple Podcasts? We've got a list for you, and we even link directly to the submission pages.

• We like Reasons to be Cheerful, with former Labour leader Ed Miliband and radio presenter Geoff Lloyud.
• Podnews has a podcast. It's this, every day, in audio form. Find it in your news briefing settings for the Amazon Echo or Google Assistant, too.

• 10 great podcasts that are unabashedly positive (Wil Williams / Polygon)
• 5 awesome Australian podcasts to wrap your ears around (Beat)
• 11 Branded Podcasts You Can’t Miss (Resonate Recordings)

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Welcome new readers this week from Targetspot, Gimlet Media, Wondery, ESPN, NHPR, New York Public Radio and the CBC.

• In Australia, a podcast has won a prestigious journalism award for coverage of indigenous affairs. Blood on the Tracks, series one of Unravel from the ABC, focused on an aboriginal death in 1988. The investigation, which was also a TV program and indepth website feature, was described by judges of the Walkleys Award as compelling, revealing and instructive.

• If you own a Google Chromecast device for your TV, you can now add this to a synchronised group with your Google-powered speakers to listen to podcasts in every room in the house. Meanwhile, "OK, Google, play faster" now works for podcast listening ifyourbraincandealwithit.

• In Entrepreneur, Eric Siu posts five keys to creating subscribe-worthy podcasts, while Buzzsprout publish strategies to turn casual listeners into raving fans, and The Podcast Host covers how to name episode titles.

• Dávid Tvrdoň gives podcast tips for journalists wanting to launch their own podcasts. "If your newsroom is not doing podcasts, pitch it like an experiment or an innovation project, find allies in terms of colleagues interested in doing a podcast with you and start slowly building your audience."

• Audiobip, a Spanish podcast host, has done a survey about advertising in podcasting. 53% of the listeners surveyed are fine with "good" advertising within podcasts. Only 6% of listeners don't like it.

• Gotham Chopra, host of Why Sports Matter, picks stories with "heart" and "with real layers", according to this profile. (Cadence13 / ART19)
• Smark to Death is a professional wrestling podcast with a heavy focus on both live interaction and fan interaction offline. "Our reviews have reflected that we are a listener friendly podcast and inviting to said listeners," they tell us.
• Many podcasters seem to turn into private investigators when producing a true crime podcast. It's only fitting that a Tennessee private investigator has turned into a podcaster. Nashville Public Radio profiles Sheila Wysocki, who is hosting a podcast called Without Warning

Podnews is your daily news briefing with the emphasis on the "brief". We've added a reading time at the top of each edition, to show how much we respect your time.

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• Thanks to Deezer for making podcasts available within their app in Colombia. The app now contains more than 20,000 podcasts in five different languages: this one's good; you can add yours to Deezer and other places. The company also released some data regarding podcast listening in Colombia: 39% of podcast listeners are between 26-35; 32% are aged 36-45. Only 15% of 16-25 year-olds listen; and audiences are predominantly male.

• Thanks to Time, who underline the growing mass appeal of podcasting by publishing the "top 10 podcasts of 2018".

• The Age wants us to be thankful for "a small company in Adelaide" - spotlighting the company behind the Pocket Casts podcast app.

• Be thankful, too, for the TV show of Homecoming, which might be the rare podcast that actually turned into a good TV show, says The Washington Post (reproduced in SFGate).

• And thank the Kiwis: podcasting is seeing a "meteoric growth" in New Zealand, according to stuff. They highlight The Front Page, a daily news podcast for the country, run by Newstalk ZB and the NZ Herald.

• A Reuters article, reproduced here in the Malay Mail, highlights women's role in podcasting.

• The Las Cruces Sun News has some thoughts about Why nearly half of Americans never listen to podcasts.

• Dan Misener thinks that every podcast should have a trailer.

• Christmas is coming. Welcome to Tinsel Town is a Christmas adventure for all ages, in the style of Disney/Pixar. All seven episodes are out today - it sounds like a perfect podcast for the holidays. (Triangle Content / Simplecast)
• Ricky Gervais is special guest today in Films To Be Buried With with Brett Goldstein. "As well as discovering exactly which is the funniest movie of all time according to Gervais, listeners will get to hear the film that traumatised him from the age of six, the film that kept him up at night for a month, how many times he’s watched Pretty Woman and an incredibly moving story of how he learned to accept death through a cinema visit."
• Peurile humour that never fails to raise a smile - the Chris Moyles Show podcast is one of our favourites; a compilation of bits from his British radio show.

