Podcast Perspectives

2023 has been a tough year for a lot of people in the podcast industry. Years of investment in the space looks to be slowing down, and dozens of companies are reeling because of it. It’s clear to most that the business side of podcasting will have to be more intentional moving forward.To discuss this transition, I’m speaking with Jenna Weiss-Berman, Head of Podcasts at Audacy. Jenna has seen it all in podcasting, from her beginnings in public radio, to co-founding the wildly successful Pineapple Street Studios, and now working as the Head of Podcasts at one of the largest global audio distributors. Her voice carries a lot of weight in the industry.Despite some of the rough indicators we’re seeing, Jenna maintains an optimistic vision for the industry. Like me, she loves podcasts, and in her senior position is finding ways to make them sustainably and at-scale. In our conversation she explains how she’s going about that, the challenges in doing so, and what a sustainable podcast industry could look like.To find more from Jenna you can find her on Twitter @WBJenna or see what she’s up to at Audacy at audacy.com. I’m on all the socials @JeffUmbro The Podglomerate offers production, distribution, and monetization services for dozens of new and industry-leading podcasts. Whether you’re just beginning or a seasoned podcaster, we offer what you need. To find more about The Podglomerate:– Show Page and Transcript: https://listen.podglomerate.com/show/podcast-perspectives– YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Podglomeratepods– Email: listen@thepodglomerate.com – LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/podglomerate– Twitter: @podglomerate – Instagram: @podglomeratepods Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Like the rest of the world, podcasting is becoming a global business. However here in the Anglophone world, we don’t hear much about what’s going on in other podcasting markets like LATAM, India, China, let alone create content to serve these markets. Folks like Lory Martinez, founder and CEO of Studio Ochenta, are here to help bridge that gap. Studio Ochenta is a multilingual podcast agency currently operating in 27 languages, both creating original series and working with clients on adaptations.In our conversation Lory and I cover a lot of ground: how her team “adapts” shows rather than “translating them,” the state of podcasting in some of the major language markets, and why the English-speaking podcast world should be paying attention to all this.To check out what Lory and her team are up to, you can visit their website ochentastudio.com.I’m on all the socials @JeffUmbro The Podglomerate offers production, distribution, and monetization services for dozens of new and industry-leading podcasts. Whether you’re just beginning or a seasoned podcaster, we offer what you need. To find more about The Podglomerate:– Show Page and Transcript: https://listen.podglomerate.com/show/podcast-perspectives– YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Podglomeratepods– Email: listen@thepodglomerate.com – LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/podglomerate– Twitter: @podglomerate – Instagram: @podglomeratepods Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eric Nuzum has been on the front lines of the audio industry for more than 20 years. He was the man who helped NPR move into the podcast space, before heading to Audible to lead their original podcast development. Today, he is a co-founder of Magnificent Noise, a boutique production agency for huge brands. On top of his production and consulting work, he also writes about the audio industry in his newsletter, The Audio Insurgent.Eric and I chat about his coverage of the audio industry, his thoughts on the state of broadcasting and podcasting, and how he and his team at Magnificent Noise produce award-winning shows for their clients.To find more about Magnificent Noise you can visit their website magnificentnoise.com. You can also follow Eric’s newsletter The Audio Insurgent on Substack.I’m on all the socials @JeffUmbro The Podglomerate offers production, distribution, and monetization services for dozens of new and industry-leading podcasts. Whether you’re just beginning or a seasoned podcaster, we offer what you need. To find more about The Podglomerate:– Show Page and Transcript: https://listen.podglomerate.com/show/podcast-perspectives– YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Podglomeratepods– Email: listen@thepodglomerate.com – LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/podglomerate– Twitter: @podglomerate – Instagram: @podglomeratepods Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How do you reach your target audience? While this is a challenge for all podcasters, it’s especially important in the branded podcast space, where it’s often not always obvious who your listener is, let alone how to make a show they’d want to