The Australian Podcast Awards 2023: winners

• In an award ceremony in Sydney, the winners of the Australian Podcast Awards 2023 have just been announced. Podcast of The Year went to true crime podcast The Lawyer, the Sniper & the NSW Police. We’ve a full list of the winners and nominees, including trailers and hosting companies.

• Podcast hosting company RSS.com has launched gift cards - allowing you to gift podcast hosting for the holidays. The gift cards give someone a full RSS.com hosting account for up to a year, and the episodes will also remain online forever.

• In London, podcast production company Listen has launched Listen Labs, a team to help with launching new podcasts, and an aim to define strategy, provide growth and exceed targets.

• The winners of the 2023 Podes Awards in Portugal were announced. The Best Podcast went to the news podcast Fumaça.

• In an ongoing trial, it’s emerged that Spotify has done a secret deal to avoid Google’s app-store fees. Normally, companies like Pocket Casts or Podcast Addict have to pay between 15%-30% to Google if they sell things in-app, like Pocket Casts Plus or Podcast Addict’s ad-free option. Spotify is a founding member of the Coalition for App Fairness and has run campaigns like Time to Play Fair: yet the admission from Google’s Don Harrison, suggests Spotify had an unfair advantage all along.

• Eric Silver, the Head of Creative at Multitude Productions, has written a piece for Fast Company suggesting that “Podcasting needs to get professional”. He suggests much of podcasting is stuck in “the hobbyist way of thinking”, and that deals they sign with networks are exploitative.

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🔮 Can you predict what 2024 will bring for podcasting?
For a special edition of Podnews and the Podnews Weekly Review, we’d like to hear from you! Please send us your short audio, with your name and company; your highlights from 2023; and your predictions for 2024. Keep the audio less than two minutes if you can. We’re especially looking for diverse voices, and from countries across the world.

Moves and hires

• Kyle Hopkins has started at LiSTNR as a Sound Designer. As an audio engineer, he’s done freelance work with The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, and Deadset Studios.
• David Waters is the new Head of Narrative at UK production company What’s The Story Sounds. He joins from Novel.
• Alex Gatenby joins What’s The Story Sounds as Senior Producer: she joins from Folding Pocket.
• Jessica Hatcher-Moore also joins What’s The Story Sounds as a long-form development producer.
• Tom Brady is to join AdLarge Media as Vice President of Sales. He joins from ESPN.

Podcast News - with Airwave

From Airwave: Who Arted: Weekly Art History for All Ages promises the story of a different artist and artwork including the traditional big names like Leonardo da Vinci, Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol along with lesser-known artists working in such diverse media as video game design, dance, the culinary arts, and more.

Ever wondered What Should I Do With My Money? The team behind the financial advice podcast from Morgan Stanley are looking for guests for a new season. Allow us to give an idea…

Life and Art, from FT Weekend has had a revamp, and is now a twice-weekly podcast. On Mondays, host Lilah Raptopoulos (FT culture writer) explores everything from food and travel to philosophy and creativity; while on Fridays, Lilah and three FT journalists discuss a new cultural release across film, TV, music and books.

The Consult: Real FBI Profilers has signed with PodcastOne for sales and distribution. It’s a true crime podcast that examines behavior exhibited before, during, and after the commission of a criminal act; it’s from retired FBI agent and profiler, Julia Cowley.

Off on holiday soon? Could it be… The Last Trip? A new show from Jaimie Beebe dives into the chilling investigations of missing and murdered individuals who were living their best lives — while on vacation. It’s a new show from the host of the Strictly Stalking podcast.

Tortoise Investigates launches a new podcast series today, Walter’s War. It starts as a love story, turned upside down by a Walter Mitty-esque character who has climbed to senior positions in academia, the civil service and national security.

Bedtime Explorers starts season 11 this week, talking about dogs - their different characters and how kids can be just like them. It’s hosted by Amy Taylor-Kabbaz.