Podcasting never stops so why should your podcasting news source? Enjoy Thanksgiving; we'll be back tomorrow as normal.

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• US podcasting has become listened-to by a more diverse audience, says Tom Webster from Edison Research.

• Podtrac has published its US top 20 podcasts for October. Serial is still #1; The Daily and This American Life round up the top 3.

• Piqd, a "solution to the podcast discovery problem", has launched, with more than 60 curators from 21 different countries, according to the press release

• Jonathan Zenti has joined Voxnest as Head of Content.

• ESPN Radio stations across the US are rebroadcasting three of their podcasts over Thanksgiving. The three 30 for 30 episodes will be played out from 1pm.

• There's a new CEO at Nielsen, the US media measurement company: David Kenny takes over on December 3rd. Nielsen measure radio and TV consumption, but don't, currently, measure podcasting in the same way.

• Digital audio advertising tech company AdsWizz has integrated its products with Google Display and Video 360. "The integration also opens up Pandora, the largest streaming music provider in the US, to audio ad buys via Google Display and Video 360."

• Event: the Chicago Podcast Festival, Nov 26 - Dec 2, in Chicago IL, USA.

• Job: Latino USA is looking for a Senior Editor. "The Senior Editor is the editorial head of NPR’s Latino USA, an award-winning weekly public radio program and podcast that focuses on Latinos and the Latino experience. The Senior Editor supervises the editorial and production process of the show, edits individual stories, and is responsible for overseeing the tone and content of the program, adhering to rigorous journalistic standards as well as consistently bringing cutting-edge storytelling to the show."

• News UK has launched Jungle VIP, a podcast celebrating the reality TV show I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here. It's hosted by Jamie East, and produced by Wireless Studios, the on-demand audio division of the company.

• Virgin's getting into podcasting. Breaking Barriers is "a series of six episodes that each confront societal barriers to the workplace", hosted by Yassmin Abdel-Magied.

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• Magellan have looked closely at the podcast advertising within those naughty podcasts who are manipulating the Apple Podcast Charts, and whether it differs from others. It does.

• A new video sharing service called Portal has been launched. Variety reports that it's been built with monetisation in mind, and you can charge as little as $0.01 per video. Of note for podcasters: "Portal plans to add a subscription option for individual content creators as well as the addition of audio-only content in the coming months." (our bold).

• Podsights is a company tracking advertisers and sponsorships within podcasts. Here's their view of what Quip, an electronic toothbrush company, is buying.

• Got a family account with Spotify? Live in the US? Claim a free Google Home Mini smart speaker. Meanwhile, Microsoft's given up on Cortana, and is now selling Amazon Echo speakers in-store.

• iHeartMedia is to acquire Jelli, a programmatic ad company.

• Derek Hartley and Romaine Patterson presented a show on satellite radio for twelve years, but when that ended, they used SGrecast, a live streaming platform from StreamGuys, to enable them to "efficiently bring live broadcasts to podcasts". The technology is producing the Derek and Romaine podcast; and a 24/7 stream.

• AdWeek writes a piece explaining Why So Many Podcasts Are Being Adapted for the Small Screen.

• Fortune covers Why Amy Schumer—and Everybody Else—Wants Their Own Podcast

• We reported on Nov 15 that Cold, a true crime podcast from US radio station KSL, had hit the top of the Apple Podcast charts. Steven Goldstein spots this too. Of note - in spite of being #1 on Apple, the podcast wasn't in Google Podcasts when we originally reported it. We note it's there now.

• Positive advice for podcasters from a Redditor - stick with it. "Even if you think you're not any good when you start." (We like also listening to Ira Glass on this subject).

• Influencer Update profiles Danny Pená, the host of Gamertag Radio, which has been podcasting since February 2005. (Audioboom)
• Cabana has added Bear Brook to its ad-sales portfolio. It's an investigative podcast from New Hampshire Public Radio. (NHPR / Megaphone)

Yes, we podcast too.

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• The Reuters Institute have published a smart speaker report focusing on news consumption - and many listeners want shorter news bulletins, the study suggests. It also discovers that podcasts aren't used by many owners. (Want just two minutes of podcasting news?)

