• Union members at The Ringer and Spotify Studios (formerly Gimlet Media and Parcast) reached tentative agreements with Spotify on new collective bargaining agreements one week after their previous contract expired. After over two months of bargaining, the tentative deals call for 5.7% pay increases, which union staffers say is higher than inflation.

• Price Brothers launched Contextual Advertising for host-read podcast ads using AI. The service creates more relevant and engaging ads using dynamic targeting and voice cloning.
  
  
  

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• Podcast Frenzy: Riding the Wave of Ever-Increasing Popularity is KS&R's new report. The report is based on an online survey of 5,000 13-76-year-olds in March and April 2023. With 28% watching less TV and 24% browsing social media less, podcasting appears to be replacing traditional media consumption.

• The Actively Established Podcast Report found 3.3% more podcasts last month. Over 120,000 independent interview podcasts are active, up 5.6%.
  
  
  
  

• LiSTNR's AdTech Hub offers agencies and brands digital audio commercial opportunities. This suite uses LiSTNR's owned and operated model and 1.8 million+ listeners.

• With YouTube and TikTok boosting podcasting with video, Acast saw a 46% increase in multichannel advertisers in 2023. Through our in-house creative agency, Acast Creative, Acast has led podcast advertising with omnichannel campaigns for six years.

• Colorado Public Radio announced its largest downsizing in 25 years on Wednesday. The 15-person cut affected audio and podcast production.

• With show categories including gaming, true crime, fandom, comedy, and food, Warner Bros. Discovery has announced it will close its video division, which has targeted Gen Z and Millennials. The Roost, the podcast network owned by the young-adult-focused Rooster Teeth, is being shopped.
  
  
  
  

Flightpath Gives Publishers Tools to Support Baked In Sales via Dynamic Ad Insertion

Flightpath, a pioneer in podcast ad optimization software, today unveiled their latest technological breakthrough aimed at improving the reliability of episode targeted podcast ad sales and inventory management. With this new capability, Flightpath has expanded their industry-leading availability, triage alerts, and projected performance tools to fully support ‘faked in’ or episode-targeted placements across supported podcast platforms.

“With buyers who prefer baked-in placements, podcast publishers are turning to episode-targeted ads using Dynamic Ad Insertion [DAI],” explains Sean Howard, CEO of Flightpath. “Promising an episode locked placement is easy, but DAI makes living up to these promises difficult. Buyers expect these placements to be served in every download or listen within a set time period. Flightpath surfaces any problems that will impact delivery in addition to exposing any oversold events in the future.”

These alerts and reports work on all supported DAI platforms and free up sales and operations to offer these placements with confidence, while also maintaining the significant revenue opportunities from traditional DAI placements.

• Libsyn has promoted Rick Selah to Executive VP of Sales for Libsyn’s AdvertiseCast. Selah has served as Executive VP of Content Partnerships at Libsyn since 2022 and, in in his new role, he will be responsible for spearheading the expansion of the AdvertiseCast marketplace and driving revenue growth.

• Hollywood producer Will Packer's production and branded content company, Will Packer Media, is partnering with iHeartPodcasts to launch a Tiffany D. Cross series.

• As of this week, Emily Tisch Sussman will be releasing the third season of her She Pivots podcast on the iHeartPodcast Network.
  
  
  

WGA East Members at Spotify Studios and The Ringer Reach Tentative Agreements With Spotify

Writers Guild of America East members at Spotify Studios (formerly Gimlet Media and Parcast) and The Ringer have both reached tentative agreements with Spotify on new collective bargaining agreements.

Two of the first podcast production companies to unionize with the WGAE, both bargaining units made important gains in wages and achieved first-of-their-kind protections against Artificial Intelligence (AI) during negotiations for their second union contracts.

The tentative agreements will now go to the Spotify Studios Union, The Ringer Union and the WGAE Council for ratification votes. Details of each collective bargaining agreement will be made public upon ratification.

The Spotify Studios Union shared, “After more than two months of bargaining, we’re delighted to announce that we’ve agreed to a new contract with Spotify. Thanks to the solidarity and strength of our union, we secured pay increases that are on average an inflation-beating 5.7% across the unit. We also made gains on severance, won new protections for employees who are on visas, and secured groundbreaking AI safeguards. To win these gains, 100% of Gimlet Union employees signed a strike pledge and were prepared to walk. 100% of Parcast Union employees signed this strike pledge in solidarity.

This contract also marks a new chapter: beginning with the ratification of this agreement, the Gimlet and Parcast Unions will join together to become The Spotify Studios Union.

Our joint unit went into these negotiations battered by brutal rounds of layoffs. So many of our talented colleagues were cast aside in a restructuring that was only necessary because of decisions made by Spotify leadership. Still, during the course of negotiations, Spotify Studios Union members came together and found a unified voice to defend our rights as workers.”

The Ringer Union bargaining committee said, “The Ringer Union bargaining committee is proud to recommend a contract that includes necessary wage increases for lower-paid members of our unit, severance and layoff protections in an industry that’s been hit so hard, and key safeguards against the creep of Artificial Intelligence into our work. We could not have won this hard-fought contract without the solidarity of our members and our fellow WGAE shop unions at Gimlet and Parcast. Our union remains united in the face of industry changes and we look forward to continuing to build solidarity through the life of this contract.”

