Women’s podcast listenership triples

• Women’s podcast listenership has tripled in ten years, according to the Women’s Audio Report: Women & Podcasts released by Edison Research and SiriusXM Media. 45% of all women in the US (60mn) are monthly listeners; and 52% consume podcasts in some form (whether listening or watching).

• Sounds Profitable’s Tom Webster is hosting a free webinar today at 2pm Eastern, examining ad-supported podcasting compared to other ad-supported media. It’s the largest cross-platform study of its kind, and is the first to isolate the audience for ad-supported podcasts - which is different to the overall podcast audience.

• Acast has announced an exclusive, global podcast deal with The Athletic. The Athletic is currently #8 publisher in Podtrac, and its premium sports podcasts will be monetised across audio and video.

• If you’re a podcaster, you’re an influencer. (Congratulations!) But what’s the best way to be transparent and authentic in the things you promote? A new podcast from BBB National Programs called Beyond The Influence is newly launched, with tips and information about how to do it right.

• The Australian Podcast Ranker for March was released. The ABC broke three million listeners for the first time and has more titles in the top 200 than anyone else; Nine Podcast Network is now #4 above Nova Entertainment and Mamamia; The Mel Robbins Podcast continues as the #1 show in the country.

• Independent podcast app Pocket Casts now, it seems, supports the podcast:funding feature in the new podcast namespace. It allows podcasters to link directly to pages that will help them earn money. The feature is supported by a large variety of podcast hosting companies, including Buzzsprout, Blubrry, Captivate, RSS.com, Transistor and many others. (Podnews podcast pages also support it). (Thank you, Devon!)

• Descript’s transcription tool has a known bug that means it misses transcribing large chunks of audio - making the tool unusable for its main purpose: editing. One power user, a radio broadcaster in the UK, is so frustrated he’s started publicly tweeting Andrew Mason directly for a refund. He’s yet to get one; we’re curious how many other podcasters are suffering from this known bug.

Facts and stats

• Nielsen’s The Gauge for March shows YouTube is the largest streaming platform by far in the US - and is already half the size of all broadcast or cable TV. Good news for any creator that posts on YouTube. Wait - that’s all of us!

Tips and tricks - with Memberful

• What is your podcast’s primary verb? What does it do? That’s the question put forward by Doug Fraser in The Noise Gate. Worth thinking about - ours probably “informs”?

Podcast News - with New Podcasts

PRIDE Daily, the world’s only daily LGBTQ+ news podcast, is 18 months old today. The show is a two minute update of the day’s top three global stories that’s not just for queer people, but for everyone - if you’re not on the LGBTQ+ bus yourself, you definitely know someone who is. Launched in October 2023, PRIDE Daily has published well over 400 editions and enjoyed endorsements from Acast and Pocket Casts.

More people are thinking of living outside of their passport country. The conversations in Geopats Podcast took place between 2017 and 2024 - but they feel more relevant today, so from this month, all Geopats episodes are being reposted, on a weekly basis - for conversations with long term expats about what grounded them in their other places in the world.

As YouTube and Spotify blur the lines between podcasts and video, What’s a Podcast?: The Revolution Redefined has been released: a three-part series exploring the identity crisis, evolution, and future of podcasting. Produced by Oxford Road and Shaun Colón, and narrated by industry veteran Allyson Marino, the series explores the seismic shifts reshaping the medium. There are insights from over 30 industry pioneers — including Ira Glass, Guy Raz, Adam Carolla, and Leo Laporte — the series examines the tug-of-war shaping its future. If we don’t act now, will podcasting lose what made it revolutionary?

Miist, a Grammy Academy voting member and double Billboard-charting artist known for the #1 Indie hit “Move Your Body Slowly,” has launched a new podcast Make Me Smile. Each week, Miist shares quick, impactful actions focused on gratitude, kindness, and genuine connection to combat loneliness and rediscover meaningful living through the transformative power of a smile.