YouTube podcast director to speak at Podcast Movement Evolutions

• Kai Chuk, YouTube’s Director of Podcasting and Next Gen Media Partnerships, will be speaking at Podcast Movement Evolutions. This will be the first public presentation from Chuk since starting his current position at the end of last year.

• How many podcasts are there? We were asked in an email: so we turned it into an article. The answer isn’t as straightforward as you’d think.

• Good news from Blubrry, which is to upgrade the storage limits of all advanced hosting plans from next week. As part of the increase, the company is withdrawing its no-fault podcast overage which effectively gave an additional 25% storage space, but the new storage limits are at least 60% bigger than the old.

• Bill Maher, a US comedian and host of HBO’s Real Time, is to launch a podcast. Club Random, hosted on Libsyn, will launch on Mar 21.

• Libsyn has announced #ClaimPodParity, a movement to accelerate the conversation around gender equality. The company will also work with podcast platforms to highlight podcasting led by women.

  • Related: an impressive use of Twitter, @paygapapp is retweeting any UK company who tweets about International Women’s Day with their gender pay gap. Some companies: Amazon Web Services, the UK tax office, the Natural History Museum, magazine publisher Haymarket, Access Hollywood, or IBM.

• Ever wanted to judge a podcast awards? If you’re Ireland, you may be in luck: The Irish Podcast Awards are looking for judges. Entries for your podcast open on Apr 11.

  
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• In El Economista, the founder of Dixo, Dany Saadia, is interviewed about the podcasting industry in Mexico, and says that the industry is “finally maturing” there.

  
  Sep 12 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

Moves and hires

• Rico Gagliano has been appointed as Head of Audio for Mubi, the streaming platform. It’s part of a push to increase the company’s podcast output.

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• Bryan Moffett is to become SVP of Network Growth for NPR, as well as retaining his role as COO of National Public Media, which handles corporate sponsorship sales for NPR and member stations. Moffett’s new team will focus on engaging “younger and more diverse audiences” through podcasts and other on-demand audio, reports Current.

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• Joel Sucherman is to become VP of Audio Platform Strategy. He’s been with NPR since 2010.

Sep 12 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.
• Alex Goffinski has been hired as associate producer and songwriter for WNYC’s Radiolab. He’ll also apparently be producing on “an offshoot of the station’s Radiolab program that will be geared toward children”.

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Tips and tricks

• Matthew McLean focuses on three reasons why your Blue Yeti sounds bad. One reason - you’re probably talking into the wrong bit. (The Blue Yeti, much maligned by some podcasters, is actually pretty good if you use it properly.)

Podcast News

Hyve Time is a brand new podcast all about the business of beekeeping. The host Mike James plans to bring listeners all the buzz about the beekeeping world, and interviews other business owners to find out what busy beekeepers can learn to keep everything sweet.

The Defrag is a daily news podcast for you if you’d like “news at the intersection of technology, business, politics, and science”. Out every morning at the same time as Podnews’s own podcast, it, too, is from Australia. James Cridland, Podnews’s Editor, was a guest a few days ago talking about social podcasting apps.