Search for ‘Wondery’

First look: Wondery has released its own ad measurement suite, Wondery Ad Analytics - a new collection of first-party and third-party tools offered at no cost to qualifying advertisers. The suite offers six measurement products and over a dozen third-party vendors.

Happily Never After: Dan and Nancy was announced from Wondery yesterday. A new true crime show - featuring real-life bad romance stories of love gone awry and the unbelievable aftermath - it goes live in Wondery+ on Monday and open RSS in June.

New from Audacy's Pineapple Street Studios and Wondery, The Competition is now available everywhere. The series focuses on the contestants of the Distinguished Young Women (DYW) program, a quasi-pageant/ academic competition that’s one of the most lucrative scholarship programs for teen girls in America, and follows seven participants as they experience the highs and lows of competing for two weeks, away from home and under the most high-stress circumstances. Wil Williams reviews it in their newsletter.

Three US presidents are united on an episode of SmartLess available today. Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes were joined by Presidents Biden, Obama and Clinton in New York City. The episode was available early on Amazon Music and Wondery+. The show switches to SiriusXM later this year.

Chris Baughen has been appointed as Head of Podcasts for Wondery UK. He joins from Spotify UK, where he was Head of Studios.

Wondery has launched Wondery+, its curated premium podcast service, for UK podcast listeners. We’re promised lots of British content, and a localised and curated ad-free experience for UK audiences.

The Price of Paradise is new today from Wondery - the true story of two women who found themselves on the opposite sides of the same battle. One woman is swapping rural England for a sun-drenched utopia. The other is fighting for indigenous rights. But it’s a story that will end in kidnap, corruption and murder.

Wondery, iHeart and Lemonada Media are all using a non-public product from MowPod - which gives extra lives and game credits to gamers if they follow shows on Apple Podcasts from game apps, according to a piece from Bloomberg’s Ashley Carman. It’s distinct from MowPod’s public product (which we looked into last year). It has the effect of driving more downloads and manipulating chart placings: she says at least nine of the current top fifty shows have been promoted in this way.

The people behind Wondery's American History Tellers are to release a book in June, on The Hidden History of the White House. The book, written by Corey Mead, will be published by Harper Collins.

Another place to find new podcasts? Wondery is adding some of its sports podcasts to Amazon Prime Video, starting today. Wondery Chief Content Officer Marshall Lewy said that “being on Prime Video will help them connect with even more sports fans”. The shows continue on YouTube, Wondery+, and open RSS.

Wondery announced an audio first-look deal with Campside Media. Wondery and Campside will produce limited series podcasts, including non-English language titles, to be distributed by Wondery globally.

Wondery and SmartLess Media launch WikiHole with D’Arcy Carden today - a game-show style trivia game based on Wikipedia entries. It was launched with a live show in Los Angeles. The show, a production of SmartLess Media, Radio Point and Aggregate Films, remains with Wondery despite much of SmartLess's slate being signed by SiriusXM earlier in the year.

Wondery+ and Law&Crime have signed an exclusive content distribution deal for six upcoming Law&Crime shows. The shows will be exclusive on Wondery+ for 90 days before a wider release on open RSS.

The richest person of all time, an African king, gave away so much gold that it caused Cairo's economy to crash… for over a decade. The first woman on to the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist List was a Black Panther. Black History, For Real is new today from Wondery, a weekly podcast series that chronicles Black trials and triumphs you've never heard about.

SiriusXM has signed a multi-year agreement with SmartLess. The deal is reportedly worth $100mn over the next three years. New episodes of SmartLess will not be exclusive, but will publish one week early on the platform, as in the previous deal with Amazon’s Wondery, who spent around $80mn in June 2021. The deal was, again, brokered by CAA.

Amazon Music announced that it was adding transcripts to its app in November 2021. It was limited at the time to Wondery shows; Amazon told us that podcasters couldn’t edit or supply their own transcripts. We can’t find transcripts for any shows in the Amazon Music app today (we tried a number of Wondery shows and other large shows on the platform).

A tweet reads: "Exactly Right & My Favorite Murder are no longer in partnership with Wondery and Amazon Music." The agreement appears to have ended a year early.

Amazon Music has awarded RedHanded its British Podcast of the Year for 2023. The three-time British Podcast Awards winner is published by Wondery.

’Tis The Grinch Holiday Podcast is to be back next year, after Wondery greenlit a second season. The popular podcast currently holds the #1 rank within the Kids & Family category on Amazon Music. Wondery's Marshall Lewy said: "The Grinch told me that he found being a talk show host was a surprisingly satisfying experience! We look forward to bringing him back for more Grinchy snark next holiday season."

Thank you to Mark Ramsey and Charles Spivey for becoming our latest personal supporters. Based in Portland, Mark Ramsey makes podcasts for companies like Wondery and iHeart, and is an excellent thinker about all things audio; Charles Spivey works for Louisville Public Media in Kentucky, the owners of three radio stations and plenty of podcasts, and also tipped us off for a story in this very edition. Personal supporters make our day - and lessen our reliance on advertising, thus ensuring our independence. You can support us here.

The Sam & Billie Show is now with Wondery and Amazon Music for distribution and ad-sales. The announcement was made last week. The show's made by Crowd Network, stars UK TV personalities Sam and Billie Faiers, and it's available ad-free on Amazon Music (and everywhere else with ads).

Wondery's true crime podcast Dr. Death is to return for a fourth season in December. We're promised "a fascinating story of miraculous cures, spoon-bending magic, and murder." The show will be released on Wondery+ on Dec 4, and via RSS on Jan 22.

Meet Cute has released five rom-com audio shows on Wondery+ as exclusives.

Legacy was new yesterday, from Wondery and Goalhanger - the first collaboration between the two companies. Legacy charts the lives of some of the most extraordinary men and women who have ever lived. The series launches with a season on Napoleon Bonaparte, the iconic military leader and Emperor who died over 200 years ago and is still regarded as France’s most famous figure: but was he a hero or a tyrant?

58% of Americans haven't listened to a single podcast in the last 30 days. The number is similar in other English-speaking countries, too. So, we welcome back our "Podcast promotion in the wild" section, which aims to share ads for podcasts that are in the real world, where those 58% might see them.

58% of Americans haven't listened to a single podcast in the last 30 days. The number is similar in other English-speaking countries, too. So, we welcome back our "Podcast promotion in the wild" section, which aims to share ads for podcasts that are in the real world, where those 58% might see them.

Richard Knight is to be the Director of Audio for BBC Studios. He is currently Head of Podcasts at Wondery UK, and returns to the BBC to start this new role in January.

Over the Top with Beadle and Rosenberg is a new "fast-paced, energetic sports and pop culture show" from Wondery, as part of Wondery's sports slate announced earlier in the year. Michelle Beadle and Peter Rosenberg pit the biggest, wildest, and most hyped sports and pop culture stories against each other.

’Tis The Grinch Holiday Talk Show is new from Wondery this week, in Wondery+ and next week wherever you get your podcasts. Cuddly as a cactus and charming as an eel, The Grinch rants against Christmas cheer and roasts celebrity guests like chestnuts on an open fire. It's the second series to be made with Dr Seuss Enterprises.

Variety writes How Wondery Brought Studio-Style Scale to Podcasting.

Libsyn's AdvertiseCast has signed exclusive ad partnerships with ReversABLE: The Ultimate Gut Health Podcast and The Killing Month August 1978 from WRAL, which was previously only available on Wondery+.

LEONARD: Political Prisoner has been picked up by Wondery+. The final four episodes of Season Two (including a recent interview with Pulitzer Prize winner Louise Erdrich) are now available to listen to only on Wondery+ along with the entire first two seasons, consisting of 22 total episodes.

Wondery is turning its podcasts into three TV channels on Amazon Freevee. The Amazon-owned podcast publisher will be the first podcast video channels on Freevee, featuring over 20 Wondery series, centered around True Crime, Sports, and Entertainment & Pop Culture.

Ghost Story is new from Wondery today - a jaw-dropping tale of a haunting, which becomes a murder investigation, which leads to a family drama. It's made by Audacy's Pineapple Street Studios.

