Hot Pod newsletter “on hiatus” as Ariel Shapiro departs

• Hot Pod, one of the longest-running newsletters about podcasting, is to suspend publishing. Lead reporter Ariel Shapiro has announced that her last week with its owner, The Verge, will be next week; Deputy Editor Jake Kastrenakes adds: “We won’t have a new writer in place by next week, so we’re planning to put Hot Pod on hiatus while we figure out next steps.” The publication’s writers, Ariel Shapiro, Ashley Carman and Nick Quah, have been a vital part of the industry since 2014 and inspired Podnews to produce this daily newsletter in 2017. We hope the publication is back soon.

• “In October last year, Stephen posted on LinkedIn that he had ambitions to launch a podcast network: an open call for anyone to contact him that felt they could add value to the podcast media industry. Georgie and I saw it, and we pulled together an email that summarised a little bit about us. And then you can imagine our surprise - we included a hyperlink to schedule a meeting yourself, and a couple of days later I was in a co-working space with Georgia, got an email, and I must say I screamed.” The Podnews Weekly Review this week has an interview with Georgie Holt and Christiana Brenton of Stephen Bartlett’s new company Flight Studio, plus an Indian podcast app and a new sales company based in New York.

• The Podcast Standards Project met recently in Los Angeles. Sam Sethi was made Chief Evangelist. The group has been meeting regularly since its launch; Podnews will help with press coverage, but won’t be in the group to allow discussions to be made without “the press” being present.

• Your paid-for Substack podcast is now available to listeners using Spotify, the companies have announced. It’s part of Spotify Open Access, which brings premium podcast content from across the web to Spotify users.

• At an awards event last night in a foggy Toronto, Quill was one of the winners of the Canadian Business Innovation Awards 2024. Congratulations to Fatima and her team. The awards “celebrate trailblazing companies that are pushing their industries forward and challenging the status quo”.

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• Details of the 2024 IAB Podcast Upfront have been released. The invite-only event is in New York (and online) on May 9.

• The shortlist for the Publisher Podcast Awards has been announced. Winners will be announced on Jun 12 in London. In a good idea - each award category has a playlist to listen to the nominations.

• Acast posted four takeaways from Podcast Movement Evolutions.

• Can you help a study for the University of Amsterdam? Chance Dorland is investigating how users perceive the features of different social audio platforms for an academic paper on how such features lead to distinct user experiences. He’s looking for an hour of your time.

Moves and hires

• Tim Ruggeri has been appointed as Creator Network Director, Acast US. He’s been with Acast for eight years.

Tips and tricks - with Memberful

• If you think Twitter is still a place you want to be seen in - @podnews is still there - then The Podcast Host gives you ideas to Promote Your Podcast on X/Twitter With These 4 Strategies

• Want to help your listeners listen to your podcast on the YouTube Music app, but would prefer they listen to your proper RSS feed, rather than whatever YouTube wants to do with it? RSS2YTM gives your listeners instructions on how to get your RSS feed in the app. (You can share the link, too).

Podcast News - with New Podcast Trailers - the podcast

We Disrupt This Broadcast is a new show from the Peabody Awards in partnership with the Center for Media & Social Impact, focusing on industry disruption through some of today’s most powerful and compelling television narratives, and talking to the critically-acclaimed creatives who are re-imagining the world and tackling the big issues that move us forward.

The Apple & The Tree is a brand-new podcast series launched today, celebrating the universal truths, secrets, joys & pain between a parent and their child. Each episode invites listeners into the hearts and homes of a different family as they sit down to discuss something they’ve rarely – if ever – approached before. It’s hosted by Vogue Williams, and is a DMG Media production.