Goalhanger adds women’s football show

• She shoots - she scores. Goalhanger, the largest independent podcast company in the UK is to release a new show tomorrow - The Rest Is Football: Daly Brightness, a new show hosted by England women footballers Millie Bright and Rachel Daly. Promising a deep dive into the heart of women’s football, it’s the second brand extension from Goalhanger - the first, The Rest Is Politics: US, was launched a year ago.

• Futuro Media has launched Futuro Plus, including an expansion of the podcast company’s shows and ad-free access. The company is using Supporting Cast.

• The shortlist of the sixth annual Publisher Podcast Awards has been released. The winning podcasts will be decided by over fifty judges from across the world. There is also a Publisher Podcast Summit on the same day, Jun 11, in London.

• The ParaPod Podcast Awards are now open for entry. The awards highlight top podcasts exploring the paranormal, true crime, conspiracy theories, metaphysics, ancient history, and more.

• Podcast app Metacast has published its Q1/25 retrospective. The web app now supports transcripts; the mobile app supports chapters, and it does a much better job in sharing images for shows. They have also - as have we - suffered from AI bots costing them an arm and a leg.

Thank you to The Geopolitics & Empire Podcast for becoming our latest supporter. The show conducts interviews with prominent international experts on a wide-range of topics - from the left, right, and beyond. Podnews supporters pay for access for everyone, and you can help support us too.

The Tech Stuff - with RSS.com

• Many podcast apps have consumption data on the shows their listeners consume - followers, listens, and even completion data - but this doesn’t come back to podcast creators because there’s no standard mechanism to do so. A new proposal from John Spurlock called Standard Podcast Consumption (or SPC) aims to fix that, with a simple and uniform way for podcast apps to securely make a show’s aggregate client-side metrics available to the podcaster.

  • tl;dr: “Podcast apps host one new API endpoint, assign each podcast a secret keystring, and provide these in the user-agent when server-fetching the podcast’s rss feed. The podcaster (or hosting company) can parse these out of their logs and use for subsequent querying”.
  • The metrics shared are aggregate metrics for each show, so are entirely privacy-aware. They’re inspired by Overcast, which shares total followers in this way (Podnews Daily has 251 followers over there); and it’s simple and easy to add. We think it’s a smart idea, though relies on podcast app developers to integrate (for no apparent benefit to them). At the very least, the standard format of JSON data could serve as a useful tool to get cross-app consumption data back to podcast creators.

• Android app AntennaPod v3.8.0 is out. Among its new features: “Leave comments if the podcast supports this”. Pull 7127 shows how it works: it adds a comments icon in the top bar, which simply opens the URL. A super-simple way to achieve cross-app comments! (It should, but might not, open BlueSky for the Podnews Daily; if not, we’d be happy to also support Mastodon comments).

• PodPace is a new tool for “podcast speech normalisation” - it “allows users to upload podcast audio files, analyze speaker WPM, and adjust speech speed per speaker.” It uses AssemblyAI for speaker diarization (i.e. “who is speaking now”) but it might be a starting point for podcast apps wanting to improve their playback engine. (The excellent playback engine is the only reason your Editor uses Overcast).

• Faircamp v1.3 - an open, static-server alternative to Bandcamp - now includes full support for hosting podcasts. All you need is static hosting somewhere, like Amazon S3 or equivalent.

Moves and hires

• Mike Joachim has joined N2K | Cyberwire as an Account Executive. He joins from Supporting Cast and two cybersecurity companies.

Tips and tricks - with Memberful

• Wil Williams suggests that it’s time to “clean up your CTAs”. Wil suggests using one call-to-action per episode - ask for one thing: which might be following your show, or becoming a newsletter subscriber, or taking a survey. Just choose one, and people might do it.

Podcast News

Something More Human tries to not just talk about a better world - but build it instead. This week, hosts Sam and Elliot tackle Digital Dementia and what they’re doing to reverse their own and build more genuine (human) connections.

Sometimes the most powerful conversations start when you least expect them. Nice to Meet You, hosted by Rob Pene, is a space where entrepreneurs, creatives, authors, business owners, and thought leaders open up about their journeys, challenges, and defining moments. From everyday insight to extraordinary experience, each episode is a reminder that legacy, wisdom, and growth often come through simply listening to someone else’s story.

Who Smarted? has hit 25 million downloads. Designed to be the funniest educational podcast for kids and families and is enjoyed worldwide by children as young as five and as old as early teens, the show is with Atomic Entertainment and Starglow Media.

Giggly Squad and the extremely parasocial world of “podcast girlies” get a fulsome writeup from Vox. The show claims 44mn downloads last year.

More than ever, we all need a bit of inspiration, positivity, and practical wisdom. Your Daily Dose of Hope is designed as an uplifting journey to empower you to face life’s challenges with resilience and optimism. Start your day or listen anytime you are ready for an encouraging, hope-filled message, in just five minutes.

In the debut episode of Ije, the World of Travel, host Tony Doe takes you on an journey into the booming Chinese market, focusing on how Nigerian business owners can use travel to secure direct partnerships and source quality products at unbeatable prices. Whether you’re expanding your product line or scouting new markets, this episode offers valuable insights on how travel can unlock the world of business opportunities.

Your Win-Win Teacher Business is a new podcast which shares win-win stories of teachers who are growing a business in a way that values systems, strategy, and organization as the focus. This show is for you if you have a business that supports teachers, and love to keep your CEO schedule filled with only tasks that truly move the needle.