The human body is a miracle. But when it’s not working, it can be the stuff of nightmares. In MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries, MrBallen shares medical horror stories and diagnostic mysteries that are surgically calibrated to make your blood run cold. It's a collaboration between MrBallen, Ballen Studios and Wondery.

Jon Cohen is celebrating ten years in podcasting with a special feature from Indiana University. After working for companies like PodcastOne, Wondery and Midroll, he's a Partnership Executive at Spotify.

Amazon has launched a self-service podcast advertising tool in the UK. This launch gives advertisers the ability to reach audiences based on demographics (age range and gender) across Amazon Music and Wondery shows, and third-party publishers, apps, and sites via Amazon Publisher Direct.

Podcast downloads and audiences both fell 10% last month, according to Podtrac's rankers for September. iHeartPodcasts are still #1 for podcast publishers; Wondery is still the #1 sales network; The Daily is still the #1 podcast. Podtrac measures participating companies only.

The regulation says it applies to all streaming services that operate in Canada, not those physically based there. We're asking the CRTC what an "online streaming service" is (Apple Podcasts? or Wondery?); and what "operating in" means (employees in Canada? or content available there?). We're also asking what sanctions are liable should a company not register by Nov 28. The CRTC has not responded to a request made over 24 hours ago.

Hooked on Freddie is new from Wondery and Blanchard House - the gripping and controversial real-life story of a dolphin called Freddie, who's visit to Amble, Northumberland, UK, turns the sleepy seaside town upside down. It's Wondery's sixth UK original podcast.

Exposed: Cover-Up at Columbia University is a a new investigative podcast, reported and hosted by award-winning health reporter Laura Beil. Centering on the scandal around Dr. Robert Hadden, an OB-GYN at Columbia University who abused his patients for more than 20 years, the show shares the stories of numerous survivors and their decade-long battle to bring Hadden to justice and hold institutions accountable. It's produced by Wondery.

The final shortlist for the British Podcast Awards 2023 Listeners Choice Awards have been announced. They are… Help I Sexted My Boss (Audio Always, Acast); RedHanded (Wondery); Live, Laugh, Love - Ladbaby (Global); The Girls Bathroom (Sophia & Cinzia, Acast); and Staying Relevant (Sam Thompson & Pete Wicks, Insanity Studios, Bauer Media).

“I know some podcasts we could play,” said the cat. “I know some good shows,” said the Cat in the Hat. Wondery is to make podcasts with Dr Seuss, with The Cat in the Hat Cast launching first on Sep 18, exclusively on Wondery+.

Starglow Media, a kids and family audio company, launched in Los Angeles. Some shows on their slate join from Glassbox Media (#412) and Wondery (#864).

In the UK, the Audio Production Awards has announced a Pay What You Can scheme. The scheme is sponsored by Amazon Music and Wondery.

In the Podnews jobs board, the largest jobs board in the podcast industry, Wondery has just posted a full-time writer/producer position for a new weekly show. More jobs are below.

Podnews's free jobs board - the biggest in the podcast industry - has an opening for a Senior Producer at Wondery for a weekly sports podcast; a Business Development Director for editaudio; and writing and reporting jobs for audiochuck, along with a number of other roles. It's open to anyone to enter jobs wherever they are in the world, and whether you're a Podnews supporter or not; and new jobs reach more than 28,000 subscribers. See all the open roles here.

Triton Digital's Canada Podcast Ranker was released for June. As our graph of the year shows, Wondery appears to be showing significant growth.

Even though 86% of Americans know what it is (compared to 83% for podcasting), Twitter is rebranding as X. (If you're still mentioning your Twitter name on your podcast, you're probably best stopping that).

New from Wondery and AT WILL MEDIA today, Academy is a Young-Adult audio fiction drama telling the story of an elite boarding school with a powerful secret society - a playground for cutthroat competition, dangerous liaisons, and the zero-sum games of high school popularity and Ivy League admission letters. The star-studded podcast is available on Amazon Music and Wondery+.

Podtrac has released its ranker for US podcasts, publishers and sales networks for June. There are no changes in the top 5 podcasts or the top 5 publishers (iHeartPodcasts are still #1 for podcasts); month on month, total downloads were flat for the top 20 publishers, and down 3% year-on-year. For sales networks, Acast (#2) closed the gap on Wondery (#1). The ranker measures participating publishers only.

The Canada Podcast Ranker for May was released at the end of last week by Triton Digital. For sales networks, Amazon's Wondery Network overtook CBC/Radio-Canada to reach second place, behind the SiriusXM Podcast Network. It lists participating publishers only.

SmartLess Media and Wondery have launched a Will & Grace rewatch podcast, Just Jack & Will with Sean Hayes and Eric McCormack. In celebration of the 25th anniversary of Will & Grace, Sean Hayes and Eric McCormack, two of the stars, will co-host the new podcast to revisit this groundbreaking series. They revisit jokes, share never before heard stories, reunite with their fellow cast members and fabulous guest stars, and showcase the team who helped Will & Grace win an astounding 18 Emmy Awards.

Triton Digital released the May Podcast Ranker for the US. Wondery has grown to be the #2 sales network. The data doesn't measure iHeart nor Spotify, however, and lists participating publishers only.

Wondery and Campside Media are to produce a third season of Suspect. "Five Shots In The Dark" will premiere later this month.

N'Jeri Eaton has been hired by Wondery as head of co-productions for limited series. She had worked at Apple Podcasts and most recently was Head of Podcasts at Netflix.

Bobby Lee, a comedian, is suing Amazon's Wondery over a cancelled podcast contract.

Also at the show, Wondery and Amazon Music announced a distribution and ad-sales deal with UK comedian and actor Rob Brydon's Brydon & interview podcast. The podcast was previously with Spotify.

Among the other announcements at the IAB Podcast Upfronts in New York NY, USA: Sony Music Entertainment announced a growing slate including the addition of Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness to its network (from Earwolf/SiriusXM) … and Wondery and Bloomberg announced a mini-series focusing on the FTX crypto scandal, and Sam Bankman-Fried's part in it. (Available "on Wondery+ and the Bloomberg Terminal" from May 22).

Our Editor, James Cridland, will be the opening speaker at The Podcast Show 2023 in London. He will speak at 9.10am on Wednesday, in the 400-capacity Amplify Theatre, in association with Amazon Music / Wondery and IAB UK: focusing on the last year in the podcast industry and the years to come. His speech will be followed by Crime Junkie host Ashley Flowers. (You can still buy tickets for the event - the code PODNEWS will get you a discount)

Wondery has just announced a six-episode show The Bird: Elon vs Twitter. The show will tell 'the wild story of when the world’s richest man took charge of the world’s “digital public square.”' - it's available now on Wondery+ and everywhere else next week.

Audioboom released the company's financial update for Q1/23. Q1 revenue was down more than 20% year-on-year, but excluding Morbid, a show that left Audioboom last year, revenue is static. The company posted a profit of $0.2mn.

Podtrac's ranker is out for March. iHeartPodcasts is still "#1 for podcasts", though total downloads are down 8.3% total downloads are up 8.3%. Wondery at #2 is up 8.1%; and NPR at #3 is up 9.3%. (March has 10% more days in it than February - three more weekdays this year).

In Los Angeles CA, USA, Entropy Media has been launched by Hollywood executive Anjay Nagpal, working with talent from Gimlet, Serial Productions, VICE, and Wondery. We've the video trailer for their first release, Brokers, Bagmen, and Moles.

The 27th Annual Webby Awards nominees have been announced. Voting for the People's Voice Awards kick off today. A new award, Webby Podcast Company of the Year, will recognize the company with the most nominations and wins across the podcast categories. Organisations in contention include Audible (13), Wondery (8), WaitWhat (7) and iHeartMedia (5).

Wondery has signed indie podcast RedHanded, a multi award-winning show. It was previously with Audioboom. … Blue Wire has signed LA Lakers podcast Lakers Lounge, Boston Celtics show Green With Envy, and Dallas Mavericks show Pod Maverick. The shows were previously with SB Nation

A scripted vampire thriller from Echoverse, The Lesser Dead, is launched today on Wondery+. The supernatural audio series stars Academy Award nominee Minnie Driver (Good Will Hunting and The Riches), Jack Kilmer (The Nice Guys, Palo Alto), Danny Huston (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) and Saul Rubinek (Hunters, Warehouse 13). It's an adaptation of Christopher Buehlman's book; it's released on open RSS at the end of May.

