Podnews Report Card results for 2025

• The Podnews Report Card results for 2025 were released on stage at Evolutions, with comments and scores by creators about the podcast platforms we all use. YouTube scored significantly higher for all categories, though creators expressed concern about walled gardens and about perceived complication getting listed. Apple continued to be creators’ favourite platform, though in the apps category, the independent podcast app Pocket Casts was #2. We’ve published the full results here.

• What is a podcast? Dan Granger spoke at Evolutions, offering a new definition for podcasting. “The stakes are nothing less than the sustainability of the entire channel.“ The company has published a whitepaper for download; and, in The Media Roundtable, a three-part documentary that traces the evolution of podcasting from pirate radio roots to today’s billion-dollar ecosystem.

• Spotify announced a number of changes and enhancements to advertising on its platform. It’s launched a new programmatic offering called Spotify Ad Exchange; and a new AI ad creator tool dubbed Spotify Gen AI Ads. Their launch notes contain a number of stats about how Spotify is working.

• Podcasting is the highest earning category on Patreon with 6.7 million memberships, the company says, announcing a new podcast network partnership program, launching with Sony Music and Wondery. Shows will offer “exclusive media and fan experiences”, and Patreon will host premium audio.

• Triton Digital is to expand its US Podcast Ranker to include all publishers. There will be a quarterly ranking of the podcasts with the most listeners, based on a survey. This additional ranker will also give audience profiles.

• Magellan AI’s spend analysis now includes estimated podcast ad spend broken out by format - programmatic, run-of-network (RON), and direct host-read ads, enabling smarter planning.

• Google has announced a new feature for NotebookLM, which adds sources of information from across the web.

• Podcast hosting company CoHost has achieved v2.2 of the IAB Podcast Measurement Guidelines. Ausha, Podigee and PRX are still outside the annual recertification window.

Moves and hires

• Congratulations to Libsyn’s Rob Walch, who said yesterday that he had been working in podcasting full-time for 20 years as of this week.

Tips and tricks - with Memberful

• Tempted to just host your own show on Amazon AWS? Here are the costs in doing so.

Podcast News - with Airwave

With Airwave: Motley Fool Money is a daily podcast for stock investors, with Foolish advice, every day. Yesterday’s edition looked at tariffs and Tesla. The podcast has been with Airwave since Nov 2023.

In Heal Your Trauma Find Your Voice Dr. Annie Campanile shares a powerful story of how she gave “Empowered Feedback” to a nurse during one of the most challenging moments of her life - when her late husband entered hospice care. She teaches how to give difficult feedback in a way that builds connection instead of conflict, and shows how you can follow the steps during any stressful conversation.

This Guy Sucked is a brand-new history podcast from Multitude, by haters, for haters. No historically-significant dead person is safe, and every episode proves that the best part of understanding the past is criticizing it. Samuel Cummings, an American small arms dealer, is the subject of the latest show, who is a guy who sucked.