Apple’s show of 2024 is Hysterical

• Dan Taberski’s Hysterical, from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios, has been named the Apple Podcasts 2024 Show of the Year. There’s a special interview with Dan on Apple’s website, talking about how he makes the show, which is about cases of mass hysteria throughout history and what they say about society. It’s also available ad-free in Wondery+.

  • It’s the fifth “Show of the Year” from Apple Podcasts, joining NPR’s Code Switch, Pushkin’s A Slight Change of Plans, Slate’s Slow Burn: Roe vs Wade, and Lemonada Media’s Wiser than Me. All winners have been from the US.

• Mpls.St.Paul Magazine is excited: “One of the most influential executives in podcasting lives in Minneapolis.” Jessica Cordova Kramer manages to get a shout-out to Podnews in the middle of this interview - extra points! (She will also be a guest on the Podnews Weekly Review shortly, too).

• Spotify’s Chartable stops working on Dec 12 - if you’re using the Chartable prefix (chtbl.com or chrt.fm) in your RSS feed, your podcast may no longer be playable after that date. In research earlier this week, which we shared with affected podcast hosts, Podnews found 31,749 shows with the prefix still in it. Most podcast hosts are working to help customers.

  • Publishers using Spotify’s Megaphone will be unaffected.
  • It’s long been known that if podcasters change the enclosure URL, like removing the Chartable prefix, that triggers an automatic re-download on each listener’s Spotify app for every affected episode. Expect, therefore, significantly higher Spotify download numbers over the next few weeks as creators remove the Chartable prefix - and knock-on effects with ad serving.

• Five million new Canadian adults have become monthly podcast listeners since 2019, says new data from The Canadian Podcast Listener. 39% now listen to podcasts monthly (that’s more than 13mn people).

• However, the Canadian government is spending millions of dollars making podcasts nobody listens to, according to official government figures uncovered by the Canadian Taxpayers Foundation.

  • As one example, the statistics podcast Eh Sayers first published in November 2021, has 26 episodes available, and has achieved an average of 1,142 downloads per episode. So far, the podcast has cost Canadian taxpayers $971,417 (nearly US$700,000).

• Ausha has launched Ausha Intelligence to all podcasters, regardless of where their show is hosted. The AI tool produces SEO-optimised show notes, designed to boost discoverability.

• Podcasthon, a charity event in March, has received registrations for over 1,000 podcasts. The event, which starts in exactly 100 days on March 15, will feature more than 1,000 podcasts dedicating an episode to help the charity of their choice. The initiative is supported by Acast, Ausha, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify; Podnews is a media partner

• A new thought paper has been published by WARC and Audacy, focusing on “the audio investment gap” - the big difference between audio consumption in the US (24.5% of all ad-supported media consumption), and the share of marketing spend it gets (just 8.4%). It interviews 21 industry experts, looking at myths and opportunities.

• Ashley Carman’s newsletter Soundbite is to go behind a paywall, and will only be available to Bloomberg subscribers or to those who buy the $11.99/month Tech Newsletter bundle. You can subscribe here.

• Veritonic announced enhanced capabilities to analyze and optimize the audio performance of video podcasts.

• Is there anyone home at TuneIn? In February, the company temporarily stopped the ability to submit new podcasts. It’s now December, and the company still says: “we are unable to update any podcast on our platform, due to us conducting some construction to our podcast update form.”. And when might it be fixed? “We are not aware of an expected timeframe of when this matter will be resolved, but we would like to suggest that you check back with us from time to time to see if this matter has been resolved.“ Not good enough.

Enter The Webbys. Share Your Work With Industry Titans.

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Since 1996, The Webby Awards has been recognized as the preeminent international honor for Internet excellence. Winners are selected by a community of artists, innovators, and creators spanning all facets of digital culture. When you enter The Webbys, your work is seen by the judging body, the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS).

Judges for Podcasts this include: Adam Pincus, CEO, Best Case Studio, LeVar Burton, Actor, Podcaster, and TV Host, Ashley Flowers, Founder & CCO, Audiochuck and Host, Crime Junkie Podcast, Jay Shetty, Host, On Purpose, Jen Sargent, CEO, Wondery, and Rory Brown, Chief Brand Officer, Patreon

Don’t miss your chance, enter the 29th Annual Webby Awards by the Final Entry Deadline on Friday, December 20th, 2024!

Moves and hires

• Jay Green is now EVP, Business Strategy and Partnerships, at QCODE. “I’m excited to be joining such a creative team to continue growing this medium of ours for content partners and advertisers!” he said on LinkedIn.

• Chris Peterson has joined Podspace as a Senior Advisor. Podspace is an audio hosting and ad tech company in Europe: here’s an interview with Carl Fridsjo from our sister publication the Podcast Business Journal.

Tips and tricks - with Memberful

• You can email people your podcast so that it even plays directly in their email client. Good for short trailers, perhaps, or helping them get going with your show.

Podcast News - with Becoming You

Served with Andy Roddick is to join Vox Media. Vox Media will assume sales, marketing and distribution duties for the show, which publishes weekly on Tuesdays on podcast and video platforms, and partner with the Served team on expanding their live event business.

Exclusive: Since 2019, Andrew Michaan and Cole Hersch have set up their folding table and microphones for Podcast But Outside - interviewing strangers and celebrities alike, all for a guest fee of $1. The show today moves to comedy podcast network Headgum, which has had quite the acquisition spree recently. We also hear that Cole is to leave the show - today’s new episode is his last.

Ever wondered if having a baby on your own would leave you with enough brain power to string a sentence together? New today, you can find out in Me And My Tiny Human: as solo mum by choice, Rachel Corbett shares the highs, the lows and the “How the hell am I actually managing to do this?” reality of solo parenting.

The Oprah Podcast is a new weekly podcast from Oprah Winfrey this week, with “today’s foremost thought leaders, global newsmakers, best-selling authors, visionaries and cultural changemakers”. The show, sponsored by Starbucks, kicks off with Claire Keegan, the author of Small Things Like These. It’ll be filmed in Starbucks cafés.