Is RSS hindering podcasting?

• Mike Mignano, the founder of Anchor, has written a piece about what he calls The Standards Innovation Paradox. “The blessing of standardization eventually comes at a cost, and innovation suffers as a result. As an example, this is why the podcast format has remained mostly stagnant over its 20 year history,” he says. Giving the examples of Substack and Spotify, a company he left last month, he argues that while standardisation is helpful to get a company started, it hinders a company longterm as they wish to continue innovating.

• With Podscribe, the essential tool to verify your podcast and YouTube ads run correctly, Sounds Profitable this week looks at programmatic ads: and “why programmatic is a huge boon for all of podcasting.” Bryan Barletta cautions, though: “To get there, we’re going to need more from our hosting platforms.”

• Content creator? Audio producer? A consulting company is wanting you to take a short survey on your experiences of the podcast and audio production sector. The findings will be shared with all participants; you’ve got until Friday to take part, and you could win a $100 Amazon voucher.

• If you are a working African journalist, Alibi Investigations is planning to conduct a free group online training session on how to create an investigative podcast - including audio production, scripting and research. Requirements and details are on their website.

• Max Cutler has published the book Cults: Inside the World’s Most Notorious Groups and Understanding the People Who Joined Them, based on the Spotify/Parcast original podcast Cults. The book has already received critical praise across industry trades; tonight he’s in conversation with Crime Junkie’s Ashley Flowers at Spotify’s LA Campus.

• From a book to a zine: the Speaking Broadly podcast is now also available as a “a readable, touchable, 84-page zine”, from retailers and online. The podcast is from Heritage Radio Network.

• The London comedy podcast festival Cheerful Earful has announced more podcasts taking part in the October event, and also announced their media partners, including Podnews.

• Podcast hosting company Disctopia has launched video podcast hosting. Video podcasters on the Disctopia platform will also be able to leverage True Play, Disctopia’s deep reporting and analytics.

• Open podcast player AntennaPod v2.6.1 has been released on Android, with support for Podcasting 2.0 chapters and a number of improvements.

• The developer of Overcast, Marco Arment, describes “cheap, sloppy dynamic ad insertion in podcasts” as something that “continues to degrade the experience for listeners” in a tweet, concerned that listeners are blaming the podcast apps.

• ARN’s iHeartPodcastNetwork Australia is #1 for podcasts, again, in the Australian Podcast Ranker.

• In the US, iHeartPodcast Network has partnered with Curiosity Inc to launch the Curiosity Audio Network.

• AYR Media and Team Coco are producing Funny My Way, a six-part series highlighting the story of six Black comedians: how they made it to the top and influenced so many by doing it their way. Hosted by JB Smoove, it premieres on Aug 4.

Moves and hires

• Katie Teague has been hired as South Australia Sales Manager for Mamamia, in an expansion of the women’s digital brand’s national sales team.

Tips and tricks

• Blubrry covers Finding Podcast Advertisers You Like (And Will Like You Back), tips to obtaining consistent and lucrative advertising partners.

• Riverside writes 16 Tips on How to Get More Podcast Downloads. “Create more content” is one idea.

Podcast News - with Pushkin Industries

From Pushkin: Yale professor Dr. Laurie Santos has studied the science of happiness and found that many of us do the exact opposite of what will truly make our lives better. In The Happiness Lab, Laurie takes you through the latest scientific research and shares surprising stories that will change the way you think about happiness.

Marginalized Murder is just ending its first season - focusing on a serial killer who murdered at least 51 women in Chicago. It’s a story with little answers, until the summer of 2021 when a major breakthrough comes with a discovery of a taped confession. It’s produced by Storic Media.

Go Love Yourself is back for a second series. Aiming to inspire acceptance and help listeners unlearn harmful body image ‘rules’ and diet myths, each week Laura Adlington and Lauren Smith share their own experiences as plus size women, alongside different guests. It’s made by Crowd Network.

The name’s Rubirosa: Porfirio Rubirosa. Rubirosa has just been announced by Stitcher - a new documentary podcast created and hosted by actor, author and storyteller Christopher Rivas. It will tell the story of Porfirio Rubirosa, the Dominican diplomat and playboy who may have inspired Ian Fleming’s iconic James Bond character.

Supernatural Then and Now has launched its second season, now powered by RedCircle. The show looks at the longest-running fantasy TV series, boasting 327 episodes over 15 seasons.

Podcast ads in the wild

Arielle Nissenblatt spots this pretty looking door in Grenada, Andalusia in Spain; and on it, a poster for Que Fluya! This podcast promises: “once you click on this podcast, we will start a journey together in which even I have no idea of the destination, although we will enjoy it anyway”, and appears to be only on Spotify.

Advertising for podcasts help grow the whole medium - so if you’ve spotted any (or responsible for some), just hit reply and send us a nice picture.