Month: December 2021

Ten Percent Happier Expands to Launch its Own Podcast Studio

~ jen

Building on the momentum of its current platforms and success reaching various audiences during times of need throughout the pandemic, Ten Percent Happier is expanding to launch its own podcast studio, developing a wide range of shows that will explore the intersection of everyday life and mindfulness.

With the overwhelming success of Ten Percent Happier Podcast throughout COVID-19, the brand saw opportunity to expand and better serve its audience while reaching new consumers with the benefits of mediation. Under the leadership of Jen Poyant, formerly of WWYC Studios and Stable Genius Productions and Kimmie Regular, formerly of Gimlet Media, the shows launched under Ten Percent Happier will continue the brand’s work of helping consumers “do life better,” providing listeners with a set of proven tools to help shift their perspective and improve their relationships. The new Podcast studio will include a team of 10 producers and editors, who will bring the shows to life.

“The podcast network at Ten Percent Happier will become a key component of the overall success of the brand. Our podcasts attract a diverse audience and cater to folks looking for more tools in their overall approach to their health and wellness. The shows will serve as a landing place for people curious about how meditation and mindfulness might help with the ups and downs that we all experience in our day to day lives. Our listeners then have the benefit of incorporating what they’ve learned with guided meditations and courses in Ten Percent Happier App,” said Jen Poyant.

Childproof, one of the first shows launched by Ten Percent Happier’s podcast studio, just released its inaugural episode. Hosted by Yasmeen Khan, the show will explore stories of the foundational relationships between parents and children and how to learn the skills of mindful parenting. Prior to joining Ten Percent Happier, Yasmeen was a public radio journalist for almost 15 years, serving successful stints at WNYC Radio in New York City, and North Carolina Public Radio. While at WNYC, her award-winning work included coverage of the New York City schools; youth and family life; and policing.

Ten Percent Happier’s podcast studio will launch three new shows featuring a diverse range of hosts over the next six months. Show topics will touch many areas from emotions, to parenting, and meditation coaching, and will feature a number of different guests, and experts in various fields including psychology, science, meditation, sleep wisdom and history. In Spring of 2022, Ten Percent Happier will be launching More Than A Feeling, a new podcast hosted by Saleem Reshamwala that explores the stories and science behind the emotions we all experience, available on Apple and Spotify.

On what’s next for Ten Percent Happier’s podcast studio, Poyant shared, “the new slate of podcasts will feature beautifully crafted audio storytelling with original music by artists including Andrew VanWyngarden, Carolyn Packer Riggs and El Michaels Affair. Our goal is to partner with artists in order to create a fun, collaborative creative environment. We’re seeking to serve a community of listeners interested in hearing meaningful and entertaining stories that relate to a desire to grow and create authentic connection.”

Acast Appoints Georgina Holt as Managing Director for the Americas

~ jen

Acast, the world’s leading independent podcast company, has announced the appointment of Georgina Holt as Managing Director for the Americas. In a move that underlines Acast’s ambition to significantly grow market share in the US and surrounding regions, Holt – who currently fulfill the same role for the UK and Ireland – will oversee both commercial sales and podcast acquisition and retention.

Since joining Acast in early 2020, Holt has spearheaded phenomenal growth for the business in the UK, as well as leading its UK-based team through the challenges of a global pandemic. Her relocation to the US, where she’ll be based in New York City, is a strategic move as Acast seeks to build on its growing success in the region – following net sales growth of 111% in Q3 of 2021, versus the same period in 2020.

Holt will also be responsible for the welfare of close to 100 Acast employees based in the US, Mexico, and Canada. Her move to the Americas role follows Veronika Taylor’s recent promotion to Senior Vice President of the Acast Creator Network.

In more than two decades in media publishing, Holt has led and delivered successful strategic and commercial transformation for the likes of Stylist and Cosmopolitan, and was most recently Executive Director of Stylist Studios before making the move into podcasting.

Oskar Serrander, Chief Operating Officer at Acast, said: “Georgie embodies Acast’s leadership philosophy, and our desire to operate as a distributed, global business, without losing grip of our most powerful asset – our culture. And, in a relatively short span of time, she’s had a transformative impact on our UK and Ireland operations – no small task given she came aboard at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and couldn’t meet colleagues in person for months.

“Our mission to become the app-independent marketplace of choice for podcast creators is accelerating in 2022 and, while we will be expanding into many new markets, the US remains an important focus. I’m confident we have the leadership in place to take us to the next level.”

Holt added: “Moving to the US to lead Acast in the Americas is a dream-come-true opportunity, as the team continues its incredible growth journey in this region. Leaving the amazing UK and Ireland team, especially after its most successful year, feels like a fitting moment to pass the baton.”

PodcastOne Named to Top Podcast Publishers List by Podtrac

~ jen

PodcastOne, a leading podcast platform and a subsidiary of LiveOne announced that it has been named to the list of Top Podcast Publishers by the industry leading podcast metric company Podtrac. Podtrac provides the podcast industry’s only ranking of top publishers based on unique audience counts. PodcastOne enters the listings ranked #12 as one of the only two independent podcasting publishers in the Top 15.

