Chinese government increasingly interested in podcasts

• The Chinese government’s censors are increasingly interested in podcasting, according to Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, which looks at the growth of the medium.

• Magellan AI has published the top spenders, movers and shakers for US podcast advertising in November. The most increased was the Bank of America. The #1 advertiser, who spent $3.9m ($200,000 more than last month), was BetterHelp, an online counselling service.

• 2020 was the year podcasting went mainstream, writes Usha Raman in India’s The Hindu, highlighting some shows recommended by her friends.

• Bobby Owsinski, a Forbes blogger, writes his music industry predictions for 2021. At #5, he suggests that in 2021, podcasting will gently peter out. “Podcasting is hard work, the rewards only apply to the lucky 1%, and listeners only have so many hours in the day,” he writes.

• Missed a freebie? On Friday we had 100 professional accounts for remote recording tool MicDropp to give away. You weren’t busy doing something else, were you? We believe there are still some left.

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• The Podcast Flywheel - Fábio Mazzeu describes the three main elements you need to make a podcast successful.

• 9 Tips on how to create an effective podcast trailer (Fiona Livingston)

Podcast News - with Fable & Folly

Fable and Folly presents The End of Time and Other Bothers. A cafeteria worker, a demonic filing clerk and a fairy PR exec are thrown back into the ancient past to save the universe.

Tal Minear posts something they definitely don’t call a “best of list” of audio drama podcasts from 2020. Chosen at random from that, we’ll mention Less is Morgue, if only for the excellent title: a podcast that keeps being interrupted by ghosts.

Reasons to be Cheerful has published its 2020 “best of” podcast, with ideas from some of the world’s most interesting thinkers.