85% of indie podcasters aren’t monetising

• 85% of indie podcasters aren’t making money, according to The Independent Podcaster Report 2025, published today by Alitu. But - this isn’t bad news: only 9% of those who took part consider revenue and profitability as their primary measure of success. Clear evidence - if we needed it - that we’re not all in it for the money. Most spend 4-5 hours working on each episode. The biggest threats to podcasting is increased competition and the use of AI, the study says.

• At the BBC, the Director General (CEO) Tim Davie, and the Head of News Deborah Turness, have resigned after allegations of bias were published by the right-wing Telegraph newspaper. One specific allegation is that the BBC’s flagship Panorama programme misleadingly edited two parts of a Donald Trump speech together, so the US President appeared to be encouraging the Capitol Hill riot of January 2021. The BBC is one of the largest podcasters in the UK, with an equivalent total of 154mn podcast downloads a month (including on-demand radio), and launched a BBC Verify service in 2023 to “combat the growth of disinformation”.

• The Audio Dramatists Resource Guide 2026-2027 has been published. The guide “connects audio dramatists with production companies actively seeking scripts, along with a wealth of development opportunities, contests, and fellowships across the US, UK, Canada, and beyond.”

• Bloomberg’s Screentime reports that Netflix is looking to commission its own “video podcasts”, and is looking at making changes to its interface to better highlight these shows. Meanwhile, Bloomberg’s Soundbite also reports that the deals Netflix are doing are just one year long.

  • Podnews readers get 25% off Soundbite.

• Publishing video clips to social does not drive podcast listens directly, says Chris Stone today, posting that his day-job employer, the New Statesman, had its best ever week of over a million social video views. And it’s had zero impact on their podcast listens. He suggests it’s still useful, though.

• The podcast app Metacast has added a Continue Listening playlist and enabled transcript export.

• Paid, ad-free, podcast episodes on the Apple Podcasts app don’t get separate chapters, notes Inc’s Jason Aten, which “literally makes the paid version of a show worse”.

• The City of Winnipeg is under fire for its podcast, Our City, Our Podcast. The Winnipeg Sun reports that it allegedly cost $35,000, a price that is mostly employee salaries. However, the piece judges the show on YouTube views, which were often under 100 per episode, and not on actual podcast download numbers, which aren’t public.

• In June we reported that Spotify’s video podcasts are on United’s in-flight entertainment screens. Imagine the disappointment this Podnews reader felt when he excitedly settled back to browse the collection, only to discover (in this video) that there’s actually nothing there.

  • Meanwhile, highlighting a launch of Spotify Sessions music videos in Latin America, the company has shown off the superior video experience on Spotify by, slightly perplexingly, embedding videos from YouTube.

Thank you to Andrew Kuklewicz (“kookster” on Github) and to Aldreama Harper who have both become personal supporters. Andrew’s the CTO of PRX, home of some of the biggest shows in the world; Aldreama is host of The OrganizedPreneur’s Podcast and can help you launch a podcast, streamline your business, and grow with confidence. Personal supporters like these are what makes Podnews free for everyone. Thank you! You can join them here.

The Tech Stuff - with RSS.com

• Google is removing XSLT support from Chrome. XSLT makes podcast RSS feeds look nice enough - like this one - if a user visits them by mistake. However, XML feeds also support standard CSS. So, if all you want to do is to put a little message at the top with some help text, and perhaps make the RSS itself slightly less scary, this stylesheet is now styling this RSS feed. Feel free to use it.

• In case you missed it - here’s how to get the most out of your OP3 download data. The free service lets you download detailed stats for further analysis.

• As we move away from node addresses in streaming payments, podcastindex@podcastindex.org is the Podcast Index’s shiny new lnaddress. You’ll see it in our splits in the podcast:value tag in our RSS feed. If you’ve Podcast Index in your splits, it’s recommended to use the lnaddress as of now.

Moves and hires

• Stephen Robles has left Riverside, to become a full-time YouTuber. And a full-time podcaster, of course, as co-host of Primary Technology, as well as running the Shortcuts Community. Congratulations, Stephen!

Tips and tricks

• Headliner offers audio editing and transcription tools, automatic video uploads to YouTube and social media, and automatic creation of audiograms, show notes, social captions and keywords. Podnews readers now get a special offer on subscriptions. (This isn’t an affiliate deal; just something Headliner have given Podnews readers).

Podcast News

You think you know the NXIVM story. The secretive self-help empire. The downfall of its cult leader, Keith Raniere. But the most famous woman at the center of the story has remained largely silent. Allison after NXIVM tells the story of Allison Mack: former Smallville actress, a high-ranking NXIVM member, and convicted felon. With exclusive access following her release from prison, this series traces her astonishing path from Smallville fame to NXIVM’s inner circle — and her effort to rebuild a life in the wreckage.

Some of the world’s most powerful ideas start in a university lab. But how do we get those ideas out of the lab and into the real world? On the new Stanford Ecopreneurship Podcast, Sam McClure sits down with academics, technologists, and policy leaders at Stanford to understand how they are building a resilient and sustainable future, using the disruptive force of entrepreneurship.

Danish news is never boring, especially if you’re viewing it as an international living in Denmark trying to make sense of it. In season 1 of Last Week in Denmark, Narcis and Wizzi do just that, with nuance, humor and inclusion in mind.

On a map, you can often spot pollution sources like a power plant, a highway, or a factory. But why were they built there - and who lives next door? Surprisingly, it’s often a short distance from yesterday’s plantations to today’s pollution. In a new season of Broken Ground, go from a remote turpentine camp where enslaved laborers once toiled, through a bustling “Black Wall Street” where freed men and women once thrived, to the last green stretch of ‘Cancer Alley’ in Louisiana, where twin sisters Jo and Joy Banner are fighting for justice for descendants of the enslaved. Together, these stories uncover how the legacy of slavery meets today’s environmental injustices.

In Season 12 of the Dakota Spotlight true crime podcast, you’ll hear how a 1965 murder near Mankato, Minnesota, set off a quiet chain of consequences that stretched for decades. The season begins with a teenage gunman and the killing of 18-year-old Ray Dahms, then uncovers how one state’s system allowed history to repeat itself. Through the voices of those who lived it and the records they left behind, the show traces how truth, once buried, can still rise to the surface.

Outlaws Podcast: Embracing Career Freedom is back for Season two - the podcast for professionals who are questioning the rules returns with fresh stories, global voices, and unfiltered conversations about work, purpose, and breaking free from burnout. The first gues is a UK-based lawyer, content creator, and TEDx speaker Henry Nelson Case, whose viral videos have sparked a global conversation about toxic corporate culture and the myth of “toughing it out.”