Welcome to The Podcast News, a new weekly news show for podcast producers. My name is Aaron Dowd, and I'll be your host this week.

I'd like to share with you a few interesting articles and stories I found during week of November 9th.

This week: Pacific Content writes about what makes a great podcast host, Google and PRX launch a new Podcasting 101 series, and I'd like to know: Are you listening to podcasts on your smart home speaker?

I share AIR's rates list for podcast engineering and composition with someone from Reddit, podcasters shared their top frustrations with the folks at the Hot Pod newsletter, and more.

1

First, an article from Pacific Content: content.com/what-makes-a-great-podcast-host-a40d432d05fc">What makes a great podcast host? A checklist for brands

I thought this was a great article, both for people looking to hire a podcast host to produce a show, but also for anyone interesting in doing podcast hosting for a job.

Dan Misener writes: “I’ve worked with many different brands to help develop many different podcasts. In every single show development session, these questions always come up:

• Who should host our show?
• Do we hire a celebrity?
• Do we choose someone internally?
• Should my boss be the host?

_It’s an important choice. A good host plays a crucial role in the success of any podcast._”

Good stuff.

Here are some of the things they look for :

• A spirit of partnership
• Performance skills
• Storytelling skills
• Interviewing skills
• Credibility and subject area expertise
• An audience of their own

Definitely bookmark that one.

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2

Google and PRX are Launching the Podcasting 101 Series

A 10-part instructional video series to support early-stage podcasters around the world, from PRX and the Google Podcasts creator program.

Hosted by podcast veterans Luvvie Ajayi, author of the New York Times best-seller I’m Judging You: The Do-Better Manual and host of the Rants & Randomness and Jesus & Jollof podcasts, and Sean Rameswaram, host of Vox Media’s daily news podcast Today, Explained, this video series is subtitled and transcribed in Spanish, Hindi, French, Arabic and Portuguese to reach podcasters anywhere.

I'm always happy to see high-quality tutorials about podcasting.

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3

From The Verge: After five years of Amazon’s Alexa, why isn’t it better? Alexa’s functionality is miles wide but inches deep

James Vincent writes:

“I started using an Echo speaker not long after it became available in the UK, and after messing around with some lackluster skills on Amazon’s haunted house of an app store, I quickly settled on a few key use cases: playing music and radio, setting timers, and occasionally asking about the weather and Wikipedia-level trivia. Years later, I still have an Echo, and I still use it for the exact same tasks. Nothing has changed. Don’t get me wrong, I think the Echo performs these functions pretty well. But like many users, I’ve learned that posing any trickier queries is asking for trouble.”

I'm curious, how do you use smart speakers in your home?

I currently have a HomePod in my kitchen that I'll occasionally stream podcasts to from my iPhone. But other than that, I mostly just ask it to play me news from NPR or the latest episode of the Daily in the morning while I make coffee or breakfast. Most of my podcast listening happens through headphones or in my car.

Seems like smart speakers may be nice for listening to shows you already know and enjoy, but I can't imagine ever discovering new content on one.

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4

From Reddit: Any guides on rates for producing podcasts?

User /touchtheclouds asks:

I am having trouble finding rates/prices for producing podcasts. Can anyone link me to a site or forum with some sort of insight or breakdown on this topic? Or does anyone have any personal experience out there?

I have been offered an opportunity to produce a podcast for a high profile bank in a major city. I want to make sure the rate I give them is fair for both myself and the company.

This would involve travel to and from the city (an hour by train), setting up and breaking down their video/audio equipment, filming/audio engineering the podcast, then editing together a 45 minutes episode.

Not sure if I should charge per hour, per episode, what the rate should be, do include travel? Etc etc.

Any and all insights would be greatly appreciated.

I shared a link to AIR Media's Rate Guide for Engineering and Composition, and there was some great discussion in the thread about pricing, and how clients prefer to be billed on a per-episode basis.

Worth a read through if you're a producer or editor, or if you'd like to get into working in the podcasting industry.

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5

From Nieman Lab: As Hot Pod turns 5, these are the problems podcasters are most frustrated by

The podcast industry is bigger, richer, more professionalized, and more corporate than when Hot Pod launched five years ago today. Here are the worries that’ll need to be addressed in the next five years.

I saw Nick from the always entertaining Hot Pod newsletter put out the question (what are you most frustrated by?) a few weeks ago, and I've been looking forward to seeing the results ever since.

I thought about it for awhile, but didn't respond to the inquiry.

But those responses: Man. Check those out if you want to understand the struggles of the people who are making podcasts or helping other people make them.

Here are a couple of the ones that stood out to me:

1. It is so hard to get people to know my show exists. I’ve tried everything to boost my numbers…it’s so hard to promote yourself above the sea of podcasts, especially if you’re not a new buzzy show.

2. Lack of ways to monetize expensive shows to produce (and by the way traditional CPM model doesn’t take into consideration the quality of the content or cost to make).

3. In larger corporations that have decided to add a podcasting arm, or attempted to get into the industry, most people being put into positions of power are people with little to no experience actually producing podcasts — or even audio of any kind. This means that often you end up working for people who have no idea how labor-intensive it is to produce a podcast, how much it costs, how to market or promote a podcast, how to monetize a podcast. This means constantly having to educate people who are above you in the hierarchy, and wasting a lot of time trying things that you know will not work, or producing less-than-ideal-quality work, or making bad business deals or over-promising clients.

I feel you. For reals, I know it's tough out there.

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6

From Josh Kaplan on Medium: Lessons learned from selling Morning Brew’s first podcast ads

Morning Brew just started monetizing our first podcast. Turns out, it’s low key very different than selling newsletter ads. Newsletter ads are fun! We write the ad, the partner approves it, we send the newsletter to an exact number of people and we show success via open rates, click throughs and brand lift surveys. Podcast ads are… not so easy. In order for publishers to make the best experience for listeners and profit, we have some work to do. So here’s some baseline knowledge we have recently collected and a few of my initial observations.

Good things to keep in mind if you're considering trying to monetizing your show with ads.

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Closing thoughts:

• I love the new Airpods Pro.
• From Reddit: If sound could travel through empty space, we'd be able to hear the sun at 125 decibels from Earth's surface. In comparison, 120 decibels is a train horn about one meter away from you.
• Little bit about this show: The plan is to release new episodes every Saturday. I'm also going to continue to publish normal episodes as I can over on The Podcast Dude (my original show for podcasters).
• I'm thinking about providing a 30-60 second time spot in each episode for a podcast classified ad or sponsor. If you're interested in sponsoring the show or purchasing a classified ad spot, get in touch via email.
• Thanks for listening! Please share the show with a friend, rate it in Apple Podcasts, and send feedback, thoughts, and cool stories/articles to aaron@thepodcastdude.com.

Have a great week, and happy podcasting.

Aaron DowdNovember 9, 2019

https://thepodcastnews.simplecast.com

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