Black Podcasting Awards announces lead judge

• The Black Podcasting Awards has announced Erica Cobb as its inaugural lead judge. She is co-host of TEGNA’s popular TV show 'Daily Blast Live’. Applications now close on Aug 7 - COBBLER is a discount code to save you $10 on your entry.

• Podnews’s free jobs board - the biggest in the podcast industry - has an opening for a Senior Producer at Wondery for a weekly sports podcast; a Business Development Director for editaudio; and writing and reporting jobs for audiochuck, along with a number of other roles. It’s open to anyone to enter jobs wherever they are in the world, and whether you’re a Podnews supporter or not; and new jobs reach more than 28,000 subscribers. See all the open roles here.

• Glassbox Media has acquired two hit podcasts; the company is now delivering 13.5mn monthly downloads.

• Podster and BBC Studios are to make Killing Victoria into a number of different languages for new markets.

• Libsyn’s AdvertiseCast reports that the average CPM for podcast advertising in its marketplace fell last month to $22.24. It’s the lowest level for four months, and is down 3.6% from June’s figures.

• Attendees to Radiodays Asia and Podcast Day Asia will have free access to a podcast workshop on Sep 4. How to design and plan your podcast by using the MethodKit for Podcasts, a workshop with DW Akademie and Public Media Alliance.

• Amazon is to require streaming video apps on its FireTV platform to share 30% of their ad revenue with the company, or to use the company’s own ad sales program. Podcasts which contain advertising are not required to share ad revenue at this time - but we presume Amazon Music, Spotify and YouTube will all be watching this with interest.

• Congratulations to Australian podcast production company Pro Podcast, which has just released its 300th podcast series.

• Another AI podcast tool, PodcastGPT “listens to your podcasts, finds the best parts for you, and sends those to any podcast app”.

• History Hit has revealed a new co-host for its award-winning Gone Medieval podcast. Dr. Eleanor Janega will present the Tuesday episode.

Tips and tricks - with Pod Predictor by Coleman Insights

• Many will tell you that YouTube really doesn’t like static-image podcasts. Tell that to Josh Taylor of The Wild West Extravaganza, a static-image YouTube podcast channel with more than 20,000 subscribers. Courtney Kocak’s Podcast Bestie this week interviews Josh on how he does it.

Moves and hires

• Lena Taupier has joined Blubrry’s board of directors. She has worked at the company since 2015, and is CTO.

Podcast News - with Airwave

Part of the Airwave podcast network: The Art of Crime focuses on unlikely collisions between true crime and the arts. Season two looks at assassins - artists who have committed, attempted, or been implicated in an assassination, like Andy Warhol, Nero or Leon Trotsky. Each episode is painstakingly researched with a unique musical score; the latest focuses on John Wilkes Booth.

5 in 5 with ANZ is new from ANZ, a bank. It’s a new daily financial markets podcast featuring the latest news, trends and insights from ANZ economists based around the world. Hosted by journalist Bernard Hickey, it explores five market trends, insights, and data releases in 5 minutes, followed by a deep dive on one specific topic, aimed to arm listeners with the information they need to start the day.

What’s it like to be Terribly Famous? Wondery and Amazon Music release a brand new UK original podcast taking listeners inside Britain’s unique celebrity culture to chart the lives of its most iconic stars. Each season tells the story of one of our biggest stars, starting with best-selling musical artist Adele. It’s produced by Loftus Media.

It’s a great day for America, as the late night legend himself, Craig Ferguson, starts his new interview podcast. Joy, a Podcast. Hosted by Craig Ferguson will feature celebrity guests including Gabriel Iglesias, Tony Hawk, Angela Kinsey, and Lewis Black.

Exclusive: Dear Alana, the new show from Tenderfoot TV, has just posted its trailer. It explores the story of aspiring nun Alana Chen who tragically ended her life at the age of 24 after seven years in conversion therapy. Host Simon Fung shares a shockingly similar experience, and through his story and the dozens of journals left behind by Alana, the eight-episode podcast series provides listeners both an unraveling mystery, and a poignant spiritual memoir.

Meet Cute Rom-Coms's new season Baby Girl premieres today, and is a fish-out-of-water rom-com that plucks quintessential It Girl Sloane St. James (Kristen Sullivan) from her posh life in New York City and drops her into a farming town small enough she hopes no one will recognize her. There, she reconnects with her estranged father, tries to save his ailing business, gets into fights with a very handsome cowboy, and maybe even finds herself.