listen to.Quill and CoHost founder and CEO Fatima Zaidi is tackling this challenge. Quill is a branded podcast agency that produces, distributes and markets shows for Fortune 500 companies. CoHost is a podcast hosting platform (and recently a prefix) that provides analytics specifically designed for brands.To learn more about CoHost you can visit their website cohostpodcasting.com and you can find Quill at quillpodcasting.com. You can find Fatima on Twitter @zaidiafatima.I’m on all the socials @JeffUmbroThe Podglomerate offers production, distribution, and monetization services for dozens of new and industry-leading podcasts. Whether you’re just beginning or a seasoned podcaster, we offer what you need.To find more about The Podglomerate:– Show Page and Transcript: https://listen.podglomerate.com/show/podcast-perspectives– YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Podglomeratepods– Email: listen@thepodglomerate.com – LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/podglomerate– Twitter: @podglomerate – Instagram: @podglomeratepods Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the podcast space grows, it’s becoming clear that many in the audio industry are not on the same page about a few key things: standard rules and regulations, how we measure success, even basic terms and definitions. In 2020 Bryan Barletta founded Sounds Profitable – a company committed to setting the course of the audio business by creating free educational materials, research, and connecting different players in the industry. Today I’m chatting with Bryan about what they’ve been up to recently, what exactly the “future of the audio business” should look like, and relevant changes in Apple Podcasts from iOS 17. To learn more about Sounds Profitable and sign up for their industry newsletters, you can find them at soundsprofitable.comI’m on all the socials @JeffUmbroThe Podglomerate offers production, distribution, and monetization services for dozens of new and industry-leading podcasts. Whether you’re just beginning or a seasoned podcaster, we offer what you need.To find more about The Podglomerate:– Show Page and Transcript: https://listen.podglomerate.com/show/podcast-perspectives– YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Podglomeratepods– Email: listen@thepodglomerate.com – LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/podglomerate– Twitter: @podglomerate – Instagram: @podglomeratepods Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lemonada Media launched as a brand new podcast network with just one show in 2019. Just four years later, they've grown into a network of nearly 50 podcasts known for pumping out audio hits – Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Last Day, Believe Her, and more. Keen observers will also notice their innovative partnerships, like the Lemonada Book Club made in collaboration with Apple Books.Today I’m checking in with Lemonada’s co-founder and CEO Jessica Cordova Kramer about the state of the network, their strategies for making audio hits, and her thoughts on the industry at large.To find more from Lemonada Media you can visit their website lemonadamedia.com or find them on all the socials at Lemonada Media.I’m on all the socials @JeffUmbroThe Podglomerate offers production, distribution, and monetization services for dozens of new and industry-leading podcasts. Whether you’re just beginning or a seasoned podcaster, we offer what you need.To find more about The Podglomerate:– Show Page and Transcript: https://listen.podglomerate.com/show/podcast-perspectives– YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Podglomeratepods– Email: listen@thepodglomerate.com – LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/podglomerate– Twitter: @podglomerate – Instagram: @podglomeratepods Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2021 HubSpot made a surprising move to acquire The Hustle, a newsletter along with the My First Million podcast. The Hustle and MFM eventually became the base of what today is the HubSpot Podcast Network, an audio unit within HubSpot aimed at funneling sales towards their other more lucrative products. The network has greatly expanded over the last two years, today boasting dozens of shows and millions of monthly downloads.One of the players helping the network’s meteoric growth is Sr. Growth Marketer Jonathan Barshop. On Twitter, Jonathan constantly shares the ways he’s growing the shows on the HubSpot Podcast Network– from relatively novel approaches like listener giveaways to tried-and-true cross-promotional strategies. On this episode Jonathan and I get deep into how he’s thinking about podcast growth. We also spend some time chatting about video podcasting, an area where HubSpot is seeing a lot of success.To find more from Jonathan you can follow him on Twitter @bar5hop, where he shares some incredibly useful insights on podcast growth. I’m on all the socials @JeffUmbro The Podglomerate