Leading Podcast Networks Bring U.S. Upfront Tour to San Francisco

San Francisco CA, USA—Podcast upfront series “Podfront” stops today at The San Francisco Museum of Art, where nine of the industry’s top podcast publishers and platforms will unveil new shows, partnerships and trends to expect in the coming months. Podfront San Francisco will also feature keynote presentations by This American Life Host and Executive Producer Ira Glass and Edison Research SVP Tom Webster.

The Podfront series, launched in January 2019, brings resources and insight to advertisers in a time when podcasting is on the rise: 90M people listen to podcasts each month, nearly a third of all podcasts currently in circulation launched in 2018 and podcast advertising spending is projected to top $1B by 2021. Presentations in San Francisco today will feature stars, producers and industry executives offering advertisers, agencies and media a first look at new programming slated through the end of 2019.

Among the highlights planned for Podfront San Francisco:

Authentic will speak about top podcasts they represent including This American Life, Serial, This Week in Tech, Mueller She Wrote, Girls Gotta Eat and Motley Fool. Mark McCrery, CEO of Authentic, will have a conversation with Leo Laporte, Founder and Host of the TWiT Podcast Network, about the effectiveness of brand and direct response ads, the power of host read ads, and ways brands can maximize ad performance. Mark will also highlight This American Life, the #1 ranked weekly podcast by unique US monthly audience (Podtrac, July 2019).

Cadence13 will preview its fall slate, presented by C13’s Chief Revenue Officer Nick Freeman, including: the next breakthrough docuseries from C13Originals, home of the No.1 podcast “Root of Evil” and critically acclaimed “Gangster Capitalism;” the lineup on C13’s Ramble network of influential creators; and the latest from Malcolm Gladwell and Jacob Weisberg’s Pushkin Industries, including Gladwell’s music podcast “Broken Record” and “The Happiness Lab,” hosted by Yale professor Laurie Santos. Tenderfoot TV co-founders Donald Albright and Payne Lindsey (host of “Up and Vanished”), will join Freeman to unveil a new anthology series of bizarre, scary, untold stories from the mind of Payne Lindsey, debuting fall 2019.

ESPN will review their focus on the podcast space through new talent, new shows, big names, new networks of verticals, continued innovative and quality storytelling and politics. The segment will be headlined by Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight and Andy Tennant, Executive Producer of the ESPN Daily podcast. Silver will discuss FiveThirtyEight’s coverage plans for the 2020 election and the key events that will drive up listenership, like primary election days, debates and conventions. Tennant will take a deeper look at the ESPN Daily podcast that is set to debut in October.

iHeartRadio will discuss the latest podcast trends and programming and its unique ability to provide scale through its broadcast radio stations to introduce podcasts to the vast majority of Americans. The iHeartPodcastNetwork features some of today’s most listened to podcasts, including “Stuff You Should Know,” “The Ron Burgundy Podcast,” “Disgraceland” and Chelsea Handler’s “Life Will Be the Death of Me.” iHeartRadio will give a sneak preview of its upcoming fall and winter line up featuring some of the best creators in the medium - like Jake Brennan, Aaron Mahnke and Will Ferrell.

NPR podcast Hosts Shereen Marisol Meraji of Code Switch, Allison Aubrey of Life Kit and Kelly McEvers of Embedded offer an exclusive preview of what’s coming up on each of their programs this fall. Johanna Weber, Vice President of NPR Sponsorship Marketing at National Public Media, will present insights into spoken word listening habits, changing consumer patterns in audio and sponsorship offerings from the podcast publisher ranked #1 with the largest monthly audience in the U.S. – 20.8M (Podtrac, July 2019).

Roman Mars, host of 99% Invisible and co-founder of Radiotopia, will moderate PRX’s panel featuring some of the most creative and strategic minds in podcasting. He’ll chat with Kerri Hoffman, CEO of PRX, Nate DeMeo, Creator and Host of The Memory Palace, Drew Ackerman, Creator and Host of Sleep with Me and Al Letson, Host of Reveal with added perspective from Jim Lally, Chief Podcast Sales Officer at Market Enginuity. Together, they will share personal perspectives on the power of podcasting, highlighting the delicate balance that PRX shows strike between the art and business of podcasting. We’ll announce three new shows coming to Radiotopia: Adult ISH, Passenger List and Over the Road.

Stitcher and its advertising arm, Midroll, will be represented by Chief Revenue Officer Sarah van Mosel and Chief Content Officer Chris Bannon. They will be sharing insights from listener and brand lift studies; offering exclusive previews of upcoming shows; and discussing opportunities for advertisers and agencies in the Bay Area to partner with upcoming content. Featured launches include a new show from the Vox network and second seasons for The Dream, the hit series exposing multilevel marketing, and Conan O’Brien’s quest for companionship, Conan Needs a Friend.

From WNYC Studios, Chief Marketing Officer Lisa Baird will reveal the results of a brand lift study conducted on Radiolab’s “G” series, give a sneak preview of upcoming podcasts Dolly Parton’s America, Scattered with Chris Garcia, The Other Latif from the team behind Radiolab, and the next season of Trump, Inc., and share notable highlights from the past year.- Chief Content Officer Andrew Golis will moderate a panel with Anna Sale, host of Death, Sex & Money; Glynn Washington, host of Snap Judgment; and Tobin Low, co-host of Nancy.

Wondery’s CEO Hernan Lopez will be delivering the keynote speech, “Your Brain on Podcasts.” He will reveal new neuroscience research on the effectiveness of audio advertising, as learned in a study produced in partnership with Mindshare. Host of The Moment, Ingrid Hass, and Business Wars host, David Brown will join Hernan on stage as he makes some exciting announcements about Wondery’s upcoming slate.

In addition to the podcast presenters above, sponsors Podcast Media Marketing (PMM) and Spotify will also be onsite to participate in meetings, network and share the latest opportunities in podcasting:

David Raphael, CEO of PMM will introduce keynote speaker Ira Glass from This American Life. In this intro David will speak to the success of This American Life and Serial and PMM’s Partnership with those hit shows. He will also mention other top PMM programs including Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, The Joe Rogan Experience and Anna Faris is Unqualified. PMM offers host read ads often with endorsements to deliver the most successful campaigns for direct response and brand campaigns.

For more information on Podfront San Francisco and schedule of presenters, visit Podfront.com. The Podfront event series launched in 2019 with events in Los Angeles (January) and Detroit (July). The series will continue in February 2020 with an event in Los Angeles. More information on the presentations and hosts will be announced in the coming months.