Audacy connects creators to YouTube

• Exclusive: The free podcast hosting platform from Audacy, Audacy Creator Lab, has now added an integration with YouTube, allowing creators to publish video directly to their YouTube accounts. “Podcasting today is no longer audio or video - it’s both,” said Head of Podcasts Leah Reis-Dennis. The new feature simplifies workflow for podcast creators; the company describes it as a “first step in video distribution”.

• Podtrac released its “multi-channel podcast ranking” for January. Of the top 200, 69% of the shows do best in audio. 36% of shows are more consumed using clips than the whole episode. The data is global; Steven Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO has risen to #3; Rogan is at #2 and The MeidasTouch is #1 (mostly driven by video and clips).

• The American Writing Awards announced its podcast winners. Podcast of the year went to abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast.

• “Do we make podcasts that are essentially television? Or, do we pursue and deepen our relationship with sound, and its imaginative possibilities?” Siobhán McHugh spoke at the Radio and Audio Studies Symposium last month - “Viva the narrative podcast - the case against video”. You can watch the full keynote online, or, you can read the full speech.

• In Australia, the IAB reported an increase of internet advertising in 2025 of +11.5%. Digital audio as a whole underperformed the market, growing +8.2% to AUD $339mn (US $239mn), though the IAB notes that podcast growth outpaced streaming audio as a whole. Spend on video grew by 19.8%.

• Meanwhile, in the UK, commercial radio trade organisation Radiocentre reported spend on digital ad formats has almost doubled since 2018 to £89.5mn (US $120mn), and that in 2025, UK commercial radio achieved its highest-ever advertising revenue. These revenue figures don’t include the country’s full podcast industry.

• Cameron Stack’s Recognized, which writes about podcast awards, takes a critical look at The Ambies, calling it a “regression” from previous years; though he seems to be criticising the production of the night, rather than the awards themselves. (He was also at The Podcast Hall of Fame earlier this year).

• UK podcast company Goalhanger claims more than three million views for “emergency episodes” covering the US and Israeli strikes on Iran. The company says it received 1.7mn YouTube views and 1.3 million podcast streams and downloads; and that people choose their shows because of their “editorial standards”. Inviting comparisons with other programme-makers, Goalhanger’s release quotes average viewer numbers for individual TV news programmes.

  • Opinion: Views aren’t people; averages aren’t big news days; and opinion isn’t news reporting. Podnews asked Goalhanger how many journalists work for the company, which describes itself in the release as a “news podcast” company: we were told each show has three “producers”. If we must compare: the BBC, alone, has 5,500 journalists, including fifty foreign news bureaus. And quite a few producers, too.

The Tech Stuff - with RSS.com

• Podcast hosting company RSS.com has launched a public API. Available to those with network plans, it allows complete access to the RSS.com platform using the API.

  • As part of the announcement, RSS announced integration with Auphonic, audio editor Hindenburg Pro, and marketing tool PodFlow Studio.

• Blubrry has recertified for v2.2 of the IAB Podcast Measurement Guidelines. Also joining the list of compliant companies is French public radio broadcaster Radio France.

• Spreaker achieved a significant jump in share of new podcast episodes in January, according to Livewire. Almost everyone else saw a decrease in numbers. The data filters out AI-voiced podcasts, making monthly comparisons difficult.

• Both Buzzsprout and Transistor reported an increase in downloads from Apple Podcasts in January - for Buzzsprout, Apple Podcasts is on a two-year high. Both company’s Spotify figures will be negatively affected when a creator produces video - when Spotify only uses the audio track from the video.

Tips and tricks - with Riverside

• Looking to build your podcast setup - or upgrade to something more professional? Riverside covers the Best Podcast Equipment for Beginners & Pros in 2026 - All Budgets
• A link to Apple Podcasts is fine: but what if your listener is using an Android phone? You probably want a universal link - here are a lot of different places to find one.

Podcast News - with Airwave

With Airwave: Blowback is a podcast about the American Empire. The current season looks at the story of Angola, Cuba, and apartheid South Africa’s Cold War showdown.

What happens when a live-action role-playing world turns into a deadly murder? The Binge Crimes: Fatal Fantasy is launched today - crime-writer M. William Phelps unravels how ordinary young adults are drawn into the lethal plot, and the alarming measures some will take to get what they want.

A World With launches today - a collection of short, intimate monologues from visionaries, organisers, artists and dreamers who dare to imagine better worlds. Built for those hungry for hope, the first episode asks how we can do better at sharing and reusing the items we already own - and wonders if the library can help.

Certain records don’t age out. They wait. And when you come back to them at the right moment, they meet you right where you need to be. My Weekly Mixtape speaks this week to Warren Haynes to revisit his debut solo album, Tales of Ordinary Madness — his debut solo album, now newly remixed and remastered more than thirty years after its original release. What happens when you return to deeply personal songs after decades of living, playing, and moving forward?

America’s most trusted travel guidebooks have a podcast: The Frommer’s Travel Show. Join Pauline Frommer for the low down on what’s happening in the world of travel today, from money-saving and enjoyment-enhancing trends, to the books and TV shows that bring travel into your daily life.

Sir John Tusa, the founding host of Newsnight in the UK, is launching his new podcast The Best Is Yet To Come… today - the day he turns 90! He speaks to other well-known figures in their nineties, including Lord Michael Heseltine and Dame Antonia Fraser about their lives, their work and the world they find themselves in today. The debut episode features his godson Rory Stewart, co-host of The Rest Is Politics, who interviews Sir John about his life and career - from being stopped by the Nazis to becoming the founding face of Newsnight.

What happens after a “lifequake”? Something Shifted with Sean Loots is about identity after interruption - the moment life splits into before and after, and who you become on the other side. Through deeply human, documentary-style stories, Sean explores the growth that happens in the middle of chaos.