• NPR has announced their Student Podcast Challenge. Students and teachers participating in NPR's Student Podcast Challenge can take a topic, a lesson, or a unit they're learning about, and turn it into a podcast between three and 12 minutes long. Winning podcasts will be featured on NPR's Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

• The Australian Podcast Awards have announced a partnership with Stitcher, who are sponsoring the Investigative Journalism & True Crime podcast category. Earlybird entries are now open, and podcast producers have until 14 February 2019 to enter their podcasts.

• Airborne, a new podcast and branded audio agency, launches in the Netherlands. A part of creative digital agency Born05, the team produced the award-winning podcast The Journey for KLM, which has achieved over 350,000 plays in five months on the inflight entertainment system of the aircraft.

• DiscoverPods have announced their podcast awards finalists.

• NPR interviewer Terry Gross was interviewed in the New York Times and offers a number of tips on how to have better conversations.

• NHPR - New Hampshire Public Radio - is making a bet that on-demand is the future of radio, according to the Concord Monitor, but the station says there are question-marks about funding. More than 10% of the station's staff are now focusing on podcasting.

• TechCrunch publishes an excellent reading list for podcasting.

• The ABC's Kellie Riordan posts six takeaways about podcasting in 2018 in her weekly newsletter.

• What's behind Spotify and Pandora's push to podcasts? Profits, says Marketwatch.

• ESPN Podcasts report that their downloads, and unique listeners, are up by 31% year-on-year.

• RAIN does some interesting maths on the latest Podtrac stats, showing data per show. An interesting way to look at the data.

• We've updated our how to understand podcast stats page. One of the things we've added is a glimpse at the demographic information that Spotify provides podcasters.

• Røde has announced their RØDEcaster Pro Podcast Production Studio, a new mixer with some ideal features for podcasters. Features include Bluetooth (for flawless telephone calls using your mobile); hotkeys; and enough inputs and headphone outputs for four people. This EFTM preview article makes it look quite desirable.

• Speechkit is a service using text-to-speech technology to allow news articles to be turned to speech (or even a podcast) as soon as they're published.

• Krisp may have applications for podcasting: it's a 'virtual microphone' that blocks background noise from your phone calls, so nobody else need know you're calling from the coffee shop/kindergarten/local bar.

• PodcastRE is a database archiving podcast culture; and is the subject of this article in historians.org.

• The Otago Daily Times reports on the Wild Dunedin Podcast, which has won an award as "a perfect example of New Zealand podcast storytelling".
• Andrew Buckwalter has a (very) mobile podcast studio - in a vintage camper van. Nashville Untold is recorded in a modified 1961 Scottsman camper known as The Rambler. Here's what he learnt when building it.
• How do we fix it? is a podcast in search of positive solutions. Richard Davies, one of the hosts, posted optimistically on LinkedIn that: "The flowering of podcasts is a joy to behold. In the language of gardening, we are hardy perennials, here to stay."

• No, people aren't skipping your podcast ads, says Kristopher Lawson.

  It was suggested [last week] that podcast advertising doesn’t work because a large majority of the listeners are skipping over the ads. But the truth is — that’s categorically false

• How do you make a better podcast? David Hooper reckons it's got something to do with fewer words:

  Something I notice a lot of podcasters do is confuse “bulk” with value. In other words, they think a long episode provides more value to a listener than a short episode.

• BuzzSprout think they can help you choose a name for your podcast.

  Choosing the right name for your podcast can be intimidating. You want it to perfectly describe what your podcast is about but in a way that is fun and will catch people’s attention.

Daily updates in your ears: find Podnews in your Amazon Alexa's news briefing section (Alexa app > menu > settings > flash briefing), or in Google's news services (Google Home app > profile > settings > services > news). Or, in your podcast app.

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Welcome to new subscribers this week from companies like the BBC, Rogers, AdLarge, Castro, Player FM, the CBC, Global, Huffington Post and Nascar.

• The CEO of podcasting company Anchor, Michael Mignano, writes that No, Anchor doesn't own your podcast, highlighting the company's new, clarified terms of service. Much of the original terms date from Anchor's first outing as an audio social network; they've been clarified and "what it means" sections have been added.

• Podtrac, a podcast measurement company, have published October 2018's podcast publisher numbers. The numbers are ranked in terms of US monthly audience. iHeartRadio's acquisition of HowStuffWorks have propelled them up to #2: the company now claims 147m global downloads.

