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smith-journalism-news-publishers-local.html">Why the Success of The New York Times May Be Bad News for Journalism

The New York Times is in talks to purchase Serial Productions (the producers of the breakout hit podcast Serial).

From Ben Smith on nytimes.com:

The gulf between The Times and the rest of the industry is vast and keeps growing: The company now has more digital subscribers than The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and the 250 local Gannett papers combined, according to the most recent data. And The Times employs 1,700 journalists — a huge number in an industry where total employment nationally has fallen to somewhere between 20,000 and 38,000.

The rise of The Times from wounded giant to reigning colossus has been as breathtaking as that of any start-up. As recently as 2014, print advertising was collapsing and the idea that subscribers would pay enough to support the company’s expensive global news gathering seemed like a pipe dream.

The paper is now quietly shopping for dominance in an adjacent industry: audio. The Times is in exclusive talks to acquire Serial Productions, the breakthrough podcast studio that has attracted more than 300 million downloads.

The purchase requires deep pockets: Serial was for sale at a valuation of about $75 million, according to two people who were briefed on the deal, though The Times is expected to pay significantly less. (The Wall Street Journal first reported last month that Serial was for sale.)

The deal, along with The Daily, the popular weekday podcast at The Times, could form the basis for an ambitious new paid product — like the company’s Cooking and Crossword apps — that executives believe could become the HBO of podcasts.

There’s a big challenge here: Podcast listeners are used to podcasts being free.

However, if anyone can get people to pay for podcasts, it would be the New York Times. High quality podcasts in combination with their print or digital news would make a NYT subscription a no-brainer for a lot of people.

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2

Meet Simplecast’s Moveable Audio Engine

From Simplecast CEO Brad Smith on Simplecast’s Medium blog:

A big part of our past six months has been tightly focused on developing a product to help creators and businesses more efficiently monetize audio content. At our core, we believe data brings value to more than just advertising dollars. Data drives insights which creates better content! So, when it came to DAI (dynamic ad insertion),we applied those exact same principals and beliefs.

Simplecast’s Moveable Audio Engine (MAE, pronounced just like May) allows publishers to dynamically deliver advertisements and host-read content, a personalized show opening for a geographic region, or back catalog promotions to first-time listeners. We don’t call it DAI because, well, it is becoming so much more.

In the coming months, MAE will integrate with our previously mentioned patent-pending listener measurement, allowing publishers to deliver dynamic content based on cross-podcast listening behavior and content preferences, while also providing the foundation for our attribution measurement tools. Yet where standard ad delivery requires standard ad practices, MAE arrives fully-featured — ready to deliver advertisements to pre, mid or post-rolls. Set multiple markers, stack ads to compete based on priority, run in order or randomized, even deliver your impressions evenly paced or as fast as possible. If there’s a buzzword you desire, MAE will have you covered.

Yet it’s beyond these standard use cases where MAE’s brilliance will shine. Imagine delivering a unique monologue to your NYC-based listeners, while the rest of the world hears another. For podcasters who tour and offer live tapings, geo-targeted promos will change your game. Run multiple host-reads for the same advertiser, ensuring that your audience won’t hear the same version twice. Deliver a different set of ads to a specific app or deliver with no ads at all. MAE has a bright roadmap for the year. And coming later this month, we’ll further flex MAE’s muscles–unveiling a huge industry first for dynamic podcast content. It’s absolutely fantastic, and I cannot wait to share.

The best podcast hosting and tech platform keeps getting better. I was fortunate enough to get to watch the Simplecast team build this tool, and I’m looking forward to seeing how podcasters use it.

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3

The Role Of Podcasting In The Upskilling Era

From Jen Grogono on forbes.com:

A whopping 94% of employees said they would stay at their current companies longer if their employers took an active role in their learning and development, contradicting the idea that employees leave once they have new skills.

So, how can we upskill effectively? Enterprise podcasting on private corporate audio channels, can breathe life back into your training curriculums. With the popularity of consumer podcasts and media platforms such as YouTube and Spotify, it’s no surprise that today’s generation is more accustomed to flexing auditory muscles in their everyday lives in terms of how they learn and communicate with each other.

With private podcasting, you can engage employees on their own schedules, which is great for global workforces or for those who are always commuting. Training content can be consumed even when Wi-Fi access is limited, as employees are able to download podcast episodes for later listening. Not to mention, the ability to replay episodes as often as needed ensures that employees can revisit content for learning refreshers or additional guidance.

The podcasting medium has the ability to present microlearnings in bite-sized chunks, something that should be essential for skilling and upskilling. One large concept can be broken up into smaller features, making it easier for your employees to get consistent training in an era where we are busier than ever and time seems to disappear.

Not only do you need to create relevant training content for skilling and upskilling, but more importantly, you need to know if that content is actually working. Private podcasts are measurable, and named-user analytics can confirm that any required training is actually consumed by certain individuals. By always monitoring private podcast analytics, employers can continually make changes to produce the best performing training material for their workforce.