Bad Dates with Jameela Jamil is new today from Wondery - it's the first series to debut from the SmartLess Media slate and features a panel of hilarious guests, who each share tales of their worst/craziest dates ever, and then weigh in on everyone else's misfortune. It's available exclusively on Amazon Music today, but everywhere next week.

Data: Edison Research has published The Podcast Consumer 2023, a set of data from the Infinite Dial looking at US listeners to podcasting (and perfect for your slide deck). It was presented by Megan Lazovick and Wondery's General Manager Jeanine Wright at Podcast Movement.

Hernán López, the former CEO of Wondery, has been convicted of wire fraud and money laundering conspiracies while working for 21st Century Fox. Awaiting sentence, López faces up to 40 years in prison and millions of dollars in penalties. A lawyer for López said that they will appeal. López left Fox in 2016 before founding Wondery, which was sold to Amazon at the end of 2020. There's no suggestion that Fox, Wondery or Amazon were involved.

Podtrac has released its US rankers for February. iHeartPodcasts is #1 for podcasts; Wondery is the top sales network; and The Daily is the top podcast. The ranker measures participating podcasts only.

Podtrac has released the company's stats for January. iHeartPodcasts is still #1 in the publisher list, which doesn't measure its competitors SiriusXM or Spotify; Wondery remains #1 sales network; The Daily remains #1 podcast with NPR's Up First climbing to #3. (Participating publishers only).

BBC Sounds data in Q4/22 was published. 188mn plays (62mn per month) were to on-demand content (excluding music mixes). The corporation also saw 259mn podcast downloads (86mn per month) on third-party platforms. A total of 148mn global downloads and streams per month would make it #4 on Podtrac's publisher list, behind NPR, Wondery and iHeart; though this number includes some catch-up radio shows unavailable as RSS podcasts.

The former CEO of Wondery, Hernan Lopez, appeared in court this week, charged with wire fraud and money laundering, which he denies; the charges relate to his time at 21st Century Fox.

Lex Friedman is moving on from his role at Amazon and Wondery, and is to become a full-time consultant at Lex Friedman Consulting.

The host of Sword and Scale, Mike Boudet has posted a racially unpleasant poll on Twitter. Boudet was sacked by Wondery in 2019 after similar Twitter comments, and was widely accused of orchestrating one-star reviews against a competitor. He has denied that he left one star reviews; and is also the subject of a YouTube documentary. We've again asked for comment.

A billboard for Wondery's Suspect is probably not that unusual: but this isn't in a big city. Visible from the Dwight D Eisenhower Highway, a 30-minute drive from Boulder and Denver, it's in a town called Firestone, with just 16,000 inhabitants. Hannah Wright took the picture, and tells us why it's here: the latest series focuses on a case from Greeley, thirty minutes up the road; as well as being a major route to get to Montana and Wyoming. A local story, perfect for the long journey.

Amazon Music has covered London and other European capitals with advertising for the company's Best of 2022 podcasts. In London, ads will be appearing for the next two weeks promoting ten of the top podcasters. The company also carried audio ads within the Wondery network for the chosen podcasts, and produced social media assets. See more examples of the projections in London and Paris below.

This Job is History is new from Wondery and actor and comedian Chris Parnell, taking a look at jobs that no longer exist - funeral clowns, VHS clerks, and milkmen (something which will come as a wake-up call for the many milkmen in England).

Podtrac released its US podcast rankers for October. iHeartPodcasts remains #1 podcast publisher; Wondery remains #1 podcast sales network; The Daily remains #1 podcast by total audience. The ranker remains incomplete - measuring participating publishers only.

In a renewed fight against Spotify, Amazon has made big changes to Amazon Music Prime, including ad-free podcasts. Included with your Prime account, the service now offers 100 million songs (on shuffle) instead of the 2 million it had before; and "the largest catalogue of ad-free top podcasts", including Wondery's catalogue, Amazon Originals and Exclusives, and other publishers.

Podtrac has launched a new Podcast Sales Network Ranking. The initial ranking, for September, places Wondery at #1, with a US monthly audience of 25 million. Others in the ranking include Podcast One, and new to Podtrac's measurement, Acast and Libsyn's AdvertiseCast - we understand more sales networks are lined-up to be included.

Wondery's Suspect returns for a new season. Suspect: Vanished in the Snow looks at a disappearance in the Rocky Mountains. Hosted by former CNN reporter Ashley Fantz, it's an Amazon Music exclusive.

Hot on the heels of an agreement with Stitcher and SiriusXM, SCA's LiSTNR has announced that it will also exclusively represent Wondery's podcasts in Australia.

The Devil Within, a true crime podcast from Cavalry Audio, launches its second season today on Wondery+. A story from the North of England, it focuses on a church ordered exorcism that goes horribly wrong.

Elwood Jones, the subject of season 4 of the Wondery and Cincinatti Enquirer podcast Accused, is to learn if he deserves a new trial. The podcast highlighted inaccuracies presented in the original trial, and gaps in the investigation.

In the UK, the Audio Production Awards has announced a "Pay What You Can" scheme with Amazon Music and Wondery. Entrants and attendees who would otherwise be unable to enter can choose to pay what they can afford.

Amazon has launched a number of new programming strands for AMP, the company's US-based live radio service. Fast and Loose is a new Formula 1 show, which will also be released as a podcast with Wondery.

Wondery Sales Network shows, including those on ART19's Targeted Audience Solution, will be part of this new Podtrac Sales Network Ranker. A Podtrac prefix will be added to these feeds automatically, unless creators opt out.

Amazon and Wondery are to sponsor the International Women's Podcast Awards 2022, and have set up a fund to provide complimentary tickets for those who find the costs prohibitive. The awards have closed for entry; the event is on Sep 29 in London.

Acast has teamed up with Wondery to host, monetize and distribute three shows, translated into Italian for the first time: Business Wars, Dr. Death, and almost inevitably, Bunga, Bunga the story of the former Italian prime minister (and would-be presidential candidate), Silvio Berlusconi.

New from Wondery today, Fed Up looks at the F-Factor: a trendy diet with some horrible side-effects. It's the story of influencer Emily Gellis Lande, who drew attention to the problems with the fad diet, and Tanya Zuckerbrot, who had come up with it: and the inevitable online fight that ensued. It's narrated by Casey Wilson.

Podtrac has published its top US podcast publishers for June. iHeartRadio is still #1 for podcasts, though SXM Media, who are believed to be larger, is not a participating publisher. iHeartRadio downloads fell 3.8% month-on-month. Wondery is the new #2, overtaking NPR.

Hey, weirdos! Morbid, which recently switched from Audioboom to Wondery, has debuted at #2 in Podtrac's top 20 US podcasts chart for June, its first month with the network. Its old home, Audioboom, doesn't participate in Podtrac.

Launching today as a paid exclusive, and live on RSS next week, Queen of Hearts is new from Wondery and Rococo Punch. It's a "blind date game show", hosted by drag queen Jujubee, who claims "dating can be a serious drag". We see what they did there.

"30% of our monthly active users engage with podcast content". That figure hasn't been disclosed for some time, and grew from 16% (Feb 20) to 22% (Oct 20).

BBC Sounds, the BBC's radio, podcast and music app, has released new figures, claiming a record audience of 4.06 million users per week. (BBC Radio reaches 34 million users per week across all platforms). The corporation also revealed that it achieved a total of 288 million global podcast downloads across the world during this quarter (making it about the same size as Wondery).

We covered a bunch of Dolby Atmos news yesterday; here's more information from Dolby and QCODE, who have been mastering in Dolby Atmos since 2019. Wondery+ are making shows available in their app only; there aren't any standard podcast apps that play back the format, yet.

Wondery is streaming some shows in Dolby Atmos. You'll need to be a Wondery+ subscriber to listen. It's claimed that this is the first podcast experience in Dolby Atmos; CurtCo's Solar was mastered in Dolby Atmos and was released on Mar 30; and JBM launched the first Dolby Atmos-equipped studio in the Middle East at the beginning of last month. There's also a Dolby Atmos Experience Sound Studio at The Podcast Show in London in a few weeks.

