True-crime podcast 'plagiarised' by newspaper; actors love audio drama podcasts

• Plagiarism, even accidental, isn’t a podcast-only problem. The Sunday Times from The Western Australian, a newspaper in Perth WA, Australia, has “spoken to” a fugitive hacker, posting a full-page article accompanied by a photograph of a man with an awful old-fashioned haircut. The only problem? They didn’t. All 23 quotes with the 'hacker’ in question were in a story from Darknet Diaries which was not credited in the piece. “And that haircut hasn’t been rocked for many many years”, adds the hacker himself, who also confirms he’s not spoken to the newspaper. The newspaper, published by Seven West Media, has told Podnews that it was the result of a “production error”, and has fixed the paywalled online version.

• Audio drama podcasts are interesting to famous actors because it lets them escape from typecasting, and they are less time-consuming, according to Carrie Coon in this piece, first carried in the New York Times but visible to everyone in The Independent.

• 5 million people in the Netherlands listen to podcasts, according to new research, “a quarter of whom have a subscription”. Interestingly, most podcasts are listened-to via music services (Spotify, Deezer) or via the app or website of a radio station. They listen for 41 minutes per day (radio is 144 minutes a day). (via PodPraat)

• Podfest 2020 will be in Orlando FL, USA, on March 6-8, it’s been announced. Here’s a speaker submission form, and where to get a ticket.

• New podcast network Lemonada officially launches this week. Westwood One is their ad partner.

  
  Aug 17 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.
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• Also just launched: the Broadway Podcast Network.

• Have you heard Shampoodler, someone who participates in many different podcasts? FastCompany tracked him down, arguing that interactivity may be a part of the future of podcasting.

  
  Aug 17 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• CNET’s Sarah McDermott visited the London Podcast Festival, to see a podcast she wasn’t a particular fan of. She left a convert.

• The upcoming National Lampoon Radio Hour: The Podcast has revealed its ensemble cast. It launches late 2019.

• Correction: on Friday, we said that “podcasts on Megaphone were unavailable for three hours”, linking to their status report called CMS and feeds unavailable, which initially noted that “RSS feeds are currently unavailable”. Megaphone have asked us to point out that this really meant that new RSS feeds were unable to be published, but RSS feeds were available as normal to listeners. We’re grateful for the clarification.

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Spreaker Prime: **Marvel Cinematic Universe Podcast is your one stop podcast for all discussion, news, and insight into what is happening with Marvel Studios. The hosts love the world of Marvel and want you to, too! They’re using Spreaker Prime to host for free and make more money.

Just launched: School Colors - a new podcast from Brooklyn Deep about how race, class, and power shape American cities and schools. Bedford-Stuyvesant is one of the largest and most iconic historically Black communities in the United States. Schools there used to be so overcrowded that students went to school in shifts. Now, they’re half-empty. Why? (Brooklyn Deep / Simplecast)