Listener brand safety study released

• Safe and Sound, the first-ever study of brand safety and suitability from the listeners’ perspective, was released by Sounds Profitable. The study suggests that the greatest risk for brands is associating with a problematic host: but that podcasting has an advantage in not being live. The material listeners find most offensive is racist content.

• PodX Group has acquired a majority stake in Posta, a podcast production company in Argentina. The acquisition will help PodX expand in Latin America and the US’s hispanic market; PodX has recently invested in podcast companies in France and the UK.

• More than 1,000 employees at the New York Times are on strike today. Publication of The Daily was not affected.

• The Podsights Advertising Benchmark Report Q4 2022 has been released. Conversion rates are increasing: the company reports ads are performing 19% better this quarter.

• Cody Ko and Noel Miller’s Tiny Meat Gang Studios, named after their five-year-old Tiny Meat Gang podcast, is celebrating seven shows, twelve full-time staff members and 200 million downloads.

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• In further evidence that we live in unprecedented times, where nothing that we thought we knew remains constant, Podbean’s Rob Greenlee is now running an Apple Mac. The impromptu appearance of the device caused The New Media Show co-host Todd Cochrane to temporarily lose all power of speech, before exclaiming: “Are you kidding me? Wow”. Greenlee added “I can truly be ambidextrous: Windows on this hand, Mac on this hand”.

• Further reading: the BBC’s Director General, Tim Davie, spoke about the future of the UK media industry: arguing UK media is worth £109bn ($132bn) to the UK’s economy each year, and calling for the media regulator to “regulate for success with speed”. He didn’t mention podcasts, thought … Meghan Davies, International MD at Acast, reflects on 2022 and explains why the company has their eyes on Italy for 2023 … and David Oxenford, a noted media lawyer, suggests that Big FTC Penalties on Google and iHeart for Deceptive Endorsements in Broadcast Commercials Mandate Care in Crafting Your Local Advertising

Moves and hires

• Vox Media has promoted Ray Chao and Nishat Kurwa to SVP.

Big failures are often the springboard to bigger success.

Paid content

Tips and tricks

• Be a better podcast host - 18Sixty posts thoughts from many different hosts as to what works

Podcast News - with Campaign Legal Center

In our New Podcast Trailers podcast, you can enjoy trailers from every show we mention here: so, if you’re thinking of finding something new to listen it, if it’s got a trailer, it’s in here.

Lateral with Tom Scott is a fun listen if you like “No Such Thing As A Fish” but you wished it was played like a game show. It features a number of top podcasters and YouTubers, and is hosted by YouTuber Tom Scott.

The PBLA Podcast is brand new today from Bruce Wawrzyniak. It’s the official show of the new Professional Box Lacrosse Association, which begins its first season of play on Dec 29 and features nine teams competing in America’s newest indoor lacrosse league.