In the UK, The Radio Academy's ARIAS took place last night. Among the full winners, Novel for Wondery's Harsh Reality: The Story of Miriam Rivera won Best Factual - Series; Reduced Listening for Spotify's Decode took Gold in both Best New Show and Best Specialist Music Show; The Long Time Academy won Best Independent Podcast, Mags Creative's Life Sentence took home The Creative Innovation Award and We are VOICES won The Grassroots Award.

New from Wondery and Amazon Music, Will Be Wild has been launched from Pineapple Street Studios. The show is a deep-dive into the Jan 6 insurrection at the US Capitol. Hosted by award-winning investigative journalists Andrea Bernstein and Ilya Marritz, it's available on all podcast platforms, with Amazon Music getting new episodes first.

The 47th Annual Gracie Awards were announced. Podcast winners include Pineapple Street Studios' Because of Anita; Lemonada Media's Believe Her, Brooke Siffrinn and Aricia Skidmore-Williams, co-hosts for Wondery's Even The Rich; Clarissa Ward, host for CNN's Tug of War; Lemonada Media's In Giro Con Fra; Spotify's Jemele Hill is Unbothered; Meredith Goldstein, host of the Boston Globe's Love Letters; Suzy Liu, producer of ABC News's The Dropout; Wondery and The Athletic's The Lead; Rococo Punch's The Turning: The Sisters Who Left; and Cadence13's We Can Do Hard Things with Glennon Doyle.

Scamfluencers is new from Wondery, and tells the unbelievable true stories behind some of the world’s most infamous and extravagant scammers. We're promised the fake Saudi Prince who swindled millions from innocent people, a teenager in scrubs who posed as a doctor and conned elderly patients, and a Hollywood actor whose starring role was running a massive Ponzi scheme.

Amazon Music and Wondery have closed a deal with Audacy's Pineapple Street Studios. The podcast production company will produce at least four new shows. It comes hot on the heels of 9/12 winning three awards, including Podcast of the Year, at The Ambies.

The Ambies, the awards from The Podcast Academy that celebrate excellence in podcasting, took place last night. The winners are here: 9/12, from Amazon Music, Pineapple Studios and Wondery was the podcast of the year; the podcast's host Dan Taberski accepted the award in the award ceremony in Los Angeles CA, USA.

The Podcast Show - the new international festival for podcasting in London this May - has announced its first 100 speakers, including The Receipts, Jonathan Wall (BBC Sounds), Miranda Sawyer (The Observer), Jane Garvey & Fi Glover (Fortunately with Fi & Jane), Nihal Arthanayake (BBC Radio 5 Live), Glenn Miller (CAA), Marvyn Harrison (BELOVD Agency), Jen Sargent (Wondery), Fearne Cotton, Ross Adams (Acast), Julia White (Twitter), Alice Levine, Edith Bowman and Munroe Bergdorf ... and they're just getting going! Get ready for another 250 names being announced in the coming weeks. You can book your day pass from £55 - use promo code PODNEWS for 20% off a limited number of passes. Podnews is a media partner (and we'll be there).

Delegate day passes have just gone on sale for The Podcast Show 2022, coming to London in May. May 25-26 promises an international festival with a number of inspirational speakers including Jen Sargent, CEO of Wondery, Miranda Sawyer, audio critic from The Observer, Ross Adams, CEO of Acast, and Steph Simon, Head of Community & Creators at Clubhouse. Additionally, right through the week of May 23-29, you'll be able to watch your favourite shows live on stage in a number of different venues. You can get your day passes today - use promo code PODNEWS for 20% off a limited number of day passes. Podnews is a media partner (and we'll be there).

Amazon Music and Wondery have signed How I Built This with Guy Raz. Wondery gets the exclusive ad sales and YouTube distribution rights for simulcasts; NPR keeps the radio distribution rights and the underwriting credits. Production of the show will double to two a week; and Amazon Music gets exclusive rights to air the podcast for a week.

This year's Edison Research Infinite Dial will be presented at Podcast Movement Evolutions on Mar 23. The research shows the total number of US adults who listen to podcasts, among other things. It's sponsored this year by Wondery and ART19; and you'll also be able to watch online.

Crooked Media, Vox Media, WNYC, Wondery, Pineapple Street Media, and beloved shows like Keep It!, Why Won't You Date Me, And That's Why We Drink, Tai Asks Why and more.

Nikole Hannah-Jones, Creator, The 1619 Project, Alex Blumberg, Co-Founder, Gimlet Media, Ira Madison III, Co-host, Keep It, Jen Sargent, CEO, Wondery, Shereen Marisol Meraji, Host, Code Switch and Bill Simmons, Host, The Bill Simmons Podcast.

Wondery's CEO Jen Sargent tells Business Insider the company is looking to expand to a global footprint.

Hernan Lopez, former CEO of Wondery, has co-founded a new company. Danvas is a "digital canvas" for exhibiting those NFTs that you bought.

Joe Nocera, who created The Shrink Next Door for Bloomberg and Wondery, and who sold it to Hollywood to make it into an Apple TV series, is [suing Bloomberg over lost earnings from the show] (https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2021/12/14/shrink-next-door-joe-nocera-sues-bloomberg/).

Podtrac has published its list of "top new shows for 2021", ranked by average downloads per episode for shows that were published for the first time in the last twelve months. Wondery and iHeartRadio both have nine shows in the top 25; The Apology Line was the most successful new release. Podtrac measures participating publishers only.

Happy Thanksgiving! We're thankful to our supporters and our more than 500 new subscribers so far this month, including people from Podimo, Novel, Samsung, Wondery, Acast, Veritone, Spotify, Squarespace and the BBC.

GQ magazine looks at "tv's podcast goldrush". It describes Wondery as an "ear-based business". Cute.

Jessica Radburn has been hired by Wondery as Head of International Podcast Content. She was previously Senior Director of Global Content Programming at Audible - both companies are owned by Amazon. She's based in Berlin.

NPR's How I Built This is to have a version in Japanese, made by Nippon Broadcasting System. The Japanese broadcaster also makes a version of Business Wars with Wondery.

Amazon Music has announced a "synchronised podcast transcripts" feature. It's only available in the Amazon Music app, only in the US, and only for recent episodes of Amazon Original and Wondery shows. It's going to be opened to other selected shows shortly; as far as we can tell, it's a proprietary solution with no link to the existing open transcript standard from the new podcast namespace. We've asked how podcasters can submit transcripts.

The Podcast Show 2022 has announced new partners, including Amazon Music, Sony Music Entertainment, Wondery, Adswizz and Triton Digital. The show will also include a week of live podcast events across London.

The BBC saw 246m global podcast downloads in Q3/21. That would put them above Wondery, but below NPR in popularity. Pieces of Britney was highlighted as particularly popular.

Renita Jablonski, Director of Audio, The Washington Post, Jen Sargent, CEO, Wondery, Ira Madison III, Co-host, Keep It, SuChin Pak, Co-Host, Add to Cart, Shereen Marisol Meraji, Host, Code Switch and Bill Simmons, Host, The Bill Simmons Podcast.

First look: For International Podcast Day, Apple Podcasts has just released data on their top subscriptions and top free channels. Wondery+ is the most popular paid channel, while The New York Times is the top free channel - the data also reveals that Luminary has been thrown a lifeline becoming the second most popular paid subscription on the platform. We have the full list, and analysis of the results.

Wondery has launched a kids podcast subscription service, Wondery+ Kids. For $4.99, the service provides early access to new episodes and exclusive access to select episodes of favorite shows.

Over My Dead Body has returned for a third series, focusing on a small-town cop who's death uncovered unsettling secrets about the village of Fox Lake IL. The show is available now on Wondery+, and shortly on RSS feeds everywhere.

Who, When, Wow! launches today - the first Tinkercast show to launch with Wondery since their partnership was announced last month. Hosted by Rebecca Shier, the show is initially released within the Wondery+ app, and is a peek into the lives of unsung humans.

Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett's podcast SmartLess is a new entry at #9 in the Podtrac top US podcasts list for August. The show was bought by Amazon's Wondery at the end of June. Podtrac contains participating publishers only.

Wondery is hiring a Head of EU, Podcast Content, based in London.