offers production, distribution, and monetization services for dozens of new and industry-leading podcasts. Whether you’re just beginning or a seasoned podcaster, we offer what you need.To find more about The Podglomerate:– Show Page and Transcript: https://listen.podglomerate.com/show/podcast-perspectives– YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Podglomeratepods– Email: listen@thepodglomerate.com – LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/podglomerate– Twitter: @podglomerate – Instagram: @podglomeratepods Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This year the podcasting giant iHeartMedia launched a new division called Ruby, which works exclusively to create and amplify podcasts for brands. To understand why iHeart made this move and what Ruby is up to, today I’m chatting with Ruby’s Director of Audience Development, Amber Smith.Amber has an eclectic background in the audio world, working as a producer at SiriusXM and a manager of podcast partnerships at Pandora after SiriusXM acquired the platform, all before landing in audience development at iHeartMedia. Today, she works to grow iHeart’s branded content, which includes shows from huge companies like Max, IBM, Mattressfirm, and many more.To learn more about what Ruby is doing you can visit their website ruby.iheart.com. You can find Amber on LinkedIn.I’m on all the socials @JeffUmbro The Podglomerate offers production, distribution, and monetization services for dozens of new and industry-leading podcasts. Whether you’re just beginning or a seasoned podcaster, we offer what you need.To find more about The Podglomerate:– Show Page and Transcript: https://listen.podglomerate.com/show/podcast-perspectives– YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Podglomeratepods– Email: listen@thepodglomerate.com – LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/podglomerate– Twitter: @podglomerate – Instagram: @podglomeratepods Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Evan Shapiro writes the newsletter “Media War and Peace” where he maps out the state of the media industry using data visualization models. He’s also a professor at NYU and used to work in podcast and television development at IFC Sundance and NBC Universal’s Seeso.This background allows him to have a comprehensive view of the podcast industry from a global perspective, and how it’s situated in the broader media environment. It also allows him to know from experience how to make a successful and sustainable podcast. This all made for a really interesting conversation with Evan, where we unpack his career and what it’s taught him about the audio industry at large.You can find more from Evan online at his Substack: Media War & Peace. He’s very active on LinkedIn, andmakes a podcast with his daughter, Jamie Shapiro, called Cancel Culture. I’m on all the socials @JeffUmbro The Podglomerate offers production, distribution, and monetization services for dozens of new and industry-leading podcasts. Whether you’re just beginning or a seasoned podcaster, we offer what you need.To find more about The Podglomerate:– Show Page and Transcript: https://listen.podglomerate.com/show/podcast-perspectives– YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Podglomeratepods– Email: listen@thepodglomerate.com – LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/podglomerate– Twitter: @podglomerate – Instagram: @podglomeratepods Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2017 after stints at SiriusXM and Audacy, Chris Colbert founded his own podcast agency, DCP Entertainment. DCP defines itself as a media platform for underrepresented voices, including people of color, women, the LGBTQ+ community, and other overlooked communities. Fast forward to today and DCP works with some of the biggest brands in the world, including State Farm, Dell, Acast, and creates some of the largest shows in the industry.In this episode, we chat with Chris about why he left his senior position at SiriusXM, the very concrete ways in which DCP elevates underrepresented voices in the podcast industry, and the ways that DCP is innovating in the podcast space. To learn more about DCP and what they’re working on you can visit them at www.dcpofficial.com. You can find Chris on LinkedIn where he is very active.I’m on all the socials @JeffUmbro The Podglomerate offers production, distribution, and monetization services for dozens of new and industry-leading podcasts. Whether you’re just beginning or a seasoned podcaster, we offer what you need. To find more about The Podglomerate:– Show Page and Transcript: https://listen.podglomerate.com/show/podcast-perspectives– YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Podglomeratepods– Email: listen@thepodglomerate.com – LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/podglomerate– Twitter: @podglomerate – Instagram: @podglomeratepods Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices