NPR #1 again in Triton’s US Podcast Ranker

• The Triton Digital US Rankers were released for July. Unlike the Australian versions, these measure a four-week period for better comparison (this time, Jul 1 - Jul 28): downloads were down by 0.6%. Participating publishers only - NPR’s News Now is #1 in the podcast list, iHeart Audience Network is #1 in the sales networks.

• Crooked Media Workers Union is celebrating ratifying a contract agreement, including wage increases and AI protection. They had walked out last week. Provisions include starting salaries of $80,000 and a minimum of 49 days of paid time off. “Crooked must include an acknowledgment that the staff is unionized with the Writers Guild of America East at the end of all podcasts.”

• Spotify has opened a podcast studio and audio space in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

• Podcast app Metacast has blogged on how it chose $4.99 as its premium pricepoint.

• A new podcast festival has been announced for Oct 4 in Waukesha WI, USA. Podcast Town Festival will have ten live shows on stage, with networking and interactive sessions.

Moves and hires

• Carolyn Chauncey has been promoted to Senior Vice President, Marketing and Podcasting, at Cumulus Media as part of a set of leadship changes. Jay “PodVader” Soderbergh has been promoted to Vice President, Podcast Operations and Production. Megan Devine is now Vice President, Podcast Sales Planning and Yield Optimization.

• Annalise Nielsen and Wanyee Li have joined Lower Street following the Pacific Content brand acquisition. Wanyee, known for her work on Morgan Stanley’s What Should I Do With My Money joins as the newest Lower Street Producer. Annalise takes on the role of Head of Podcast Strategy & Development, you can catch her at Podcast Movement.

Tips and tricks - with Ausha - Next Gen Podcasting 🚀

• On the Ausha stage at Podcast Movement 👉 Podnews Editor James Cridland will speak about the latest AI-tools to enhance your podcast workflow with a live demo of a brand new AI-tool.

• Explore Ausha’s curated list of the top tools for AI-assisted podcast editing.

• 29 Strategies To Easily Promote Your Podcast from Podcast Marketing Puzzle includes the so-simple-it’s-obvious recommendation to put a link to your podcast in your email footer.

Podcast News - with Airwave

From Airwave: Good Job, Brain!’s Karen Chu says: “Airwave is the Samwise to our Frodo. We’re all about maximizing our brain power, so having Airwave support our creative vision, guide us in this growing landscape, and handle ad coordination allows us to focus on what we do best: creating a darn good trivia podcast that we still have to burn onto CDs for our parents to play in their car.”

Do you have a set of plane rides ahead of you? New Podcast Trailers is the perfect place to find your next perfect podcast. It’s got trailers for (almost) all the shows we write about in Podnews. Get it subscribed, and never have to wonder what to listen to next.

The Podnews Weekly Review this week contains an interview with Dan Misener about the new Bumper Dashboard, and the benefit of looking beyond the download to measure your podcast’s success. Also, Joe Tannorella from Pod Engine.