James Cridland's PodNews For Wednesday, July 1

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Wednesday, July 1

Riverside 2.0 begins to roll out today, which the company calls the biggest update in its history - with a new fully rebuilt recording studio and AI editor, social scheduling to automatically post to every channel, motion graphics in the video editor, and an upcoming MCP integration to connect AI assistants like Claude or ChatGPT (here’s the waitlist). No longer just a remote recording tool, Riverside’s Mac app will do in-person multicam recording too; and because you’re only truly fashionable if you have your own newsletter, Riverside has added that as well, with an automatic publishing tool. The company says it’s the “first agentic platform to span the entire creative workflow”, and says that it takes just minutes after a recording session finishes to automatically deliver a rough cut, short-form clips, a newsletter, and a posting calendar. It’s a three-week rollout, with a number of features launching today.


Happy Canada Day. The podcast Gloves Off was only intended to be a limited series last year, but it’s back for a new season from today, after being honoured at the Webby Awards and becoming one of the most listened-to podcasts in Canada. This year, it’ll also be available in video, as well as an after show, called Cross Check; and focuses on lessons Canada could adopt to form alliances with other middle powers.


One of the largest buyers of audio and podcast advertising, Ad Results Media (ARM) has been acquired by Miroma Group. No terms were given; we’re told it’s the biggest expansion into the US market by Miroma, “increasing the group’s annual media investment to more than $750 million”.

✅There's More:  HERE

Tuesday, June 30

Want to power-up your podcast? Starting tomorrow, a 30-day Podcast Power-Up Challenge will give you ways to do that. You get a prompt (via email and Slack), it’ll just take 10-15 minutes a day, you’ll gain valuable skills by the end of it, we’re told: and you’ll join a community of like-minded podcasters. Run by Hall of Famer Arielle Nissenblatt, it’s free to take part.


Apple Podcasts released “Creators We Love: UK & Ireland”, a feature in the Apple Podcasts app which “celebrates some of the UK and Ireland’s most influential, entertaining, and trailblazing voices in podcasting”. The five shows selected are NewlyParents, The Receipts Podcast, I’m Grand Mam, Happy Place, and The High Performance Podcast. All shows are in video on Apple Podcasts; and all are hosted by Acast.


Got something you want to share at one of the biggest gatherings for podcasting in the world? You have until the end of today to submit a session for Podcast Movement NYC.

The podcast business is worth $9.2 billion globally. Owl & Co’s Global Podcast Economy Report looks at the entire industry across five revenue streams, not just audio ads. Alongside the public data, the company has announced a Subscriber edition, which includes M&A data, revenue estimates and valuations; we’re told PODNEWS10 will currently save 10% off individual or qualifying team access.


What happens when you add captions to your podcast video on YouTube? Headliner surveyed 250 podcasters, and discovered that most of them reported higher view counts as a result. Research shows that 85% of people watch video on mute. (For what it’s worth, the Podnews Weekly Review spotted an increase in view counts after we turned captions on).


✅There's More: HERE

Monday, June 29

Podcasts are becoming multiplatform - audio, video, short-form, social and newsletters - and audiences are switching between them. That’s one of the findings of a new piece of research: The Podcast Atlas by Sounds Profitable, which gets covered in a free webinar this Wednesday. The data also covers the benefits of podcast newsletters (not this one) - which “create direct, owned relationships that are independent of platform algorithms. Among newsletter subscribers, 87% said podcast newsletters lead them to listen to episodes”.

• We also learn that audio and video listeners demonstrated nearly identical episode completion rates.

The winners of the Scottish Podcast Awards were announced. The Podcast of the Year went to comedy show The Ford & Shelby Show.


iHeartMedia announced an expanded relationship with Amazon Ads. iHeartMedia customers can now leverage Amazon DSP; iHeart is also a local reseller of its audio and video inventory.

From podcast producers Collision Productions, Castly has launched a tool that turns a podcast RSS feed into a podcast website. The French service charges €9.99 a month (about US $11.50); there’s a free tier, and you can see how it looks for your podcast almost instantly.


In the US, cable news network MS NOW is to expand the amount of podcasts that it airs on weekend evenings. The move will lead to job cuts, including the departure of the network’s longest-serving anchor, Alex Witt, who has been on the channel, formerly known as MSNBC, since 1999.

Thursday, June 11

Ahead of the Jun 26 closing date for this year’s award entries, The Signal Awards has published a new report, Recognizing The Risk Takers: Eleven Podcasters Making Bold Bets; the report features creators from WaitWhat to Psychopedia to Lower Street, each of whom made a bet on experimentation and are sharing what they’ve learned. “The willingness to experiment, it turns out, is its own form of excellence,” the report finds.


In the UK, Global has launched AdPower - the first self-service ad platform to let you book both mainstream audio and outdoor media. The tool gives access to live and on-demand radio, but not, yet, to Global’s podcasts - they’ll be added later, we’re told.


In the next version of iOS, Apple Podcasts video will add transcription features that, until now, have been only available in audio podcasts. An Apple spokesperson tells us that from iOS 27 - “Video playback will, for the first time, support read along with transcripts with the ability to search and seek to a specific part of the episode by clicking the transcript text. Chapters are also available for ease of navigation.”

What is the Podcast Standards Project? How does it differ from AMP, Podcasting 2.0, or any of the other industry groups? Now, there’s an explanation - including a video.


One of the most successful podcasters in the world, Adam Buxton, is producing a new podcast for Audible, called Successpod. The (very good) video spots have been shared, and you can see them here. The press release excitedly tells us that “the campaign breaks today on paid social and YouTube pre-rolls, DOOH and radio.” (You’d have thought that advertising on podcasts would be a good place for this too, but, what do we know.)

✅There's More: HERE