  • Until this month, a disclaimer that iHeartRadio's figures "do not include shows being distributed on the iHeartRadio player on iHeart·com and affiliated sites" has been part of this release. These shows were excluded from the Podtrac listings after we reported back in January that they were being miscounted. We note that iHeartRadio's 850+ websites are still preloading their podcast audio; but our technical analysis shows that this behaviour is not being measured by Podtrac.

• Doing a presentation about podcasting any time soon? Here, have eighteen quotes about podcasting for it. Oh, and here's one more, about the ideal length of a podcast.

• Amira Valliani wonders whether a Netflix for podcasting (a paid-for subscription model, rather than ads for ZipRecruiter) would work in the US; and compares the market in the country to China.

• There are lots of podcast festivals in the US these days: but they aren't always very easy to put on, says Liam Niemeyer.

• There's a new podcast studio in Sonoma Valley High School, in California, USA.

• Buzzsprout writes how to promote your podcast on social media, telling us:

  90% of podcasts receive 90% of their lifetime downloads within 96 hours of posting

• Tae Haar talks about how to deal with bad reviews:

  I felt absolutely sick to my stomach. It made me wonder if I should even be podcasting in the first place.

• Sonics Podcasts write what every podcast website should include:

  What would a new listener — or someone who’s learning about your podcast for the first time — take away from their first exposure to its website?

• The Australian ABC covers the subtle art of sound design for podcasting.

  "I'm writing music I hope no-one pays too much attention to"

• American comic book writer Stan Lee passed away earlier this week; but he'd been fighting battles of his own at the end of his life, with charges of fraud, elder abuse, theft, and plenty more as his family fought for who would control his business - and his money. Scandal - Stan Lee's World covers the ugly inside story. (reVolver Podcasts / ART19)

And that's the latest from our newsletter at podnews.net .

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• Podcast app Pocket Casts have unveiled an entirely redesigned app for iOS, Android and the web (including new macOS and Windows apps). Highlights include a brand-new 'discover' section which is geo-aware, listening history, and more. The iOS version is available now; the Android version is in opt-in public beta; there is coverage in The Verge and CNet Libsyn report Pocket Casts was the #7 podcast app in September, with 1.42% of all downloads; Anchor suggests it's the #5 app, with 0.9%; it's based in Adelaide in Australia, but owned by a consortium of US public radio broadcasters.

• Freemantle, the TV network, is reported to be releasing eight scripted drama podcasts by the end of Q2 2019. The company's podcast brand to watch for is Storyglass.

• Audiocraft, which describes itself as "Australia's leading podcast festival", has set its next date for June 1, 2019. The event will take place at AFTRS in Moore Park NSW.

• Forbes has published their 30 under 30 list in media. In the list are Max Cutler, the founder of Parcast Network (here's a piece about him in June), and the three founders of Betches Media.

• 2 Dope Queens have announced they've produced their last podcast; their final guest is former first lady Michelle Obama. They'll continue to appear in HBO specials.

• Voxnest's Spreaker Studio now supports Siri shortcuts, the company has announced. Ready-to-use shortcuts include "Record Audio", which triggers audio capture.

• Fox News host Laura Ingraham is ending her radio show and shifting to podcasting from January. She'll be with PodcastOne.

• We spotted an amazing thing in the producer of Reasons to be Cheerful's setup - a backlit editor's keyboard with all the shortkeys printed on. Here's an Adobe Audition keyboard and a Hindenburg keyboard.

• The WhiskyCast Tasting Panel is running a fundraiser next Monday for the victims of the shootings at Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. Tickets are available here. Over the 14 years of WhiskyCast, they've raised over $25,000 for charities.

• Watch: Three tips for training your voice, from NPR.

• Steve Pratt from Pacific Content advises podcasters to be consistent.

• 25 years ago HIV was a death sentence. Those living with HIV were sometimes discriminated against and often shunned. And then came Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, director Jonathan Demme, and a movie called Philadelphia. That movie and the developments in HIV treatment which followed it changed the face of HIV and AIDS in America and throughout the world. Released today, People Like Us: Inside Philadelphia is a special podcast of the story behind the movie, produced solely for charity. Thanks to Coca Cola, 100% of the donations made by listeners to this podcast will go to support (RED) and its campaign to rid the world of AIDS in our lifetimes. (Mark Ramsey / Wondery / ART19)
• COLD, a new weekly podcast from KSL Investigative Reporter Dave Cawley, was released on Nov 12 and has spent the last day at #1 in Apple Podcasts. It looks into the case of missing Utah mother Susan Powell.
• Edge and Christian's Pod Of Awesomeness, a podcast covering the WWE, has shifted to Westwood One's Podcast Network. Their first show, interviewing Shawn Michaels, will be released on Friday.

