Exclusive: Anchor are automatically deleting podcasters, and why

• Exclusive: the robots are coming. Free podcast host Anchor could automatically delete your account without any warning. It happened to experienced podcaster Jonathan Mendonsa - and all for uploading a piece of audio that he owned. And as we went to press, we discovered one reason why. If you’re with Anchor, you should probably read it.

• Edison Research has published a top 30 US Podcasts ranker. Called “the only podcast ranker that covers the entire US podcasting industry”, it claims to measure shows by reach (“people”), not downloads; it’s based on online interviews with over 8,000 weekly podcast consumers over a near 12-month period ending in June. We’ve published the full list.

• Apple Podcasts is a bit broken - random shows are appearing in Apple Podcasts’s category “top shows” listings. Here’s what we’re seeing for business, comedy, technology or society/culture - some are in foreign languages while none are recognisably “top shows”; we get the Australian storefront, but we hear other storefronts are similarly affected (here are the comedy top shows in the UK). This apparent bug, which has been visible for at least the past three days, coincides with problems that some podcasters are reporting with Apple not updating its website with latest episodes for some shows.

• Ad trafficking system Google Ad Manager has announced it will now handle audio. TuneIn and Spotify are using it already, says the UK’s Matt Deegan. Integration, he says, is coming for podcasts but “isn’t quite there yet”.

• Other outlets are now reporting on Amazon’s podcasting plans, pointing out the clause that says you can’t say anything bad about them on your podcast that we reported on July 23. GeekWire reports it as “a PR mess”. (For the record, we submitted Podnews’s podcast last week and agreed to the licence terms, since the worst that can happen is we get thrown off for stories like this, which would be excellent publicity).

  
  Aug 26 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Yesterday, we linked to a long Twitter thread containing various accusations against PRX management from a black woman who has since left the company. CEO Kerri Hoffman has responded via an all-staff email. “I do not get things right plenty of times, and I have a lot to learn,” she said, outlining a number of steps the organisation will take.

• Triton Digital have unveiled their Australian Podcast Ranker for the month of July. ARN’s iHeartPodcast Network Australia is the #1 publisher once more. It measures participating publishers only.

  • The ABC, the country’s largest podcaster, is still not measured, despite having said they’d join within months last October. A spokesperson from the corporation tells Podnews: “We’re working through some technical issues and hope to be able to participate in due course.”

• 86% of podcast listeners in Saudi Arabia listen to brand-funded podcasts according to a study from markettiers.

  
  This link is no longer available, as at Aug 26 2023

• ART19 has expanded its relationships in Korea for podcast technology and ad sales. The deals with MBC and TBS, alongside the Korean Herald newspaper and CollabAsia, means that ART19 now works with all major broadcasters in the country.

• Into personal finance? Optimal Finance Daily are looking for a new, paid, host - they’re one of the jobs available in Podjobs today.

  
  This link is no longer available, as at Aug 26 2023

• Studio71 has announced its Q3 2020 slate of podcasts.. Ad revenue for the company has grown by 690% year-on-year, it says.

• The Audio Production Awards 2020 have been announced in the UK, and are now open for entries.

• In Amsterdam, the Podcastfestival 2020 is planned for September 18-19. One of the speakers is our Editor, James Cridland, who’ll be speaking about how to “take control of your podcast hosting and RSS feed” - unveiling some unpublished findings about hosting podcasts yourself (and whether it’s a good idea). It’s a mainly virtual event with some physical parts (hurray!); you can get tickets now.

• InsideRadio has published a list of “the top 10 most powerful people in podcasting”. Conal Byrne, who runs the iHeartPodcast Network, is deservedly awarded the #1 slot by the publication’s editorial board. InsideRadio is owned by a subsidiary of iHeartMedia.

  
  Aug 26 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

Thank you to podcast host Simplecast, who have increased their amount of support as their company grows. An IAB-certified host, they offer comprehensive analytics and unlimited storage. We’re grateful to them for their support. Be like them.

Tips and tricks

• How to pitch yourself as a guest on other podcasts (Rachel Corbett) - Podnews’s editor, incidentally, is always up for being a guest. editor@podnews.net
• The benefits of private internal podcasting (Blubrry)

Podcast News - with The John Bartolo Show

In The John Bartolo Show Zak Cummings - an American mixed martial artist, who currently competes in the Middleweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. A professional competitor since 2007, he has also formerly competed for Strikeforce, MFC, Titan FC, and Bellator. Listen now

Emily Tisch Sussman’s all women politics podcast Your Primary Playlist has relaunched as Your Presidential Playlist with an 8-episode season featuring the women elected officials and organisers in the states critical to Democratic victory in 2020. The launch episode features Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Vote·org CEO Andrea Hailey.

Entercom’s Cadence13 has launched Pod is a Woman, a weekly show hosted by three Obama White House veterans, promising “an unfiltered weekly conversation about politics and popular culture”. Their debut guest is Dr Jill Biden.

Entercom’s C13Originals has also launched a new podcast today: Relative Unknown is “a real life tale of murder, mayhem, crime and family secrets”, focusing on someone hidden in the Witness Protection Program for over forty years.

Allison DuBois is a psychic medium who rose to fame by helping law enforcement solve crimes. Now, she has launched her own podcast called The Dead Life, to find out what it’s like to have a brush with death.