Testing ad effectiveness before it runs

• Audion has launched Sense, an AI-powered tool that is designed to give pre-campaign analysis of ad creative, helping advertisers achieve more effective digital audio advertising spots, before they run. It’s been trained with more than 3,000 audio campaigns.

• Audioboom published its Q1/25 financial results. EBITDA profit is up 10x year-on-year; the company says its on pace to deliver record revenue of $80mn this year.

• Steven Goldstein published his writeup of his View from the Top panel at Evolutions in Chicago. Podcasting isn’t breaking, he says, it’s bending. The word ‘video’ is mentioned seventeen times.

• It’s easier to sell advertising if you’ve done your homework first. Magellan AI published a case study of how Gamut Podcast Network “turned market intelligence into a growth engine” with Magellan AI’s tools.

• Podscribe has launched new features featuring verified household-level data from TransUnion. Podcasters can now see details of their audience across more than 560 segments, including occupation and parental status; and reverse-searching podcasts by verified audience traits, so you can find the podcasts most listened-to by people with pets, for example.

• Where do you find new talent for podcasting? For the award-winning production company Whistledown, it was just sitting on the Northern Line of London Underground, listening to three people having a chat. The result - the Power Sisters podcast, with seven episodes so far. (Listen to Episode 0 to hear how they met.)

• Nominations for the 2025 Quill Podcast Awards are now open. The awards have been running since 2021, to celebrate the achievements of podcasters and podcast companies.

• The Podcast Show London has just added the first 150+ names to its speaker line-up. Our Editor is also speaking; code PODNEWS10 saves money on selected passes.

• In the UK, the nominees of the ARIAS were announced. The Audio & Radio Industry Awards will take place on May 14.

• Websites For Podcasts, W4P, has been launched by Canadian company Podcast Branding. The service provides podcasters with professionally-designed WordPress websites that they own, rather than pay a perpetual subscription model for. Self-ownership is important, however these websites (based on a template) cost more than $3,400 in the first year, and do not include ongoing hosting.

Thank you to the Gamut Podcast Network for becoming our latest silver supporter. It’s people like Gamut, which launched at the end of last month, that keep Podnews free and available for everyone. You can join Gamut and become a Podnews supporter.

Moves and hires

• Carrie Brody has been hired as VP of Business Development at Higher Ground, the company founded by President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama. She was at Pushkin Industries.

Tips and tricks - with Memberful

• There is an art to booking podcast guests, according to Mike McVay. The NAB’s Jared Easley watched the media strategist speak at the recent NAB Show.

Podcast News - with New Podcasts

In Gig Gab - The Working Musician’s Podcast this week, Dave Hamilton sits down with Joe Travers — drummer for Duran Duran and guardian of Frank Zappa’s treasure trove. Joe spills behind-the-scenes stories about gigging with legends, curating unreleased Zappa material, and balancing life between the stage and the studio.

Climbing the Walls, a new limited-series investigative podcast, explores why women weren’t diagnosed with ADHD for so long - and why new ADHD diagnoses among women ages 20–49 nearly doubled between 2020 and 2022. Hosted by health and science journalist and documentarian Danielle Elliot, the first episode, “I Didn’t Want to Have ADHD,” is out today, from understood.org.

The new podcast from Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, has launched. Confessions of a Female Founder with Meghan is a Lemonada Media production, and in the first episode, Meghan speaks with her close friend Whitney Wolfe Herd, best known for creating the dating app, Bumble. The two discuss the pressures of launching a business and what it’s like doing it in the public eye.

Throughout April, Subtext and Discourse | Art World Podcast have partnered with the Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD) to look at the history of the oldest photography art fair. Across seven episodes, you’ll hear past and present AIPAD members take you behind the scenes, from the beginnings in New York in the 1970's until today.

hol+ is the home for science, medicine, all things health, and its influence on the human experience, hosted by Dr. Taz MD. It’s hot on the heels of her successful 8-year-long podcast, Super Woman Wellness, boasting over 1 million downloads; and provides viewers and listeners an opportunity to lean into the wisdom, experience, and healing journeys of esteemed researchers and scientists, well-known celebrities, everyday humans and clinicians.

Building Better CMOs is a podcast about what marketing leaders get wrong, and how they can get smarter & stronger. Past guests have included A-list CMOs from companies like Uber, Coca-Cola, AT&T, GE, and Adobe; this year, full video interviews are also available on YouTube.