Goodbye, Anchor?

• A survey sent to some podcasters on Spotify suggests that the Anchor name could be about to disappear: the free podcast host could simply be known as part of Spotify’s “Creator Studio” in future.

  • Among other potential changes: polls and interactivity could be added by podcasters on any host: that’s currently only available on Anchor. One screenshot sent to us suggests that video on Spotify could be available to anyone, wherever they host; another screenshot suggests video podcasts may stay with Spotify-hosted podcasts only, a tier dubbed Creator Studio Plus.

• Africa Podcast Day 2023, scheduled for Feb 12 in Kenya, has been cancelled. The organisers blame the current economic climate for not being able to attract enough sponsorship to pay for the event.

• Podcast app Fountain notes that their users sent more sats last week as support for podcasters than any other week in history. Their chart is here; our own Podnews Weekly Review is at #7. (Our Editor is an advisor)

• London-based podcast producer Auddy has a new website and refreshed brand positioning and identity.

• NPR has announced the return of its student podcast challenge.

• Zencastr is crowdfunding. The company’s investment deck contains details of its performance, including its ad monetisation. It’s open for public investment on Jan 31.

• Transistor is the first podcast host that lets you add a Mastodon link to your pre-built podcast website. (Add an auto-episode-post service there, and they’ll have all the tech to add automatic cross-app comments to everyone’s RSS feeds.)

• UK comedian Michael Spicer has posted a video about podcasters appearing on other podcasts

Podcast News

Mental health podcast The Imperfects has signed with ARN’s iHeartPodcast Network Australia for a further two years. It’s a top ten podcast, and in 2023 the show is also touring Australia.

WJPZ-Syracuse will be celebrating being on-air for fifty years in March, and the student-run station is celebrating with the WJPZ at 50 podcast, which, fittingly, will contain at least 50 episodes. The top 40 station calls itself 'the world’s greatest media classroom’.

Season two of The Midnight Miracle has just started. The show is hosted by Dave Chappelle, yasiin bey, and Talib Kwei. The first episode – “A Magnificent Day for an Exorcism”– is available now on the Luminary channel on Apple Podcasts and on Luminary.

Podcast ads in the wild

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.