Wondery has announced a strategic partnership with Tinkercast, the childrens' podcast company responsible for, among others, Wow In The World. Wondery gains exclusive rights to distribution, ad sales and merchandise. New Tinkercast content will be released a week early on Wondery+ and their Apple Podcasts channel.

Why did Amazon get into podcasting? For a share of its growing ad revenue, according to an interview with Steve Boom, the head of Amazon Music, in Bloomberg Businessweek.

Dr Death returns for a third season on August 16th (and is already available ad-free on Wondery + on Apple Podcasts). Laura Beil returns for her third season of Dr. Death, this time diving into the true story of Italian surgeon Paolo Macchiarini. (Of interest - Dr Death seasons are separate RSS feeds.)

Changes at Chartable? In May, CRO Christopher Calvi left the company, Account Exec Megan Johnson moved to Podsights, and COO Karo Chakhlasyan left this month to rejoin Wondery.

Wondery+ is now on Apple Podcasts Subscriptions. Subscribers get ad-free listening, early access, and exclusive content for $4.99/month after a 7 day free trial.

Killer Psyche is new from Wondery today; Candice DeLong, a former FBI criminal profiler, draws on her decades of experience to reveal why murderers and criminals do what they do. She will reveal fascinating new details about what drove these people, including cases she worked on first-hand, like the Unabomber.

Amazon has bought the distribution and adsales rights for the SmartLess podcast for between $60-80 million. The show will not be exclusive, but will be published one week early on Amazon Music and Wondery+. The deal was through CAA.

Amazon has bought enterprise podcast hosting and adsales company ART19, announcing the news on their podcasters portal. No details of the deal were given. ART19 already hosts Wondery podcasts: this gives Amazon access to podcast hosting technology and a monetisation platform for dynamically-inserted advertising across all apps. Kintan Brahmbhatt, GM of Amazon Podcasts says that the company is hiring. Podnews has been predicting the purchase since Amazon bought Wondery in December.

One Hundred Percent is a new podcast from Wondery and Marcus Lemonis, "a mix of a masterclass, a cocktail party, and a Sunday drive all wrapped up into 30 minutes with a goal to reveal the secrets to success to listeners." It launches early on Wondery+ (which doesn't appear, yet, to be available on Apple Podcasts paid subscriptions).

Fresh from its success at The Ambies, Wondery launches The Vaping Fix today: a six-part miniseries uncovering the rise of vaping and how Juul became a multibillion-dollar company that may have hooked a new generation.

In an award ceremony live from Los Angeles, California, The Ambies were announced last night, the first podcast awards from The Podcast Academy. The podcast of the year went to Wondery's Dying For Sex. The awards seemed to be a streaming success, too, with 25,000 people watching at peak. From the full list of winners, Amazon's Wondery was the winning studio of the night, with five awards announced; Crooked Media getting four, and QCODE with three. The podcast with the biggest award haul was Wind of Change, with three separate wins.

Amazon's Wondery+ is to join Apple Podcasts Subscriptions.

Glass Entertainment Group has partnered with Wondery on a slate of shows.

Amazon Podcasts launched yesterday in Italy, supported by some exclusive podcasts from Wondery: Dr Death and Bunga Bunga have been translated to Italian.

Amazon's podcast producer Wondery is to double its number of staff this year, to more than 150. Here's a list of some of the new jobs, all based in California.

Podimo has launched a new partnership with Wondery to translate two of its shows into Spanish and Danish. The company has similar partnerships with iHeartMedia and Somethin'Else.

African Media Entertainment, AME, has secured the rights to represent advertising for Wondery podcasts in South Africa. The company runs radio and digital platforms in the country.

According to our compiled data, NPR and Wondery both lead with 14 nominations; Gimlet has 13; and iHeart has 11.

DAX is reported to have been appointed exclusive sponsorship partner for NPR in Canada. DAX already represents Wondery in the country.

Wondery's American Scandal has released the first of a new season focusing on Bernie Madoff.

Amazon Music has signed an exclusive podcast. COLD, which was a Wondery show, is to stream season 2 exclusively on Amazon Music next month. COLD is currently in the top 100 in 40 countries; but podcasts from Amazon Music are currently available in just six of them, leaving many fans frozen out.

A MediaRadar study ($) says that ad-spend on podcasts was up 11% year-on-year in Q4 2020. "The top five podcast producers in terms of ad revenue last year were NPR, iHeartRadio, Barstool Sports, Wondery and The Daily Wire, which collectively captured 33% of all podcast ad revenue".

Last week, speakers from Stitcher, OTHERtone Media, iHeartMedia, Wondery, Cadence13 and Macmillan took part in a session at CES/Digital Hollywood. It's free to watch, and includes discussions on talent, internationalisation, and intellectual property.

Business Movers is a new show from Wondery, which is shortly to join Amazon. Telling "the true stories of the brilliant but all-too-human leaders who risked it all", the first season of the show focuses on Walt Disney and Disneyworld.

German podcast company Viertausendhertz runs a premium service, similar to Wondery+ or Stitcher Premium. The membership company they use is called Steady. They note: 'We now “advertise” the opportunity to support us, rather than the benefits of membership'. (You can support Podnews over here).

After Amazon purchased Wondery at the end of last year, the company has been buying again - this time, buying eleven Boeing 767-300 aircraft for their own airline, Amazon Air. Had they bought them new, that purchase would have been $2.4bn, or "8 Wonderys".

If you've been off for the last few weeks, here's our coverage of Amazon buying Wondery. Our full analysis on Dec 31 also made a prediction about what Amazon's next purchase might be: ART19 and Amazon both start with the same letter, but will that be the only thing connecting those two companies in the next few weeks?

We reported yesterday that Hernan Lopez will leave Wondery after the Amazon deal goes through. Podnews has seen an all-staff email from Lopez to the Wondery team, part of which clarifies his next steps: "Once the transaction is complete, I will be transitioning out of the company to focus my attention on my recently announced Hernan Lopez Family Foundation, which is committed to addressing diversity in leadership both from the demand side as well as the supply side. The transaction will free up time and provide resources to make those goals possible, and I will be working with other organizations to make more meaningful progress. I will also be looking forward to what’s ahead on the professional side, but not before I take a break and have a blank slate ahead of me, which frankly, is quite exciting, especially after 30 years without one!"

Hernan Lopez will step down as Wondery CEO, and Jen Sargent, Wondery’s COO, will take over running the company when the deal takes place. Lopez is currently charged with wire fraud and money laundering as part of an unrelated US government investigation into corruption. He denies the charges.

Podtrac has released their listing of top new US podcasts of 2020, based on average downloads per episode. Nice White Parents is the #1. 10 shows are from Wondery; 7 shows are from iHeartRadio.

New from Wondery, Death of a Starlet tells the story of a Playboy playmate, found dead aged just 20.

How much money does The Daily make? Kevin LaBuz takes a close look at the New York Times's podcasting division, and the opportunity it may give the newspaper company. He reckons it makes $42m a year - similar to the annual revenue of Wondery.

Will Wondery's new owner be… Amazon? The Wall Street Journal, and Engadget, report that talks are going on, valuing Wondery at around $300m. We're cautioned that it might, all fall apart yet - both Apple and Sony looked into buying the company last month.

According to investors Greystone Capital, Libsyn is "cheap, growing, with catalysts on the horizon", adding "unlike Anchor, Megaphone and Wondery, LSYN is profitable, and highly cash generative". Ouch. Libsyn is still looking for a new CEO.

It's no surprise that companies want to buy Wondery, says CEO Hernan Lopez in a piece from Sam Blake in dotLA. The company plans to expand internationally; and Wondery's audience is bigger now than it was before the pandemic, he says.

Podcasts was a category in US quiz show Jeopardy! on Monday. Podcasts highlighted were Stitcher's Science Rules! with Bill Nye, Luminary's Fiasco, Wondery's WeCrashed, an Audible Original called It Burns, and Earwolf's Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend. Taped earlier, it was the first broadcast since the death of the host, Alex Trebek.

Spotify might be planning to launch a subscription podcast service. It appears to be surveying customers to gauge interest in the idea. Others that have tried this include Luminary, Stitcher and Wondery.