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• Pandora, a US music service, has announced the launch of its podcast offering, powered by what it calls the Podcast Genome Project. There are screenshots at Engadget (and other publications). You can sign up for early access here.

  "The Podcast Genome Project recommends the right podcasts to the right listeners at the right time, solving the questions, “is there a podcast that’s right for me?” and “what should I listen to next?” It evaluates content based on more than 1,500 attributes – spanning MPAA ratings, timely and evergreen topics, production style, content type, host profile, etc – and listener signals including thumbs, skips and replays." ... At launch, Pandora has partnered with top-tier publishers including APM, Gimlet, HeadGum, Libsyn, Maximum Fun, NPR, Parcast, PRX+PRI, reVolver, Slate, The New York Times, The Ramsey Network, The Ringer, WNYC Studios, and Wondery.

• Pandora is only available within the US, and has about 76 million users. Spotify, which also offers podcasts, has 56 million users within the US, and 180 million users worldwide.

• Libsyn appear to be the only host available to independent podcasters that is included in Pandora's launch offering. Libsyn calls this an "exclusive" partnership, and has announced that Libsyn customers should email their VP of Podcast Relations Rob Walch - rob@libsyn.com - if you want your show to be listed on Pandora. Speaking on a special episode of the company's podcast, Walch said that initially there are 420 shows from Libsyn available in Pandora, and that this "is a really good day for podcasting".

• Opinion - Pandora's a big deal for the US, but is not available anywhere else. A geo-locked service which only lists podcasts from a limited list of publishers appears underwhelming at first glance; but this may open many new listeners to podcasting in the US, and act as a gateway to help grow the industry.

• Remote audio service Cleanfeed has added multitrack recording, allowing you to download individual tracks for each person in your podcast. It's free to everyone while it's in beta.

• Spotify Connect smart speaker devices will now work for free users, the company has announced. It's a popular podcast app.

• iHeartRadio's podcast awards already have a winner: NPR is to be honoured with the Podcast Pioneer Award. The largest podcast publisher in the world, NPR has been officially podcasting since August 2005. (And talking of podcasting history: no, Adam Curry wasn't first. Here's some alternative podcasting history from the RadioSurvivor website).

• Job: Magellan is looking for an Account Executive in New York NY, USA. "A greenfield opportunity to join the 4-person team that's leading the podcast space in competitive intelligence and verification (airchecks) for brands, publishers and agencies."

• Advertising in podcasting isn't working, says branded content producer BE Media Production, pointing to statistics which appear to show that most listeners skip the advertisements.

• Steven Goldstein wonders whether the SNL skit about podcasting actually set the industry back.

• Origins with James Andrew Miller is back for a new season, telling the story of how Sex and the City came to be, with interviews with stars, writers and even the costume designer. (Cadence13 / ART19)
• From the New York Times, he's Michael Barbaro - the latest guest on On Mic from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. It's Wednesday... November 14th.
• Does podcasting your novels mean more people buy your books? James R. Tramontana is doing just that, in Ace Tucker Space Trucker. He's the guest on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Marketing Podcast.

Thank you to EverythingWithPodcasting, an invaluable website if you're just starting out, for your kind support. Join them.

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• Vox Media has selected Panoply as their new podcast host. The company will use the Megaphone Targeted Marketplace audience targeting tech, starting with a limited trial across SB Nation's titles. They were previously using ART19.

• Spotify, which is the #2 podcast platform according to Anchor and Libsyn, is testing shareable podcast playlists. A test has been seen by My Spotify Ideas which allows users to share individual podcast episodes (and, like all playlists, ask for the entire playlist to be downloaded). The test has disappeared.

• Triton Digital has signed a deal with Singapore's largest broadcaster Mediacorp to monetise their podcasts and streams. Mediacorp will be using Omny Studio's technology for podcasting.

• Google Play has opened voting for their fan favorite apps. Castbox is the only podcasting app in the running, and they'd like your vote, please. (In some countries, this is called "User's Choice Awards"; it's in the Google Play store).

• Many staff at Apple Podcasts are on vacation from November 16, 2018, to November 26, 2018, and December 21, 2018, to January 2, 2019. "Shows submitted during these windows may not be available within our regular time frame of five business days."

