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• Instead of bargaining with employees, Google hucked the table into the sky. YouTube Music employees who were in a tense union fight with Google were laid off this week while testifying before Austin City Council.

• Transcripts for Apple Podcasts are a cutting-edge new feature that Apple unveiled today that improves accessibility and user experience.
  
  
  

• Based on estimates provided by Magellan AI, AT&T ranked tenth in the category for podcast advertising during the fourth quarter, having spent $6.5 million on the medium. In order for the 100-year-old company to connect with consumers in the modern era, Kellyn Kenny, Chief Marketing and Growth Officer at AT&T, says the company needs to find new approaches to allocate its media budget.

• 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.

• AM/FM radio remains the most popular mass reach media in America, according to Nielsen's recently released Total Audience Report from Q3 2023. AM/FM radio outperforms social media, online video, TV, and internet-connected devices among adults (18 and over).

• New Audio Advertising Study Finds Personalized AI-Generated Ads Are 22% More Effective at Increasing Brand Favorability.
  
  
  

• Who Listens to the Radio?, the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia's first podcast, premieres today with Wendy Harmer, Benjamin Law, Sally Cockburn (Dr Feelgood), Fenella Kernebone, Christopher Gilbey, and others.

• New Audio Advertising Study Finds Personalized AI-Generated Ads Are 22% More Effective at Increasing Brand Favorability.

• Acast launches the new podcast series Nordic Crimes - Nordic crime in a global format - with Nils Bergman, the creator of Sweden's largest commercial podcast, Rättegångspodden

• The February rankings for the Top US Podcast Publishers and Podcasts and Global Publishers & Networks are now available. The average monthly unique audience in the United States for the top 20 publishers decreased by 3% month-over-month and by 4% since January 2023.

• The Podcast Academy, the preeminent professional podcast organization, announced today that season 3 winner of “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” Trixie Mattel will host its fourth annual Awards for Excellence in Audio (The Ambies) on March 26 at the JW Marriott LA Live Los Angeles.

• Public media organization PRX is announcing new fundraising resources available to stations across the public radio system.
  
  
  
  

Why podcast companies are investing in AI-generated podcast translations despite questionable quality

By the end of this quarter, iHeartMedia hopes to have translated five to ten of its current shows into multiple languages using generative AI tools, as per their January announcement. However, the business has rescheduled that deadline.

iHeartMedia is now shooting to launch those translated shows by the end of the first half of 2024, a company spokesperson told Digiday.

“We have been experimenting. It’s getting better. Not quite to the level we need it to be to say, ‘Let’s roll it out.’ But it’s making fast-paced gains in terms of the quality. And we anticipate probably this year that we’ll get stuff of that quality… But we’ll know a lot more by probably the next couple of earnings calls,” iHeartMedia’s CEO Bob Pittman said in a fourth quarter earnings call on Feb. 29. [ By Sara Guagliione - source]

• 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.
  
  
  

Twitter/X Usage
Sees Sharp Decline

We are busy prepping our 2024 Infinite Dial® study to be presented onstage at Podcast Movement Evolutions on March 28 with support from Audacy, Cumulus Media, and SiriusXM Media, and we thought you might want to have a sneak peek.

The Infinite Dial is a methodologically rigorous study of the U.S. population, tracking key measures in online and broadcast audio, podcasting, social media, and more.

Now needing a parenthetical moniker for clarity, the subject of this week’s insight is “X (formerly known as Twitter).”

In the Fall of 2022, Elon Musk took control over Twitter in a highly-publicized $44 billion acquisition and in April of last year renamed it X. The Infinite Dial survey this year shows a dramatic decrease in the number of people who are using the service in the U.S.

In 2022 and 2023, 27% of the total population in the U.S. reported using Twitter. In the 2024 Infinite Dial, 19% of the total population in the U.S. are using “X (formerly known as Twitter),” a 30% drop. [ Edison Research - Source ]

Hosted by Bill Burke, founder of The Optimism Institute, this weekly podcast will feature inspiring leaders, authors, researchers, and big thinkers who are taking on some of our world’s toughest challenges with an infectious sense of optimism. Blue Sky takes its name from the meditation reminder that there’s always blue sky above, sometimes you just have to get your head above the clouds to see it.

 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 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.

👉 Jeff Vidler latest’s blog about podcasting Advertising effectiveness : getting a wide-angle view

👉 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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