The Edward R Murrow Awards were awarded. Winners included an episode of KBIA's Show Me The State, WABE's Buried Truths, WNYC's Dolly Parton's America, KGET's The Man With A Thousand Faces, KXAN Catalyst, The Dropout from ABC News, Entercom's Pineapple Street Studios' The Catch and Kill Podcast with Ronan Farrow, and the LA Times/Wondery production Detective Trapp.

Stitcher/Wondery joint venture Podfront UK will sell sponsorship in NPR podcasts for audiences in the UK and Ireland.

Podfront, a preview of new shows from seven of the US's largest podcast publishers, took place yesterday. A number of new shows were announced, and the event had high-profile guests including Hollywood actor Elle Fanning, comedian Sarah Silverman and NBA star JJ Redick, as well as podcast royalty like ABC News's Brad Mielke, NPR's Guy Raz, Wondery CEO Hernan Lopez, and Edison Research SVP Tom Webster.

Wondery is ドラマ型ポッドキャストで人気を集めているアメリカ第３位のポッドキャストネットワークで、- and, today, working with Nippon Broadcasting System, they launched Business Wars in Japanese - telling the story of PlayStation vs Nintendo.

Podcast publisher Wondery is up for sale, says Bloomberg. The company's revenue is to surpass $40m this year, says the report; and that the company is looking for more than $200m.

Spotify has signed a "first look" deal with Chernin Entertainment, to look at taking their podcasts into TV and movies. WME has signed similar deals with other podcast networks including PRX and Crooked Media; Universal signed with Wondery last year.

Nick Randall, who co-founded Australian podcasting company Ranieri & Co, joins a partnership automation business. He'll continue being Chair of the company, which represents Wondery in the country.

The Wondery+ app is now available in Canada, the UK, Ireland and Australia. It was previously only available in the US.

Wondery+, the subscription service from podcast network Wondery, will be free for a year with a US American Express card, the company has announced. Check your "American Express Essentials Care Package" email from yesterday. It coincides with the recent releases of Bunga Bunga, focusing on former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, and the latest season of Business Wars, focusing on Pizza Hut vs Domino's.

Trust Wondery to produce great-sounding podcasts. Don't trust them as a weather forecaster. (Seriously, we'd love to know the results of this A-B test, sent to two different email addresses of ours.)

Thank you to more than 600 new subscribers so far in July, helping us reach 14,500 subscribers just before we published on Friday. Welcome to new faces from Veritone, Lawson Media, Pocket Casts, Oxford Road, Seeking Alpha, Spotify, Podimo, Nielsen, Tagesschau, the BBC, Wondery and Pandora. (Tell a friend!)

9to5Mac reviews Wondery+. "A no brainer in terms of value," they say.

Wondery has appointed DAX as its exclusive advertising partner in Canada.

The new Wondery+ app isn't available outside of the US. "Since the Wondery app includes a subscription service, there’s a lot of research that needs to be done on a market by market basis," CEO Hernan Lopez tells Podnews.

Gimlet and Spotify have adapted their scripted series Sandra for a set of new markets. Sara (in France), Susi (in Germany), Sonia (in Mexico) and Sofia (in Brazil) claim they are "the first truly localised adaptations ever made of a hit fictional podcast". While Wondery's Dr Death was first to produce translated versions, Spotify are making these adaptations in the countries themselves, and adapting for "culture and nuance". Episodes drop July 7.

Joshua Dudley reviews the new Wondery app. "It’s a solid app that plays it safe and colors inside the lines," he says.

Wondery has launched its own podcast app - no, you can't be included in it, it's just for their stuff. It's iOS only for now, "Android coming later". It's free and quite pretty; the goal is to upsell to the WonderyPlus subscription service, at US$4.99/month.

"If we survived the last 3 months, there isn’t much else the future has in store that would worry me," says Wondery's Hernan Lopez in a wide-ranging article about the podcasting business by Howard Homonoff in Forbes.

Here's the latest on Wondery CEO Hernan Lopez's court case. Writing in HotPod Insider, Nick Quah says: "Whenever I bring it up during my chats with other podcast execs, the broad sentiment seems to be a general befuddlement that Lopez hasn’t stepped down as Wondery CEO yet."

How does Wondery's Business Wars work behind the scenes? David Brown joins Sound Cartel's Podcasting Essentials to explain how to produce an award-winning podcast.

Triton Digital have published their latest Australian Podcast Ranker for the period ending 3 May. The highest new entry is Wondery's The Dollop, at #15; new publishers in the ranker are Wondery, NBC News and Wavelength Creative, an indie Australian podcast publisher. The ABC, the largest podcast publisher in the country, are still absent. The service only measures participating publishers.

Blue Wire, a sports podcasting startup, gets a write-up by a Forbes blogger, especially focusing on the changing times for sports radio. The company has also announced three new hires from Sports Illustrated, Warner Brothers and Wondery.

حروب الأعمال is the result of a new strategic partnership between Wondery and Al Jazeera - Business Wars, in Arabic. “Al Jazeera is committed to leading the way in Arabic podcasting and I am proud to bring Wondery’s visionary content to the Arab World” said Dr. Yaser Bishr, Executive Director of Digital at Al Jazeera.

Bloomberg Media and Wondery's The Shrink Next Door is being made into a TV show for Apple TV+.

The 2020 winners of the New York Festival Radio Awards have been announced. The CBC were awarded 'broadcaster of the year'; their Hunting Warhead podcast was awarded as Best Investigative Reporting. Winners also included Wondery, CBS News Radio's Mobituaries, ESPN's 30 for 30; WNYC Studios' Dolly Parton's America; The Melbourne Age's Last Voyage of the Pong Su; and Lantigua Williams & Co's 70 Million. Here are the full winners.

Announced today, Podapalooza is a two-day virtual podcast festival for the benefit of COVID-19 relief, happening on April 25-26. You can buy tickets today (pay what you can), to access special episodes of all your favourite podcasts, from companies like Stitcher, Wondery, Lantigua Williams & Co, and plenty more.

Two former senior executives who worked for Rupert Murdoch at 21st Century Fox have been indicted over their alleged role in a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving kickbacks to FIFA and Conmebol officials in exchange for broadcast rights. One of those indicted is Hernan Lopez, now CEO of Wondery and a founder of the Podcast Academy. "The indictment contains nothing more than [a] single paragraph about Mr Lopez that alleges nothing remotely improper," Matthew Umhofer, representing Lopez, said in a statement; Lopez is scheduled for arraignment in federal court in Brooklyn on Apr 9.

In an up-beat interview, Jen Sargent, Chief Operating Officer of Wondery, sees a tremendous opportunity for podcasting over the next few years.

Wondery's latest is Even the Rich, tell stories about some of the greatest family dynasties in history from the Murdochs to the Royals. (ART19)

The Dating Game Killer, a new true-crime podcast from Wondery, premieres tomorrow.

The news bulletins are taking over the rankers: Podtrac has published their top 20 podcasts for January. NPR News Now, a five-minute news bulletin mainly driven by smart speakers, is now at #2; Fox News Radio Newscast is a new entry at #20. Podnews reported on Feb 6 that Sky News's News Bulletin, which is not available as a podcast at all, is #2 in the Australian Podcast Ranker. (Podnews is also available in your daily news briefing settings).

You can watch Wondery CEO Hernan Lopez's speech in full, and the Q&A afterwards with our Editor James Cridland, thanks to Podcast Movement. There is also a full transcript of Hernan's speech on that page. Conal Byrne from iHeartMedia has been invited to be on the Board of Governors, Variety reports - that's under consideration.

Podfront took place yesterday morning in Los Angeles, with a set of new announcements from a number of podcast publishers including Wondery, NPR and PodcastOne.

Thank you for helping us hit 12,000 subscribers, including 276 new subscribers in February so far from companies like Mamamia, CBC, NZME, Wondery, SCA, Fox News and NPR.

WeCrashed, a Wondery podcast about the rise and fall of WeWork, has been accused by one podcaster of taking multiple clips from his own podcast without attribution. The clips of the interview, featuring WeWork co-founder Miguel McKelvey, were originally from an episode of the Rich Roll podcast in July. Contacted by Podnews, Wondery claim "an honest mistake: we had, under fair use, taken portions of three interviews from different podcasts, and we mistakenly gave credit to only two of them." The clips have now been removed, and Wondery have reached out to Roll to talk more.