• Event: "How to make a successful podcast", from BBC producers, at The Guardian on 20 March 2019.

• Jason Rigden suggests there are just eight podcast formats. (The Podnews podcast is one of the examples!)

• The New Yorker writes How Podcasts Became a Seductive—and Sometimes Slippery—Mode of Storytelling. It's a long article with some history and plenty of views of the medium.

• Talking Points by The Points Guy is a new podcast highlighting, like its parent website, how to get more of those airline and hotel points. It features among its first three guests Chase Bank's Kristin Lemkau, Capital One's Matt Knise, and former record store owner Sir Richard Branson (The Points Guy / Acast)
• Freelance Pod is a new podcast from Suchandrika Chakrabarti about how the internet has revolutionised the world of work. There are plenty of people from the world of audio slated to take part. It launches next weekend.

At no extra cost, we now give full reports of our newsletter stats, open rates, unique views, and a top country breakdown, for people who book our classified ads. (If you've used us in the past, that data is in your ads dashboard). Do let us know how we can improve this service: this new page is the result of an email asking for stats.

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• How many podcasts have ads? About three-quarters of the US top 100; and about a quarter of all podcasts, reckons podcast ad monitoring company Magellan.

• Podcasting made it to TV comedy show Saturday Night Live over the weekend, with a lampoon of a podcast award. The skit featured "Michael Barbaro" and "Sarah Koenig". (Outside the US? You might need a VPN - we like Tunnelbear).

• Apple is removing podcasts who abuse the title or description by adding tons of keywords. The Audacity to Podcast was one of those removed; the author of that podcast, Daniel J Lewis, explains what happens next.

• Audio search company Audioburst translate into English an article from The Marker about the company's plans for the future.

• Job: Mamamia is looking for a podcast host and producer, in Sydney NSW, Australia.

• Ad company Targetspot has launched "the first all-in global podcast ad marketplace across North America and Europe", according to a press release. Voxnest appears to be one of its first partners; Targetspot claims their publishers are already responsible for over 100 million monthly downloads.

• What makes a podcast sponsorable? Podcast company Cabana have some thoughts.

• The Free Music Archive has suddenly closed. This article claims shut-down was initially November 9, but it would remain open until November 16; however, all pages are returning a "503 Service Unavailable" error at press time.

• The Washington Post has announced a set of new hires in their podcast division.

• Blubrry have published a set of guidelines on how to ensure your podcast statistics are accurate. Podnews podcast pages have always conformed to their requirements of no pre-loading or auto-playing.

The ABC posts top six takeaways from OzPod 2018, including an infographic with Australian podcast consumption data, and quotes from many of the speakers, including Kyla Slaven:

You can go deep and dark with kids - it's just the way that you pitch it. Kids are super smart and ready to ask questions about the world around them

An overview of the RAIN Summit Europe in London last week included BBC Podcast Commissioner Jason Phipps, who:

"strongly advocated for UK podcasters to find a strong collective voice to counter the fertile creative activity in the American podcast industry"

Jason Rigden was a speaker at the Podcasting Like A Pro event in Seattle:

This event reminded me that the true heart of podcasting is the individual. The independent podcaster that is making a show with no budget or media connections. The hosts with nothing but passion and grit.

Chris Boyce (Pacific Content) was speaking at the Ontario Association of Broadcasters event on Thursday, and highlighted the success of Red Hat's Command Line Heroes:

They would have been happy if they had 10,000 downloads per episode, but they were getting many multiples of that - because they were doing something for a community that speaks to the community in the voice of the community - that is absolutely different than how everyone else was serving them.

David Hooper's heard too many presenter-read sponsorship messages in podcasts (and helpfully provides the talking-points from Caspar):

Nobody who hears you read generic, company-provided talking points in your podcast advertising is buying what you’re selling

In Spain, the lack of podcasting data, and existing conflicting numbers, are holding the medium back, says a well-researched article published in TELOS Magazine. It quotes podcaster Francisco Izuzquiza:

[Podcasting in Spain] will continue to grow steadily, although it would be good to have a clear case study that broke barriers, as Serial was in the US.

• Missing Richard Simmonds is now Headlong; Dan Taberski's original series is still in the feed, and a new season is about to start - Surviving Y2K is the story of those fine men and women who avoided total meltdown on January 1, 2000, and who were rewarded by most people calling the Y2K issue a hoax. Fine people, all of them. (Can you guess a project your Editor was in charge of for six months in 1999/2000?)

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