New comedy podcast network to launch

• Exclusive: There’s a new comedy podcast network in town. The launch of the WITZ Podcast Network has been announced by entertainment studio Cineverse and comedy club brand The Stand. Cineverse is currently well-known for horror, true crime and entertainment; comedy is the #1 most popular podcast category in the US.

• Speaking of which, The Golden Lobes awards - celebrating the funniest podcasts, people and moments in the audio industry - are closing shortly - you’ve until the end of Mar 15. Entries are just £25 ($32).

• Fourthwall, a membership and e-commerce platform for creators, integrated with Spotify recently, and has shared a chart of the number of paid subscribers for one podcast before and after enabling the feature.

  • Here’s a show with it enabled. There’s an “early access” button which links your Spotify account to your Fourthwall membership, in a browser. Other platforms supported by Spotify Open Access include Memberful, Supporting Cast, Substack and Patreon. Spotify does not take a cut.

• Yesterday’s suggestion that Spotify’s Partner Program was losing some publishers money was refuted by Spotify. They told us:

“While we can’t comment on specific creators or shows, creators who join the Spotify Partner Program late in the month, have irregular posting schedules, or experience broader declines in audience engagement may see lower initial earnings and less accurate month-to-month comparisons. Overall, though it’s still early, the program has proven valuable for the vast majority of enrolled shows.”

We’ve asked for some clarity on this statement. Meanwhile, Amanda McLoughlin, who posted her experiences on LinkedIn, reiterated to us:

“Spotify is asking creators to try an unproven program with undisclosed revenue splits. Our experience is: my client opted into video on Spotify and lost a pretty significant chunk of money during their first month in the program. Because of that, we made the best decision for us with the data we received, and opted out.”

• Google has removed the ability to ask your phone to play podcasts, news and radio stations with its release of Gemini to replace Google Assistant. “Hey, Google, play the latest news” had been responsible for significant download numbers for some podcasts: yet, it no longer works on phones using Gemini. The company does not appear to have communicated this to its content partners.

• Ad-skipping podcast app Auddia released its annual financial report. The company made a loss of $8.7mn in the year, while failing to earn a single dollar in revenue. The CEO, though, received a 17% pay rise; the company’s auditor says it has “substantial doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern”. Possibly unrelated, Auddia will share “how the company views the podcast industry’s financial landscape” in a keynote at SXSW.

• If you’re playing along: the mystery of “20x as many downloads for the Podnews podcast but only from two countries” appears to show these downloads are automated in some way.

Thank you to Brett Johnson of Circle 270 Media for becoming our latest personal supporter. Ohio’s first full-time podcast consultant, he’s one of our supporters that pay for Podnews so that everyone can read it, for free. You can become a supporter here.

People news

• Carrie Legner has joined Audiohook’s sales team.

• Rumble is hiring for an Audio Podcast Manager and Monetization Strategist “to oversee and grow our audio podcast portfolio”.

Tips and tricks - with Pod Predictor by Coleman Insights

• Sometimes, there’s nothing better than learning from others how they put their show together. Philip Pape makes Wits & Weights in a very deliberate way, to get the most out of each episode.

Podcast News - with Airwave

Airwave presents, for your Ambies consideration: The Ten News for Best News Podcast. The Ten News podcast is a bite-sized podcast for kids and their adults that explains what’s going on in the world. Each episode explores topics kids care about most including events, sports, science, gaming, pop culture, entertainment, and more!

In German, Antritt – Der Fahrradpodcast is ten years old today, and has grown to be one of the most popular podcasts in the cycling world. The show, part of detektorfm, will be focusing on bicycle media all this month, including a “bicycle podcast icon from the USA”.

In Calm History - true bedtime stories for relaxing or sleeping. this month, Harris reveals if Florence Nightingale was truly an angelic nurse or if it all a false legend.

Wild Sounds is New Zealand podcast publisher RNZ’s first dedicated 'super feed’, and will be home to RNZ’s best science and nature series. Voice of the Sea Ice is the first new series in the feed, where Our Changing World host Claire Concannon joins New Zealand researchers investigating the future of Antarctica. The series will be joined by the popular Voice of the Iceberg, last year’s stunning Voice of Tangaroa, as well as classic series Voice of the Kākāpō and Voices from Antarctica.

Headgum launches Wayne Brady’s What If?! with Jonathan Mangum today - the actor, producer, singer, dancer, songwriter, author, and television personality Wayne Brady and fellow improviser Jonathan Mangum interview special guests about their life and career, creating “What If?!” scenarios along the way that evolve into fully improvised songs, games, and scenes, with live musical accompaniment in every episode. Creative Artists Agency (CAA), which represents Headgum and Brady, brokered the deal.

Having a bad DAI

An occasional section where we highlight odd things going on with podcast ads so we all get better at them

We like Megaphone-hosted Unexplainable, but we assume this ad’s call-to-action - meant, presumably, for Spotify - won’t work very well for anyone else.

Found someone having a bad DAI? Let us know.