Twitter could be adding podcasts

• Will we see a podcast player in Twitter? Alessandro Paluzzi has spotted a podcasts option in the latest Twitter code, and Jane Manchun Wong has also unearthed a Podcasts tab. Nathan Gathright has brainstormed some ideas about what he hopes Twitter is up to - let’s hope it’s not just reruns of Twitter Spaces.

• In Australia, Spotify appears to be conducting a survey asking if people would be willing to pay for ad-free versions of Spotify shows. (Australia’s normally a place where tech companies test their ideas without anyone watching).

• The British Podcast Awards 2022 are now open to enter. If you’ve created at least six episodes of a podcast over the last year, you’re probably eligible.

  
  Sep 12 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• iHeartMedia’s Conal Byrne has made a number of predictions about podcasting for 2022, writing in Forbes. “The entire internet will be converted to audio and distributed on-demand”, he says.

• Podcast Movement has announced Latif Nasser, Radiolab co-host, as a keynote speaker at Podcast Movement Evolutions. Registration is here; Podnews will be there.

  
  Sep 12 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Salt Audio has partnered with Jenkins the Valet, an NFT character, to produce a web3 native interactive audio experience. It’ll appear this summer, whatever it is.

• In podcast representation deals, The FOX Audio Network has signed a hosting and advertising deal with Megaphone. A number of the company’s shows were with Triton Digital’s Omny Studio … BuzzFeed Studios has signed with Acast to launch a podcast slate of six shows; BuzzFeed also has shows with Anchor and iHeartRadio … Acast has signed Scott McGillivray, a “prolific expert in real estate” and TV star, for season three of The Real Estate Rebel … and AdLarge has signed Going West, a “top-ranked true-crime podcast”.

• Neon Hum has announced the participants, and instructors, for its second annual bootcamp for podcast editors.

• Want to raise $2m? Insider has published Supercast’s pitch deck which the company used in its fundraise.

• Zurich-based Snipd has raised $700,000 in a pre-seed funding round.

• Libsyn has closed its acquisition of Podcast Ad Reps, or, as its 8K says, “consummated the transaction”.

• Podcast Gumbo’s Paul Kondo has launched what he calls a “crazy podcast pitch experiment”, where he opens up his calendar for people to pitch their podcasts. “I was a little stunned at how quickly the slots were filled”, he told Podnews.

Moves and hires

• Greg Herman is the new Managing Editor of Apple Podcasts. He will lead curation for Apple’s editorial team covering the US and Canada, based out of Culver City, CA. He joins from Spotify (and CBS Radio).

This link is no longer available, as at Sep 12 2023
• Sam Sanders is to leave NPR. He’d been hosting It’s Been A Minute since 2017, and been with NPR since 2009. The show will continue; it also airs on 441 stations.

This link is no longer available, as at Sep 12 2023

Podcast News

State of Ukraine has launched today from NPR. The show will release multiple episodes during the day from NPR journalists on the ground, as well as conversations with officials, experts, and other newsmakers. - read more

Scoundrel: History’s Forgotten Villains is new from the creators of Myths and Legends and Kast Media. It tells “the stories of the rapscallions through time who were just a little more adept at hiding their evil from historians than others”, and is hosted by Jason and Carissa Weiser. - read more

Blast From My Past is officially launched today - featuring true stories of people whose lives were changed by discoveries about their family’s past. Produced by Listen and MyHeritage, will be launched in a family history conference. - read more