Megaphone’s Brendan Monaghan returns to podcasting

• Libsyn has announced a new CEO - and it’s an impressive hire: the co-founder and former CEO of podcast host Megaphone, Brendan Monaghan. Megaphone was bought by Spotify in Nov 2020; Monaghan left the company in Feb 2022.

  • The company has also terminated “contractual liquidated damages obligations created by prior management in connection with the 2021 capital raise”, a process its recent stockholder meeting described as a “clean-up of the past”.

• Both candidates for the US Presidential election are hoping to be on the Joe Rogan Experience, according to media reports. But who listens to the show? Edison Research shares Rogan listener demographic data, including who his audience would vote for. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris guested with The Breakfast Club, another top 50 show, hosted by Charlamagne Tha God - which was carried live by other media outlets.

• Magellan AI has unveiled its Creative Analyzer, allowing brands to gain insight into their competitors’ ad strategies. The tool looks at creative and placement.

• Speakers! Panelists! You can now submit your session ideas for The Podcast Show in London and Podfest Expo in Orlando.

• The Kast Media bankruptcy case continues, with Kast Media’s lawyers suggesting that Arcadian Vanguard’s continued objections are “meritless”, “flawed”, and “spurious”.

• The latest Triton Digital Australian Podcast Ranker was released. Listeners are up 15% year-on-year. Of note, many of the catch-up radio shows appear to be publishing full episodes as well as partial highlights in the same feed. A few examples: ARN’s Kyle & Jackie O published 86 episodes in September; Nine’s Ben Fordham posted 160 episodes; SCA’s The Rush Hour posted 128 new episodes. These episodes were all produced from 21 radio programs in September; the auto-download behaviour of most podcast apps meaning that all episodes - clips or the full show - are downloaded. All episodes contain programmatically-inserted advertising.

Tips and tricks - with Memberful

• Wavve shares How to Develop a Podcast Merchandising Strategy

Podcast News

Above - ITALIAN, FOR SURE is publishing an episode with Gabriele Tortorella, the Head Coach with Barry’s Milan, today. The host, Catrin Skaperdas, is marketing it by - as is still legal in Italy - sticking flyers under the windscreen wipers of parked cars. (Don’t try it in most countries, though, before checking it’s legal where you are!)

PRIDE Daily, the world’s only daily LGBTQ+ news podcast, celebrates its first birthday today. The show has won a number of awards, been broadcast on the radio, and has released a number of specials over the last 12 months.

The Vergecast focuses on the history - and future - of podcasts this week. Why were they called that in the first place? And is that word useful at all in the future? Guests include Adam Curry and our Editor, James Cridland

QCODE horror fiction podcast The Edge of Sleep has been made into an Amazon Prime Video series, which is released today.