IAB to release v2.3 of measurement guidelines

• This morning, the IAB Tech Lab will release v2.3 of the Podcast Measurement Guidelines for public comment - updated for the first time since Feb 2024. The updates add “guidance around URL prefix measurement and RSS enclosure URL changes” among other things, although we will have to wait until 2027 for a version of these guidelines that focus on HLS streaming video podcasts. You’ve until Aug 19 to submit comments.

  • Recognising podcast video, one change updates terminology from “listener” to “consumer” - inaccurately, in our opinion, since the existing guidelines measure neither “listeners” nor “consumers”, just a combination of devices and IP addresses.
  • It’s curious timing: it comes two days before the release of the AMP guidelines, which will include a definition of “podcast”, as well as measurement suggestions for actual podcast consumption, rather than downloads.
  • The IAB’s new documents will be visible from 8.30am ET today: we’ll come back to this story tomorrow.

• Six million vehicles are now reporting live radio listening data, direct from the car radio. Radio is still listened-to by many more people than podcasting (for much longer, too), and this data may help the industry fight back against the more granular data that podcasting already offers.

• Getty Images has expanded a relationship with Goalhanger for visual content for its shows. The companies had already been working together for The Rest is Football's World Cup coverage.

• The International Women’s Podcast Awards are closing soon. Now under the expert ownership of Tink Media, you can enter any time in the next ten days: just US $50 to enter, and you can enter from any country in the world.

• The latest company to add its portfolio to Amazon DSP is Red Seat Ventures, which has announced the collaboration today. It joins companies like Spotify, iHeart, and Triton Digital.

• Last weekend was the Higher Ed PodCon. Among the attendees was Steve Goldstein from Amplifi Media (who teaches at NYU), who suggests it’s a thriving podcast community. “Sometimes the most interesting developments in podcasting aren’t happening where the spotlight is brightest.”

• Podcasting as marketing for organisations is growing - but it’s not everywhere yet. New research from Outcomes Rocket suggests that there is still considerable scepticism about their effectiveness; though more than half plan to increase their podcast marketing investment.

• We’ve covered a few kids podcast apps recently - here’s another one: KidsPod has been recommended to us: a team of three, collecting podcasts for screen-free listening for kids. It’s a free app, with additional paid features.

• Podcasts that talk about investing in the stock market - are they actually making people better traders? Research published by the University of Georgia suggest that they might be: at least, that they drive more trading activity, and improve investor performance.

  People news

• Jen Sargent, the former CEO of Wondery, has posted on LinkedIn - “Over the past several months, I’ve invested in my health, my relationships, and even gone back into student mode with an AI bootcamp.” She’ll be speaking at the Future of Media Summit in August.

The NARRATIVE Creator

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Fiction or non-fiction, you have a way of telling a story that keeps listeners in their headphones long after they meant to stop. The missing piece that no one else was able to discover. The idea explained so well, it sticks.

You’ve built an audience that listens right to the end, and comes back for the next one. That’s not luck, it’s craft, held to the same standard every time.

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Enter the SONARR Awards today. Entries close 31 July.

Tips and tricks - with Podcast Movement NYC's Public Vote

• Is video really the right thing for your podcast? Resonate Recordings suggests that adding video increases cost by 77% per hour of audience attention, and triples post-production time per episode: but also highlights the real costs, the three questions the company asks every client before recommending a format, and what is most likely to go wrong.
• Promo codes - the way to measure how well as podcast advertising campaign is going? [Claritas and Ocean Media spoke at Podcast Movement 2025 about how those promo codes are inaccurate at best.]

Podcast News - with Airwave

With Airwave: A bibliophage is someone who devours books, a book worm, an avid reader. The podcast Bibliophage is on a mission to grow more bookworms, one family at a time. There’s no such thing as a person who can’t love reading - just people who haven’t sampled the right books yet.

You’ve probably heard of Goalhanger, who make many of the world’s biggest podcasts. We Have Ways of Making You Talk was the first - and it’s just hit episode 1000. The show is hosted by Al Murray and James Holland.

This week, PodBiz speaks with Ricardo Netto, Managing Director of US Sales at Acast. Ricardo shares how the definition of podcasting is shifting towards an omnichannel experience, why niche audiences can drive greater brand engagement and business outcomes than top-tier scale, and the importance of championing an open ecosystem for long-term creator monetization.

In Kris Talks About the Wisdom of Women 83 year old Linda is still working as a nonprofit consultant because she loves it and proving the men wrong who told her many years ago, “women can’t raise money.” Suela explains why the AI gender gap is a design flaw and Nicole says “Marriage is not a default plan and lives that truth.” Discover real stories, real women and real wisdom.

John Hughes’ teen movies have never really left the cultural conversation. This week, Whatever! The Gen X Podcast hosts Dwayne and Heather Tanner take listeners through his meteoric rise, his complicated legacy, and the soundtrack choices that turned throwaway teen comedies into generational touchstones. From Sixteen Candles to The Breakfast Club, Hughes’ filmography sits right at the center of how pop culture is relitigating the 80s.

In The Secret Story of Nutmeg, the new season begins with an exploration into just why is it that nutmeg was so keenly sought after over the ages. You’ll take a trip through altered consciousness as we build a case that changing your mind can lead to insights that support greater empathy and awe. Is this the fundamentals behind Trad’s mythic nutmeg storyline that tells us Nutmeg shaped us as human beings?

David Berkowitz, the infamous Son of Sam serial killer, terrorized New York City in the summer of 1977. His reign of terror actually began one year earlier, in July 1976, with two shootings in the South Bronx. Fifty years later, Caloroga Shark Media’s Daily Crime & Justice podcast has launched a limited series, exploring what was happening in New York City in the months leading up to Berkowitz’s first shot. A city $14 billion in debt, 5,000 police officers laid off, and a police union telling arriving tourists “Welcome to Fear City.”