Podnews launches series of live events

• Podnews is to launch a series of local day-long conferences, starting with Podnews Live - North, an event on June 13 at the Lowry Centre (above) in Salford, Gtr Manchester, UK. Among the speakers will be Sophie Hind from Voiceworks, Ian Forrester from BBC R&D, Kate Cocker from Everyday Positivity, and our Editor, James Cridland. Built to help those in the business of podcasting effectively network, tickets are now on sale (at an early-bird price); and a further event is planned in London the day before the British Podcast Awards.

• In Australia, the IAB has revealed that podcast advertising spend in the country was AUD$82mn (US$55mn) in 2022. Overall, the online ad market saw a growth of 15% in the first six months, and 4% growth in the second half of the year.

• Headliner has a fancy new website.

• Earbuds looks at five podcasts containing “great writing for the ear”. It’s curated by Andrew Beck Grace, Chip Brantley, and Connor Towne O’Neill, writers and producers of NPR’s White Lies.

• Further reading: in Tech Dirt, Mike Masnick writes about “the flop of Spotify’s podcast colonization” … James Burtt suggests that new shows perform better in Apple’s ranking algorithm … Jordan Harbinger shares at least 18 podcast marketing tips in Podcast Marketing Magic.

• YouTube podcasts: The Hollywood Reporter was present at the Hot Pod Summit last week, and the YouTube Music announcement. So was Axios, who said the mood was upbeat. Bandrew Scott calls the announcement confusing, asking how the “ad-funded background listening” is going to work for podcasters. In emails to Podnews, “I only think this will work if the podcasts are available both on YouTube and YouTube Music simultaneously. I’m not sure if that was clarified.” says Anthony Frasier. (Our podcast playlist appears visible on YouTube too). “Upsetting it is US only at the moment,” says a Canadian reader (echoing our thoughts); “they are totally fumbling a massive opportunity”.

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• In a Faceboook post, Todd Cochrane reveals that Blubrry podcasters have already earnt $625 from value-for-value in the first three weeks of the company’s support. “Considering it takes time to train audiences on V4V, this is pretty incredible,” he says.

• Fountain has produced a “Beginner’s Guide to Value for Value on Fountain” video.

• A transcript search app has been built using the transcript tags in the new podcast namespace. Try finding Podcasting 2.0 and searching for “douche”. Weird…

Podcast News

Normal Gossip announced last week that the podcast is to join Radiotopia from PRX. The show returns on April 5.

Slow Burn has announced that season 8, coming in May, will focus on the life and career of Justice Clarence Thomas, who is the oldest member of the US Supreme Court.

Next Year in Moscow is new from The Economist, hosted by the newspaper’s Russian editor Arkady Ostrovsky, who travels across Europe and the Middle East to speak to free-thinking Russians who fled their country after last year’s invasion. As they continue to rebuild their lives, Ostrovsky asks them if they will ever return to Russia.

If you like Business Wars, a new podcast - Empires - is similar but set within Asia, featuring conglomerates like Sony, or unicorns turned monopolies like Tencent. From triumph and victories, to monumental failures, Empires gets you behind the scenes of Asia’s most successful businesses. It’s new from 1 Up Media.

From the BBC World Service, Dear Daughter returns for a second season today. Last year it was crowned “podcast of the year” at the British Podcast Awards. The host, Namulanta Kombo, won the first international podcast competition run by the BBC.