Adios Audm; Sayonara Sonora? Closures and cutbacks

• Spanish-language premium podcast company Sonora, which charges €4.99 a month to access its fiction and documentary podcasts, is to switch to an ad-funded model. The company, owned by Spanish media conglomerate Atresmedia, will also cut staff, including co-founders Gabriel Saenz de Buruaga and Toni Garrido. It released 84 titles last year.

• Audm, the article narration company bought by The New York Times in March 2020, has been closed. As of July 1, the website redirects to a promotion for the New York Times Audio app, and the Audm app is no longer available for download. The company last tweeted in July 2021; and last updated its Facebook page in September 2019.

• The Radioinfo Asia Podcast Awards are open for entry. There are 21 categories; two winners will receive flights, accommodation, and tickets to Radiodays Asia and Podcast Day Asia, in Kuala Lumpur on 5-6 Sep.

• In Canada, T.O. Webfest is celebrating its tenth anniversary in September. A number of podcasters are set to be presenting.

• Want to buy Adam Carolla’s house?

• In Australia, SBS Audio is looking for new podcast pitches.

Tips and tricks

• We thought we had an article about how to get more listeners to your podcast, but an email asking just that by new reader Nick made us realise that we didn’t have one. But now we do.

Podcast News

One Minute Remaining - Stories from the inmates is celebrating 2 million downloads. Host Jack Laurence speaks with inmates serving lengthy sentences in the United States about their convictions for a range of different serious crimes from arson, robbery, attempted murder and murder itself.

Last week, Nick Quah and Kattie Laur were guests on Commotion, talking about the evolution of podcasts as a form of storytelling over two decades. There’s a transcript here.