Film festival cancels podcast contract

• The Locarno Film Festival has abruptly walked away from a podcast contract with producer BrandAudio. The festival cancelled the agreement within a few weeks of this year’s event. “We found the festival’s unexpected and abrupt cancellation of our valued co-production relationship most peculiar", said BrandAudio’s Managing Partner Darryl von Däniken; the company still jointly owns the IP in the podcast’s name and format.

• First look: Acast has unveiled a new product called AdCollab, enabling advertisers to work with multiple podcasters for their host-read ads (which Acast calls sponsorships). The tool streamlines the process of buying host-read ads for both advertisers and creators.

• The Podcast Academy has launched a podcast of its own. Podcast 360 launches today - with a different host, and a different interviewee, each week. The show features podcast company founders interviewing each other as they answer three questions about all things podcasting, and is produced by DCP Entertainment.

• Adalyst Media has added two new shows to its roster, with TILT Parenting and Wannabe Clutter Free joining the female-focused network.

• On the radio, NPR programming lost 6% of its audience over the past year, according to NPR data reported by Pew Research. Total audience for NPR shows is down 22% since 2017, in spite of the number of NPR member stations increasing by 6%.

• Entries for The Golden Crane Podcast Awards, run by the Asian American Podcasters Association, closes on Aug 10, so there’s still time to enter. The event will be held in New York’s Chinatown on Aug 30.

• Further reading: Digiday writes Why some publishers are reducing their podcast slate to try to grow their audio businesses (something Eric Nuzum called a big red flag earlier this year) … the Dentsu study we mentioned last week is the subject of a blog post by Westwood One’s Pierre Bouvard … in Pod Bible, Meera Kumar suggests that we should pay for podcasts unless we all want them to sound the same … and FlightPath CEO Sean Howard talks about yield optimisation in podcasting.

What’s a “first look”? It’s where Podnews has been trusted to be one of the first to cover a new product or service to our 28,800 readers.

Tips and tricks - with Pod Predictor by Coleman Insights

• Asking people to do something in a podcast? We’ve all done it. Jared Easley shares five simple steps to improve your call-to-action and make it more likely that they’ll actually do it.

• Is your podcast too loud, or too quiet? A crazy little thing called LUFS will help you.

Podcast News - with Airwave

Part of the Airwave podcast network: Anyone who tells you women don’t need financial advice specifically for them is wrong. HerMoney with Jean Chatzky takes you through the steps you need to take today to live comfortably and worry-free tomorrow. Get the latest research, expert tips and personal advice in this frank and often funny podcast.

Nothing much happens: bedtime stories to help you sleep has joined the iHeartPodcast Network. iHeartPodcasts will also coproduce “Stories from The Village of Nothing Much,” a new, daytime companion podcast to “Nothing Much Happens.” Set to launch later this year, the podcast will use immersive 3D sound design to keep listeners engaged and energized as they follow new characters and storylines from the show’s creator.

The Path with Ryan Roslansky is new from LinkedIn, offering a rare glimpse into the career paths of accomplished company executives. The first show, out today, will spotlight the business mogul, Fireside founder, and Dallas Mavericks CEO, Mark Cuban.

Grow, cook, eat, arrange with Sarah Raven & friends has launched a miniseries looking at novice gardeners wanting to grow their own food. Raven, who is a British gardener, writer, teacher and cook, talks with special guests from across garden design, floristry, food, ecology and conservation.

New from QCODE, Ad Lucem is a new socio-political thriller series set in New York City a few years in the future. Created by Troian Bellisario and Josh Close, who also both star, the series features an all-star cast that includes Chris Pine, Olivia Wilde, Fiona Shaw, Clancy Brown, and Patrick Adams.

The biggest source of confusion for parents in 2023 is how to navigate disciplining their children - and the new season of How To Build A Human aims to help with that. The show is produced by Mamamia with LEGO DUPLO, and the new season starts today.

Podcast promotion in the wild

John Spurlock ventured outside recently to visit an REI Co-op store in Plano TX - close to a store called Dope Rugs and not too far from Sir Graham’s Barber Shop, we notice. He discovered this sign, nestling close to some $70 hoodies in both “Coral” and “Deep Ocean”. It’s promoting Hello, Nature, a show produced by Dustlight Productions and hosted by Misha Euceph. The most recent episode is from Minneapolis; season two started, after an 18 month pause, in July.