Based in New York, Gimlet has produced such popular shows as THE JOURNAL, SCIENCE VS, EVERY LITTLE THING, REPLY ALL, THE JOURNAL, CRIME SHOW and many more. The Ringer has produced such popular shows as THE BILL SIMMONS PODCAST, NFL SHOW, NBA SHOW, BANDSPLAIN, THE REWATCHABLES and many more.

If you’re weary of political polarization, nothing is more refreshing than nuanced thinking: ideas that reveal the complexity of what’s wrong in the world and how to make it better. But where does such thinking come from? Often, it’s from someone changing their mind—letting go of an old perspective and growing into a new one. Join executive coach Amiel Handelsman as he interviews nuanced thinkers about the origin stories of their big ideas. Each story offers a window into one of humanity’s greatest challenges like climate change, democracy, the culture wars, the wealth gap, Ukraine, and Israel. In weeks between interviews, Amiel offers tips for training your mind to navigate complex topics and difficult conversations.

 We'd like to recommend a good podcast to our readers. Just click here.
 

This section is updated regularly. View more, feel free to add yours.

Here are our current featured roles. Check the job board for more jobs and some freelance gigs.

• History Hit is on the lookout for a Senior Audio Producer with a passion for history to work closely with the Head of Podcasts and manage a slate of podcasts.

• Global Situation Room, inc looking to hire a multi-platform Podcast Producer and Editor for three high-profile podcasts.

• Audacity is hiring a Part-time Sports Podcast Producer. Candidates should possess good and basic Audio board operation skills, digital editing abilities AND be able to multi-task in a fast-paced environment

Please mention Podworks.io or Podwires in your application.

Do you need to hire for your podcast? Here's where you can post a job (for free). Come hang out with us at podworks.io if you are a professional podcast producer!

This section is updated regularly. View more, feel free to add yours.

• Join us for our AI & Creator Tools Summit to stay ahead of the game with various AI tools!

• The Podcast Show London is back, and from May 24–25, it will unite thousands of podcast enthusiasts from around the world under one roof at the Business Design Centre in Islington.

• The 2024 International Women's Podcast Awards will return on Wednesday, June 19. Podcasters, audio professionals, and podcast enthusiasts will gather at the IET London: Savoy Place for this 4th annual event to celebrate women in podcasting. A global livestream will be available.

• Podcast PR Workshop: Maximum Exposure on A Minimum Budget (Part 2) Join us in person at the Podcast Garage in KQED for a workshop with Maya Chupkov, host, producer, creator, and editor of multi-award winning podcast Proud Stutter, to learn DIY PR tips and tricks plus what’s actually worth spending money on.

• The Podcast Show London is back for its third edition and showing no signs of slowing down. Once again, it will bring together thousands from the global podcast community under one roof at the Business Design Centre, Islington, 22-23 May. 

• Radio Days North America, June 2-4, Toronto, with a Podcast Power-Up Summit on Sunday, June 2. Signal Hill's Paul Riismandel and Matt Hird will both be speaking.

• This summer, Crossed Wires festival will bring together the nation's top podcasters for a weekend in one city. From Friday 31st May to Sunday 2nd June, Sheffield's most iconic venues will host blockbuster lives shows, never-before-seen performances, and special guests hosted by the biggest podcasters in comedy, current affairs, culture, sport, family, and wellbeing.

  This section is updated regularly. View more, feel free to add yours.
  

Articles and videos from around the podcast community that you might find interesting, as well as some people to check out, are included in this section.

👉  In his most recent blog post, "The Podcast Academy," Charlie Ocean discussed podcast mentors and how to avoid making costly mistakes when providing cross-cultural mentoring.

👉 Paul Riismandel writes an interesting article about the value of measuring the upper Funnel for podcast ads

👉 The creator of Parcast, Max Cutler, wrote a post on LinkedIn discussing how podcasting seems to be moving towards video and complimenting YouTube's podcast experience.

Welcome to the Podcaster Toolbox, a crowd-sourced resource for independent, DIY, and/or beginning home-based podcasters.

The Kangaroofern Media Lab team will review the resources submitted here and add them as soon as possible to the Podcaster Toolbox.

• 🏜️ Transistor.fm - is a powerful and simple podcasting platform. The ability to host multiple podcasts on one account makes it ideal for podcasters with multiple shows.

• 🎙️ Acast - is a podcast hosting service that enables you to publish, share, and earn money from your podcasts.

• 🎧 Epidemic Sound - is a company that provides content producers with access to a sizable library of royalty-free music.

• 🚗 Niceboard - modern job board software, helps communities and organisations create and manage job boards.

• 📼 Tubebuddy - is a complete tool for YouTube channel management and growth.

• 📹 VidIQ - is a website for learning that focuses on offering video tutorials and analytics to aid users in expanding their YouTube channels.

The complete Toolbox can be seen at https://www.podworks.io/toolbox

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