The above benefits can help increase your employees’ learning outcomes and make a real contribution to your business’s bottom line. In an era when adaptation is key to a corporation's survival, many do not realize that it is key on the individual front as well. In order for employees to adapt and stay useful to the organization, they must constantly learn and grow. And private podcasting might just be the answer.

Training and education in podcast from is not just a good strategy for employees retention and upskilling, I think it works well for customer acquisition as well.

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4

What we learned from the Substack writers gathering in New York

Last month, we hosted our first Substack writer gathering in New York City. We were thrilled by the turnout, as well as the broad range of topics that attendees covered, tackling everything from wrestling to Excel.

We also invited a few writers to speak about their experiences on Substack: Delia Cai, Emily Atkin, Terrell Johnson, and Walt Hickey. Afterwards, we invited all four up to take questions from the audience. The session was filled with insights and we wanted to share the lessons with people outside the room, too. So we’ve summarized the highlights here.

Loads of great insights in this article that are applicable to podcasting too. Questions answered include:


• How often should writers publish?
• If you’ve hit a plateau with your audience growth, how do you break through to the next phase?
• How do you grow your email list to sufficient size before you turn on paid? And as someone who wants to do this full-time, did you have a plan if it fell flat?
• What’s the best way to incorporate interviews? Should you publish them behind a paywall, since the interviewee won’t be able to share it as widely?
• To what extent have you changed your writing based on audience feedback? Was there anything where the audience really helped you shape it?
• What’s one thing that’s surprised you during this experience?
• Have you had any success with paid user acquisition?
• How do you measure success, beyond number of subscribers and emails?

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5

Podcast Editing: The Ultimate Guide

From Matthew McLean on thepodcasthost.com:

Podcast editing. For complete beginners, it can be an intimidating barrier to launching a show. Many aspiring podcasters procrastinate worrying on how they’ll actually edit their podcast episodes, prior to publishing them.

But it’s actually never been easier to either edit audio yourself, or to find someone (or something) else to do it for you.

What’s more, there’s nothing to say that you absolutely need to edit your podcast, or exactly how you should do it. It all depends on your own approach, content, and audience.

Here, I’d like to run through the various podcast editing options available to you.

These will depend on your budget, time constraints, and whether or not you prefer to learn new skills, or to outsource the stuff you’ve no interest in doing yourself.

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6

Every Podcast Editing and Recording Software, Ranked

Want to record and edit a podcast? You’ll need a Digital Audio Workstation, but with so many options, you’ll have to shop around first.

Most DAWs can record and edit, but the advanced features may vary from one to the next. Some programs only record audio, while others can automatically edit your audio through an algorithm. You can record, edit, and master your podcast manually, or you can pay someone to do it.

I’ve compiled a list of popular recording and editing software below. Some are only for professionals; others are affordable and easy to use. It’s up to you, of course, but take a look and pick one that best fits your needs.

Very thorough list. If you’re serious about podcasting and learning audio production and post-production, and you have a Mac, my vote goes to Logic Pro X.

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What do you think makes an amazing podcast ad?

I saw this post on Twitter from Josh Kaplan. He asked:

what do you think makes an amazing podcast ad? our @bizcasualpod team is figuring out how to make the audio ad experience enjoyable/informative and we could use all the feedback we can get.

Check out the responses and let Josh know what you think makes an amazing podcast ad.

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8

Transition from radio to podcasting

The main two things keeping radio talent from committing to a career change are a lack of confidence in certain aspects of launching a podcast or stream and a lack of a regular salary. Even with the understanding that radio companies have been slashing salaries and budgets for well over a decade now, the lack of a guaranteed salary seems a bridge too far. Talent has accepted that radio companies see more value in cost savings than in their own ability to monetize talent and content.

I’d like to share what we’ve learned from these recent conversations in the hopes that you can consider moving forward with some of these ideas today, whether you are employed or unemployed.

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9

Podcast Recommendation: How Twitter uses a podcast to court advertisers

From Simon Owens’s Business of Content podcast:

In its most recent earnings report, Twitter revealed that it has over 139 million daily users, but the company’s first podcast, which it launched in 2019, was designed to only appeal to a tiny fraction of those users. The show is called Character Count and is hosted by Joe Wadlington, a creative lead in the department that helps educate small businesses on how to leverage Twitter in their marketing.

And that’s the focus of Character Count: highlighting some of the most effective ways in which businesses utilize Twitter. Recent guests have worked for Dungeons and Dragons, Grindr, and Dropbox.

I recently interviewed Wadlington about his podcast strategy and the role the show plays in helping improve Twitter’s bottom line.

Subscribe to The Business of Content if you haven’t yet. This episode with Joe Wadlington was full of great insights about podcasting and how a podcast can help achieve business goals.

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Closing Thoughts

As COVID-19 spreads across North America and the rest of the world, I’m packing up to move to Los Angeles next weekend. Wish me luck! Wash your hands and stay safe out there.

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This show was produced by me, Aaron Dowd.Music and SM7B illustration by Sean McCabe.Hosting and technology by Simplecast.