Apple Podcasts is auto-tagging episodes with topics

• Bumper’s Dan Misener has discovered that Apple Podcasts is quietly tagging individual podcast episodes by topic. The topics are used to help Apple’s search engine; and are linked to Wikipedia pages and Wikidata identifiers.

• Exclusive: Apple’s topic tags are invisible to humans, and hide in the Apple Podcasts web code - until now. Podnews has built an Apple Podcasts episode topic viewer to let you see what topics Apple has chosen for podcast episodes. (Give it a go!)

• First look: Acast has just announced Keyword Targeting, a way for advertisers to target topics and keywords they wish to advertise next to. The tool joins Conversational Targeting, which matches podcast content with the IAB’s content taxonomy.

• Apple Podcasts launches Apple Podcasts Spotlight for listeners in the UK and Ireland today. If you’re in those two countries, you’ll see Acast’s Out Of Home Podcast being promoted - four Londoners living in Amsterdam, capturing and sharing stories of inspiring people whilst sharing their own. Spotlight UK creators will also get up to 16 hours of recording time in central London.

• Audion, a French audio and podcast monetisation company, has raised €6m ($6.2m) in a Series A funding round. It will enable the company to hire 50 people in the next 12-18 months. They raised €1.1m in 2019; this latest round is a record funding amount for French audio adtech.

• Headliner is now letting you upload your entire podcast to YouTube - from your first episode to now. It’s available for Pro or Enterprise users.

• Veritonic has announced the Annual Audio Intelligence Summit will return on Feb 15, 2023 in New York NY, USA.

• Further reading: Joanna Aveillan, an Expansion Director for the Acast Creator Network, hosted a session on Borderless Storytelling — The Power of the Spoken Word

Moves and hires

• Nancy Barnes has been named the next editor of the Boston Globe newspaper. She is currently Editorial Director for NPR News; before that, she was editor of newspapers like The Houston Chronicle and the Star Tribune in Minneapolis.

What do the CEOs of Quibi, Chief, StubHub all have in common?

Paid content

Podcast News - with CBC Podcasts

From CBC Podcasts #11 is: The Outlaw Ocean Pulitzer-Prize-winner Ian Urbina spent over eight years reporting at sea. His 7-part investigative series explores the gritty and lawless realm rarely seen. “Ian’s not relying on research,” says critic Lauren Passell. "He was there … and Outlaw Ocean makes you feel like you’re there, too.

Juicy Scoop with Heather McDonald has joined Sony Music Entertainment’s Podcast Network. The show has published over 700 episodes and garnered more than 200 million downloads in four years; and tackles all things Hollywood, celebrity romances, Bravo TV and Heather’s real-life drama.

The Pitch has joined the Vox Media Podcast Network; the show remains independently owned, but Vox will take on sales, marketing and distribution. It will release its first season with Vox Media in February 2023.

The Best Soccer Podcast in the World is new today from Exile Content Studio and My Cultura, iHeartMedia’s podcast network dedicated to elevating Latinx voices and stories. The show, timed to coincide with this year’s FIFA World Cup, will guide the listener through the most memorable moments and players of the 92-year-old competition.

After the Whistle with Brendan Hunt and Rebecca Lowe launches on Thursday from Apple News. The show will bring listeners a fun and informative take on the World Cup tournament, from the perspective of two bona fide superfans - Brendan closely follows MLS and the English Premier League; Rebecca has been a soccer host for nearly two decades. It’s produced for Apple News by Meadowlark Media.

Radiolingo is new from Crooked Media and Duolingo; hosted by audio journalist and James Beard Award-winning writer, Ahmed Ali Akbar, it investigates the impact of language across our lives, relationships, culture and more. It is Crooked Media’s first co-produced podcast.

A Nation for Thieves is launched today from Lionsgate Sound - with former FBI Special Agent Debra LaPrevotte recounting how she recovered over $1 billion dollars of dirty money from the world’s most corrupt leaders. In the series, hosted by Justin Shenkarow, Debra takes listeners on an international treasure hunt, retrieving priceless items of art, cars, yachts, and suitcases full of cash.