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• Podcast newsletters (ones you run for your podcast, not this one) are “the best real estate to own in podcasting”, says Sounds Profitable’s Tom Webster in an article this week. 87% of subscribers to podcast newsletters have listened to an episode because of them (42% often have), and of course they allow you to speak directly to your audience (and get more information from them, like surveys or even merch sales). It’s part of The Podcast Atlas, research released earlier this month; Webster also notes that all the best newsletters let you hit reply and talk directly to the creator: we agree, and you’re more than welcome to try with this newsletter too.

• The UK media regulator, Ofcom, released research on the UK’s media habits. There is lots of data on podcast listening, with the word mentioned 135 times (!) - of interest, 53% of the UK listen to “speech audio” such as podcasts or talk radio: people aged 25-34 have the highest reach across speech radio, podcasts and audiobooks. YouTube is the most-used platform for any audio content. Only 45% of Brits think there are too many adverts in the podcasts they listen to (it should be said that all BBC podcasts are free of advertising).

• Blubrry has announced new, time-based hosting plans for new customers - what the company describes as “a simpler way to choose a plan based on how much audio and video content they publish each month”. The plans include one starting at just $7.

• iHeart Australia has announced that video podcasts are now available on the app (which, we assume, means video podcasts are now available in the app in other territories, like the US, Canada, Mexico and New Zealand). “Video podcasts are delivered to iHeart at no cost to the creators or publishers via existing RSS workflows”. We reported that video was coming to iHeartRadio in January; they support the alternateEnclosure tag.

• It’s emerged that Jem Erith, Executive Producer of The Diary of a CEO, departed the company three months ago. On Substack, we learn she’s just done the Inca Trail. She’s the fourth key staffer to have departed the company in recent months.

• Auphonic now supports subtitles burnt-in to video. The captions can be styled, and they support word-level highlighting. You can enable them in the web interface, via the API and Auphonic’s CLI.

• Defector posts If The Podcaster Desires To Defeat The Aggregator, He Must Look Inward - an “aggregator” is a social media account that circulates quotes from sports podcasts, to manufacture engagement (and thus money) … and CBS News’s Pittsburgh Today Live covers Higher Ground’s Stories from a Stranger

• SIgnings include Motherkind, joining the Bauer Media Network in the UK… and Don Lemon has signed with Libsyn for advertising for The Don Lemon Show and a number of other companion podcasts.

Entries Are Almost Closed for the SONARR Awards

Paid content

Australia has audio awards. What it has never had is an institution built for the makers the market’s measures cannot see - the independent creator, the narrator, the audiobook performer, the sound designer nobody credits, the crafts that deserve to be discovered. The SONARR Awards exist for exactly this. Creators want to be found. Listeners want a trust signal. A SONARR is the bridge between the two: a craft-judged mark that says this work stood up to a standard.

Built by people who work in audio, for people who work in audio, backed by AFTRS as Founding Educational Partner. You have made the work. Do not doubt yourself. This is not for the shiny - it is for the good.

Only 1 day left to enter the SONARR Awards. Entries close tomorrow - 31 July.

Tips and tricks - with Podcast Movement NYC

• You have an idea for a podcast. You’re telling whoever it is you need buy-in from, and three minutes in, there it is: the look that can simultaneously mean “I’m not getting it,” I’m not feeling it," “I’ve already heard this podcast,” and “I’m already thinking about how to say no.” Pitchface: How to avoid the pitfalls of pitching featured a talk from Karen Burgess of CBC News showing how to avoid “pitchface”.

Podcast News - with Airwave

With Airwave: The British History Podcast - if you want a dry recounting of dates and battles, you’re in the wrong place. This show helps you learn about who these people were and how their desires, fears, and flaws shaped the scope of this island at the edge of the world. And some of those desires are downright scandalous.

German true-crime podcast Mordlust did a live video recording for its eighth anniversary. The show’s hosted on Podigee.

The Paranormal Podcast celebrated its 21st anniversary yesterday - it started on Jul 29, 2005! Probably the longest-running paranormal podcast on the internet, host Jim Harold told us: “Grateful for the opportunity to podcast on the paranormal since 2005. I started with a $40 headset and an interest in the spooky. I had no idea it would become my full-time career.”

Podcast Network Insights is celebrating its 20th episode with guest Tom Fox, who has built not just one but two successful podcast networks, Compliance Podcast Network and West Texas Hill Country Podcast Network. Learn podcasting, about podcast networks, and the only metrics that matter.

VARÚÐ RPG is an anthology actual play podcast, always set in Iceland, always horror. Played in English, with a smattering of native Icelandic, the first story is Dead Ísland. You’ll follow a family of survivors trying to cross Iceland, on foot, in winter, during a Zombie Apocalypse. Join the family as they attempt to survive the dangerous journey in roder to complete a dying Aunt’s mission.

Podcast studios in the wild

Pod Save America debuted a refreshed studio set in their latest episode. We’re told it reflects an exciting new chapter ahead of a busy election cycle.