Apple's Site Manager Reporting is broken; and Nielsen offer better targeting

• Apple has sent many podcasters a note saying: “Site Manager Reporting - we have received reports of steep consumption declines in reporting. We are investigating these figures as they do not match playback data in Podcast Analytics.” Site Manager is a product used by a very small group of podcasters that allows them to brand their podcast section within Apple Podcasts. Chances are you’re not using this to report on your stats.

• Westwood One and Panoply have both joined US research company Nielsen’s Auto Cloud. The product allows advertisers to directly reach Americans who are looking to purchase a new car. “Auto marketers can now target car buyers across radio, streaming audio and podcast media using the most recent, detailed and accurate car shopping and purchase data available.”

  
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• Visual podcast app Entale has opened a new crowdfunding round.

• Sonix has integrated with Zapier to allow automated connections with over a thousand apps, to automate audio and video transcription.

• Sonos has let integration with Google Assistant slip until some time next year.

• Hellocast is a new tool built specifically for podcasters, to help them better manage their podcast workflow. They’re currently running in beta with a number of podcasters, and “are willing to let anyone else in who wants to give it a try”.

Podcasts

NPR’s Storycorps podcast is back after a brief break with stories about reunions. It now appears weekly on Tuesday, and is presented by Jasmyn Morris.

Perception Gaps finds a way in each episode to shatter a perceived truth, while at the same time bringing a measure of constructive thinking. In the first episode: The crime rate keeps going up, right? Nope. We’re safer now than at any time in the past 30 years.

A new podcast from Brisbane in Australia gets our attention. The Business of Making Podcast calls itself “a weekly dose of reality for handmade business owners. On the podcast we talk about making as a business, the making of a business, and what it REALLY takes to succeed as a maker and a business owner.” We like podcasts from Brisbane, because that’s where we live.

Players is a new crossover podcast with former ESPN sports anchor Lindsay Czarniak. “She connects with the biggest names in country music and beyond about perhaps the only thing as important to them as music.. sports.” (Cadence13)

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)

Baba Yaga menaced Russian children for generations, but what would happen if you ran into her in modern day St. Petersburg? In She’s In Russia's new audio drama episode, The Babushka Society, we answer this very question. The story is a demented magical-realism adventure set in the heart of Saint Petersburg, where two young men stumble across a babushka conspiracy, led by Russian fairytales’ stalwart character Baba Yaga, to take the country of Russia back from the Hipster scourge.

From your editor: Toronto

In Toronto ON, Canada? So am I. Friday (tomorrow!), I’ll be at C’Est What, a place that sells beer on Front Street East, from 4.30pm-ish, as will a few other podcast types. +61 447 692743 will find me (WhatsApp works too).