Chinese government increasingly interested in podcasts

• The Chinese government’s censors are increasingly interested in podcasting, according to Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, which looks at the growth of the medium.

• Magellan AI has published the top spenders, movers and shakers for US podcast advertising in November. The most increased was the Bank of America. The #1 advertiser, who spent $3.9m ($200,000 more than last month), was BetterHelp, an online counselling service.

• 2020 was the year podcasting went mainstream, writes Usha Raman in India’s The Hindu, highlighting some shows recommended by her friends.

• Bobby Owsinski, a Forbes blogger, writes his music industry predictions for 2021. At #5, he suggests that in 2021, podcasting will gently peter out. “Podcasting is hard work, the rewards only apply to the lucky 1%, and listeners only have so many hours in the day,” he writes.

• Missed a freebie? On Friday we had 100 professional accounts for remote recording tool MicDropp to give away. You weren’t busy doing something else, were you? We believe there are still some left.

Tips and tricks - with Podpage

• The Podcast Flywheel - Fábio Mazzeu describes the three main elements you need to make a podcast successful.

• 9 Tips on how to create an effective podcast trailer (Fiona Livingston)

Podcast News - with Fable & Folly

Fable and Folly presents The End of Time and Other Bothers. A cafeteria worker, a demonic filing clerk and a fairy PR exec are thrown back into the ancient past to save the universe.

Tal Minear posts something they definitely don’t call a “best of list” of audio drama podcasts from 2020. Chosen at random from that, we’ll mention Less is Morgue, if only for the excellent title: a podcast that keeps being interrupted by ghosts.

Reasons to be Cheerful has published its 2020 “best of” podcast, with ideas from some of the world’s most interesting thinkers.