New Media Expo (NMX), the podcasting/blogging conference usually held annually in Las Vegas, has been a big draw for new media creators and industry players for years. But NMX has been conspicuously absent from the new-media landscape in 2016. Late last year, NMX founder Rick Calvert sent out a cryptic message to NMX attendees, explaining why they hadn’t yet received their promised virtual ticket content. Since then, there’d been little contact from anyone at NMX. That silence ended today with a message posted to the NMX website, announcing the conference is officially under new management:
Dear NMX Community,
I am deeply sorry.
Last year was a difficult year, both for the NMX event and for me personally. Our co-location with the NAB show simply did not work out the way I had hoped. After the event, NMX was left in dire financial condition.
At the same time, the people I love most in the world were requiring lots of my attention.
I was overwhelmed by it all and simply shut down communication completely. While the online world we all live in is very public, I am actually a very private person, and was (and still am) not comfortable sharing these challenges publicly.
However that is not an excuse for not letting you know what was going on with NMX. I hope you can accept my apology for not communicating, and making you feel (understandably) like I didn’t care, or worse, that I intentionally didn’t deliver what you’d paid for.
Words cannot express how sorry I am for the frustration I caused you. This is especially saddening because I started this company to help content creators learn, grow, and become successful. This past year, I failed you.
As of today, I am still not able to give NMX the time and attention it deserves. Effective immediately, I will be taking a leave of absence from my duties as CEO. Obviously hindsight is twenty-twenty, but I should have done this long ago.
Patti Hosking will assume management of NMX events. Patti is a thoughtful professional, with great integrity and strength. She has my full support in working to restore our relationships and service to you. I will continue my leave of absence from my duties as CEO until such time that my private matters are resolved and I can give the business my full attention.
We are committed to this community and are putting a plan in place to provide better communication with you, and to resolve any problems this lack of communication may have caused you. This will take time, but it is in motion now.
You deserved better from me last year. Nothing is more important than regaining your trust, and I hope you will give Patti and the entire NMX team the opportunity to start regaining your trust going forward. Please contact Patti by email with any further questions.
Sincerely,
Rick Calvert
Founder & CEO,
New Media Expo – NMX
No word yet on what this change will mean for the future of the conference. But it’s clear Rick Calvert needs to step away from his leadership role at NMX. Hopefully, this move will revitalize NMX and get it back on track.
It’s become progressively easier over the years to produce and publish podcasts. But there are still a lot of moving parts involved in the process. Recording, editing, uploading, publishing to the web, and syndicating thru RSS are just a few of the steps needed to take a podcast from concept to reality. A veritable cottage industry has arisen to help guide podcasters thru all of the technology and services that are available for producing podcasts. But what if there was one tool that did everything? That’s where 
SoundCloud and Spotify are two big audio platforms that have made their fair share of podcasting news over the last year. Here’s a brief roundup of what the two services have been up to lately.
The launch of SoundCloud Go puts the two services in more direct competition. SoundCloud’s financial status has been 
It’s been almost six months since 
The People’s Choice Podcast Awards is ready for your nominations. What podcasts do you think are the absolute best in their category? Let your opinion be heard by nominating your favorite podcasts today. Podcasters who hope to be nominated need to start letting their audience know that the nomination period has begun.
The current election season in the United States has been long, and confusing, with some completely unexpected things happening. It feels like the majority of the news is focusing on the election, politics, and speculation on who will become the next president of the United States. This environment could explain why so many people have been listening to the 