WeCrashed is new from Wondery, focusing on the rise and fall of co-working space WeWork. Hosted by David Brown from Business Wars, it's a six-part series about chasing unicorns. (Wondery)

Hernan Lopez from Wondery answers questions from lots of different people for LinkedIn, in their "You've got this" feature - including the magic figure that Wondery look for to take on a show.

The European Radio Show, currently underway in Paris, France, has a surprisingly vibrant Pod Village: an area with exhibitors from mainly French podcast companies. The area also has a demonstration theatre - when we walked past, we saw Podcastics demonstrating "lien magique", magic subscription links. There was also a conference track of podcast topics, open to everyone, with speakers and panels: we saw Declan Moore from Wondery explain their strategy. Podnews's Editor, James Cridland, gave a keynote: "ten things radio can learn from podcasting". The event continues today and tomorrow.

Podcast app Pocket Casts has received an upgrade. Version 7.7 offers curated lists ("working with well-known podcasters and thought leaders"), and highlights from individual podcast networks including WNYC, Wondery and Radiotopia. Interested publishers should look here for more detail.

Blood Ties, the new drama podcast from Wondery, is driving podcast fans crazy with delight, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal. (ART19)

Podtrac have published a "top 20 new podcasts of 2019" list (which like all Podtrac lists are US-centric and opt-in). Wondery has eight titles in the top 20; iHeartRadio has five.

The Los Angeles Times and Wondery have launched Detective Trapp, a new true-crime podcast following Anaheim investigator Julissa Trapp, who unmasked a serial killer. Dirty John's Christopher Goffard, who wrote and hosted the series, says that the podcast is "a profile of a detective of high competence and uncommon dedication". (LA Times / Wondery / ART19)

Oli Walters has joined Podfront UK as Head of Sales. Walters joins the Wondery/Stitcher joint venture from Audioboom; he's also worked for UK commercial radio operators Bauer Media, KM Group and Global Radio.

Event: the RAIN Summit Europe is on November 13th in central London. Speakers include Ruth Fitzsimons from Podfront UK, Sarah van Mosel from Midroll, Declan Moore from Wondery, Steve Goldstein from Amplifi Media, and radio consultant David Lloyd. Priced at over £200, this special link for Podnews readers will get you free tickets, if you're quick.

Business Insider highlights the production process Wondery takes to achieve a chart-topping podcast.

Wondery have appointed Ranieri and Co to represent them in Australia and New Zealand. The company is based in Melbourne VIC, Australia, and appears to have just launched.

Stitcher podcasts are now represented in Australia by Whooshkaa, opening up Midroll podcasts to Australian advertisers. The company got IAB Certification in May, has its own Alexa integration, and we've covered similar Whooshkaa deals with WYNC, Wondery and Australian radio network ARN.

Elsewhere in business: Audity is a new podcast company in Konstans Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Bill Burr and Al Madrigal’s All Things Comedy has announced a partnership with Wondery. Red Herring focuses on Acast's recent expansion to Germany. And Vox Media has bought New York Magazine.

Wondery and The Athletic have launched The Lead, a daily sports podcast. Wondery's CEO, Hernan Lopez, was interviewed on TV network Cheddar about it, "the first in-depth daily sports news podcast".

Wondery's Dr Death is coming to the TV. It'll star Jamie Dornan, Alec Baldwin and Christian Slater.

Wondery's Dr Death has hit the #1 spot in Apple Podcasts worldwide, after translated versions were released last week at Podcast Movement. They're the first to launch a set of translated podcasts across the world. (Here's how the Apple Charts work).

Wondery announced at Podcast Movement yesterday that their hit podcast Dr Death was now available in a variety of languages as part of the company's global expansion. Dr Morte, 死亡医生, Dr Muerte, Dr LaMort, and Dr Tod are now all live.

Investment podcast Kindredcast interviewed Hernan Lopez, the CEO of Wondery in early June, in this episode. He praises the listener choice now available with Luminary and Stitcher Premium. (ART19)

Wondery plans to translate many of its podcasts as part of their global growth plan; they're starting with their hit Dirty John.

The Moment is a new podcast from Wondery where, according to the press release, no-one dies! It's a romantic comedy series where couples share their stories, hosted by Ingrid Haas. (Wondery / ART19)

Stitcher and Wondery have announced an expansion into the UK marketplace. They've hired Ruth Fitzsimons (ex Audioboom) as Managing Director of the joint venture, named Podfront UK. The company will "open a new path for podcasters to monetize their shows within the U.K. marketplace and will source high-quality podcasts and talent out of the U.K. for a growing international audience".

Podcast publisher Wondery has successfully raised $10m to take its podcasts global. It has hired Declan Moore to head its global efforts.

Marshall Lewy from Wondery has been interviewed by Music Ally. "This really is its own medium", he says.

Hernan Lopez, the founder and CEO of Wondery, is interviewed in KindredCast in the June 4 episode (transcript) (ART19)

Reported in February and from the people behind Inside Psycho and Inside JAWS comes Wondery's Inside Star Wars, which launches on Wednesday. We wrote something quite geeky but ultimately illegible in the graphic above for fun.

The Shrink Next Door is Wondery's newest "event miniseries". They tell us the first two episodes have already done better than Dirty John, Dr Death and Gladiator. It tells a story of power, control and turning to the wrong person for help: and is #1 in the Apple Podcast trending Charts in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. (Wondery / ART19)

More stats, this time from Podtrac (not everyone's signed up to it; its methods are proprietary; it's US only; etc) - the top 20 podcasts for March 2019. The company has also quietly revised their top 10 podcast publishers for the same period, correcting Wondery stats.

The Wondery/UMG announcement we reported on yesterday might have something to do with the disappearance of some Wondery podcasts, including One Plus One's exploration of the relationship between Lennon and McCartney, and the Death Row Records vs Bad Boy Records episodes of Business Wars. The reason? Music rights.

Universal Music Group have partnered with Wondery "on audio stories that could later be developed into films or TV shows"; the deal reportedly means that Wondery can use UMG's music catalog in its podcasts.

Podtrac's March figures are out. #5 Wondery, #4 New York Times, #3 PRX; #2 iHeart and #1 NPR. Of note - NPR is now, once again, the leader in both US and global charts; PRX has a nice increase caused by merging with PRI.

Wondery's One Plus One is back for a new season: this time, focusing on Mexican artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. The podcast explores history’s most notable partnerships.

Sword and Scale earns at least $75,000 a month from Patreon, and after a review, Patreon has decided that its host, Mike Boudet, can remain on the platform, in spite of his denigrating comments and social media bullying. We reported on Monday that Wondery had sacked him from the network. He's also deleted all but 65 of his tweets. Patreon removed some creators last year.

Wondery has parted ways with Mike Boudet's true crime podcast Sword and Scale, after Boudet had repeatedly posted comments many found offensive, and behaved aggressively online. Sword and Scale posted an emotional announcement from Boudet, who blames Aaron Mahnke and Rabia Chaudry, and says he has laid off his staff and closed his show. Chaudry congratulates Wondery for "finally doing the right thing"; Mahnke claims, in a long thread, that Boudet has been increasingly aggressive and that hundreds of people had complained to Wondery. A freelance journalist called Maggi sums up the story from her point of view.

Wondery is in talks to adapt Over My Dead Body for television.

Wondery has launched Wondery Plus, promising "Early Access, Ad Free Listening and Exclusive Content" for US$5 a month.

Wondery released their 2019 slate of programming. The company has new partnerships with the LA Times, Bloomberg, and a new documentary from Mark Ramsey, Inside Star Wars. The company h as also just launched One Plus One, about "the world’s greatest collaborations".

Exclusive: Wondery is proclaiming Over My Dead Body as "the first zeitgeist show of 2019": with about double the downloads seen by Dirty John and Dr Death in the same launch window. The podcast network is also celebrating this podcast being #1 in the Apple Podcast Charts simultaneously in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Podtrac's current #4 podcast producer, Wondery is the focus of a Poynter article. Of interest: three Wondery podcasts are now available on American Airlines flights.

Gladiator, a podcast from the Boston Globe and Wondery, could be making it onto TV - the podcast's television rights have been optioned by FX, a US television network. As the New York Times reports, Hollywood is buying hit podcasts in the race for content.

Podtrac have posted their top 10 new podcasts of 2018, based on US downloads. iHeartRadio has two in the top ten, and one in the top three, which (in alphabetical order) are Dr Death (Wondery), Gladiator (Wondery), and Happy Face (iHeartRadio).

Welcome new readers this week from Targetspot, Gimlet Media, Wondery, ESPN, NHPR, New York Public Radio and the CBC._

25 years ago HIV was a death sentence. Those living with HIV were sometimes discriminated against and often shunned. And then came Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, director Jonathan Demme, and a movie called Philadelphia. That movie and the developments in HIV treatment which followed it changed the face of HIV and AIDS in America and throughout the world. Released today, People Like Us: Inside Philadelphia is a special podcast of the story behind the movie, produced solely for charity. Thanks to Coca Cola, 100% of the donations made by listeners to this podcast will go to support (RED) and its campaign to rid the world of AIDS in our lifetimes. (Mark Ramsey / Wondery / ART19)

Imagined Life tells the life story of a notable celebrity, without actually telling you who that celebrity is until the end. Live their life from their point of view; then learn who “you” really are. (Wondery)

Blackwood is a new horror audio drama from Skylark Media. It's a fictional story about three teenagers uncovering a conspiracy, and the ever-present threat presented by people in power, who work secretly to control everything they can. (Skylark Media / Wondery / ART19)

Gladiator focuses on football star Aaron Hernandez, who went from the bright lights of the Super Bowl to a convicted murderer in a few years. (Boston Globe / Wondery / ART19)

Legal Wars puts you inside the jury box of some of the most famous court cases in American history, including Hulk Hogan’s courtroom wrestling match with Gawker, the battle for free speech on the internet, and the Rodney King trial that set off the LA Riots. (Wondery / ART19)

US newspaper USA Today and Wondery have launched The City. There is an accompanying augmented reality component, available in the USA Today app.

Dr Death, Wondery's hit podcast, "leads the chart of total 5-star ratings for any serialized podcast, having surpassed prior leaders Up And Vanished and Serial", according to the company. It has over 23,500 ratings in total. You can join Laura Beil for a Reddit AMA tomorrow.

Dirty John was reported to be being made into a TV show in March; you can now watch the teasers for the upcoming show on Bravo.

Ellen on the Go is an audio catch-up, "giving a never-before-seen glimpse into how the daily talk show comes together from the creative minds that make it all happen." (WAD Productions / Wondery / ART19)

Inside Jaws (Wondery) is profiled by Mandatory today; meanwhile, Berkhamstead Revisited is the subject of a piece in the Irish Times

Dr Death features an investigation into a doctor who has injured multiple patients on the operating table. Wondery will support the series with "our most ambitious marketing campaign to date, including listening premieres, audio ads, social media and even outdoor in Dallas and NY". (Wondery / ART19)

Wondery's Business Wars has a new season, focusing on Pepsi vs Coke. The company is also launching Framed on Aug 21; "an unsolved crime that has divided a community for decades".

Wondery launches I, Survivor. This true crime podcast features "the women and men who fought back, won, and rose above the trauma of their experiences."

Radio Ink also covers Podcast Movement, with a piece on challenges to podcasting; plus a bunch of stats including a claim from Wondery that 1 billion podcast episodes are now downloaded every month.

Wondery have launched Business Wars Daily, "a quick 1-2 minute briefing on the latest wars between the world’s biggest companies." It's a spinoff from business podcast Business Wars.

Podtrac publish the top 20 [US] podcasts for June 2018. NPR's Up First has slipped to #5; Wondery has a new entry (their first in 2018) with Sword and Scale.

Castbox's plans to be the place where you subscribe to podcasts uses the blockchain. Wondery will be first to use it.

Wondery's Inside Jaws is being considered for possible TV adaptation. Host Mark Ramsey "wrote the seven-part series as a television show without visuals. That should make it easily adaptable to TV."

AdWeek says that "podcast metrics are still the wild west", repeating Wondery's claim that they're the first commercial podcast network to adopt IAB v2 standards.

A promotional idea from Wondery - a set of Spotify playlists of music inspired by their podcasts. Enjoying their 90s computer games soundtracks for the computer game episodes of Business Wars. And on that: "Business Wars is back with a brand new series to tell the big, bold story of Hearst vs. Pulitzer and how their publishing rivalry came to a head over one particularly salacious case: the mystery of The Headless Torso."

Digiday reports on what they call the slow steps the podcast industry is making to fully adopt a measurement standard. Wondery claims in the article that it'll be the first to fully adopt the IAB standard, including a 24-hour measurement window.

TPX has announced sales partnerships with two Canadian podcasts: Canadian True Crime and Grownups Read Things They Wrote as Kids. They're TPX's first Canadian signings; the company also represents Wondery in Canada (Apr 16).

Wondery launches The Wonderland Murders, a true crime podcast.

In the golden age of television, can narrative podcasts compete? asks The Guardian. ...

Amanda McLoughlin posts a comprehensive guide to podcast pre-production. "Your podcast title needs to tell people what your show is about. Also? Try not to use “pod” or “cast.”" Also try five steps to podcast magic from Wondery's Hernan Lopez.

On Mar 30, we reported a bootcamp run by Spotify: "a weeklong intensive program for (10) aspiring female podcasters of color". Total number of applicants? Over 18,000. If you applied, you'll get to learn the decision by 20th May.

Thank you and welcome to our new subscribers this week, including Townsquare Media, KQED, Wondery, the BBC, the University of Iowa, Brigham Young University, and Minnesota Public Radio. Thank you, also, to Sparemin - 'Social Videos Made Easy For Audio Creators' - for mentioning us in your newsletter.

Wondery also announce a new podcast, American Innovations, which will "tell the stories of the scientists, engineers, and ordinary people behind the greatest discoveries of the past century". Fans of wifi, the black box recorder, the electric drill and the ultrasound scanner are going to be out of luck.

Thank you to our new subscribers this week, including fine folk from Hindenburg Systems, FBI Radio, Castbox, Panoply, Wondery, Spotify, NPR, VOX Media, Storiyoh, ABC Australia, SBS Australia, Engle, the BBC, the Belgian Standaard and MTG Radio. You're very welcome!

Wondery launches a new season of Business Wars - the story of IBM vs Univac. Early, ad-free, access is via Wondery+.

Wondery, a US podcast network, has partnered with companies to help international monetisation. In Canada, ads will be sold by The Podcast Exchange; in the UK, Global's DAX will represent the company; and in Australia, Wondery podcasts will be sold by Whooshkaa.

Podcast network Wondery has raised $5m in funding, and have released some demographic research into podcasting. Dirty John has achieved over 20m downloads, and is being made into two TV shows, says TechCrunch. (Here's more on the finance bit.)

A piece on Wondery's American History Tellers podcast. “It’s just a return to an art form that’s been with us for a long time. It’s kind of the old-school radio programs - it’s the best way to be together with someone while being alone.”

Hernan Lopez, the founder and CEO of Wondery, asks Is Your Brand On Mute? - pointing out that it needs an audio identity as well as a visual one. "Sound is where the emotion comes from -- sound stimuli are the first to be perceived by the brain, at 0.146 seconds. Then touch at 0.149, then sight at 0.189."

The US freesheet Metro writes a piece exploring the success of true crime podcasts, focusing on Radiotopia's Criminal and Wondery's Hollywood & Crime. "I am pleasantly surprised that podcasts like this show do as well as they do," says H&C's Larry Brand, "because we are so attuned to visual images."

Hernan Lopez from podcast network Wondery is interviewed by AdExchanger. He predicts Google will launch a podcast app, and is concerned about attribution for direct advertising in podcasting.

HotPod 129 is out. (Reading time: 19m51s). "Gimlet's Homecoming returns for its second season, gets an e-book companions, and hammers down its TV adaptation; More paywalled podcasts trickle out into the open ecosystem; Midroll expands its Earwolf lineup; Wondery's new show breaks 1M in slightly over a week... and more."

A Q&A with Wondery’s David Rheinstrom