PodcastOne’s ranking comes on the heels of the successes and strengths of tentpole podcasts Off The Vine with Kaitlyn Bristowe, The Jordan Harbinger Show, LADYGANG and The Adam Carolla Show. As well as acquisitions of top performing programs such as Baby Mamas No Drama, True Crime All the Time Unsolved, and This is MONSTERS, which all saw significant audience growth since joining PodcastOne.

Download numbers were significant for PodcastOne developed programs in 2021 with Nappy Boy Radio with T-Pain, Uncut with Jay Cutter, which launched in the top 20 of all podcasts on iTunes, and Bad Bad Thing, a chilling true crime podcast that quickly rose to the top of podcast listings globally and has been cited as “Best of” 2021 by publications such as Cosmopolitan Magazine. Ongoing partnerships with networks A&E on Cold Case Files and I Survived and REELZ with Sex, Lies & Murder, both contributed greatly to PodcastOne’s continued success.

“Being recognized by Podtrac with inclusion on the Top Publishers list is a testament to the hard work of the PodcastOne team both behind the mic and behind the scenes. We’re on track post even bigger numbers in 2022 with a goal to crack the Top 10 list.” Said Kit Gray, President of PodcastOne.


PodcastOne’s full roster of programming is available on PodcastOne, iTunes, Spotify, and Amazon and wherever podcasts are heard.

NPR has a 2022 Student Podcast Challenge

~ jen

NPR logoNPR is inviting students from around the country to create a podcast – about anything they want! – and compete for a chance to have your work featured on NPR. Students from 5th grade through college are eligible to participate, however the rules vary depending on your grade. Welcome to NPR’s 2022 Student Podcast Challenge!

NPR began collecting submissions for The College Podcast Challenge on December 1, 2021. Professor help or involvement is not required. The deadline for submissions is February 28, 2022.

There is also a Podcast Challenge for grades 5-12. NPR will begin collecting submissions from this group on January 1, 2022. Submissions must be supported by a teacher. The deadline for submissions is March 21, 2022.

For three years, the NPR Student Podcast Challenge has been open to students in grades 5-12; last year we opened it up to collegiate podcasters for the first time. The response was so strong, and the stories were so moving, that we’re back again to announce the NPR College Podcast Challenge.

The grand prize winner will receive $5,000, and the other finalists will receive $500 each. NPR believes that podcasting takes time and effort, and they think it should be rewarded.

The basics are pretty much the same: Students will create a podcast about a topic they want to explore – and that can be just about anything. In the past, NPR has had podcasts submitted to them about Tater Tots, homework and life in the pandemic. NPR also listened to semester-long investigations about hometown mysteries and dramatic readings of fictional stories.

All students, regardless of age, who are pursuing an associate’s or bachelor’s degree can apply to The College Podcast Challenge. Those who are 18 or older can enter on their own.

The maximum length of your podcast is eight minutes, and the minimum is three minutes.

Global Acquires Captivate

~ jen

Global, the media & entertainment group, announced it acquired podcast hosting, analytics and monetization platform, Captivate.

Captivate is a podcast hosting company based in Sheffield which hosts over 14,000 podcasts and has developed a range of innovative features to help podcasters with distribution, first-party attribution and podcast promotion, helping independent podcast creators to harness, grow and monetize their audio influence.

The Captivate platform, founded by Mark Asquith and Kieran McKeefery, who will be staying with the business, will be integrated into Global’s audio entertainment offering, Global Player, and podcast creators will be able to scale up monetizations opportunities with Global’s proprietary digital ad platform DAX (Digital Ad Exchange), the market leader in digital audio advertising and a pioneering platform in programmatic outdoor advertising.

Captivate co-founder, Mark Asquith, said: “Our vision for Captivate has always been clear: to proactively help independent podcast creators build up their audio brand and to deliver a diverse range of monetization options for them. Joining Global allows us to fulfill that vision by bringing DAX and Global Player to Captivate podcasters, while also providing more opportunities for the platform to positively contribute to the future of the industry.”

Stephen Miron, Group CEO at Global, said: “We’re delighted to be acquiring Captivate, a best in class self-serve platform for podcast creators, with access to market leading analytics and monetization. This acquisition will enable us to support all talent in the podcast community from the very largest to emerging new talent. We believe that this platform, combined with the massive scale and reach of Global Player and DAX will give all our podcast partners an unrivaled advantage.”

Global Player has experienced massive growth thanks to the rising popularity of smart speakers and increased digital listening. As well as streaming live radio, Global Player users can skip songs and go to playlists, watch video from guest interviews, listen to a wide range of podcasts including Global Originals like My Therapist Ghosted Me and Hunting Ghislane, and watch live streams of Global’s events, such as Capital’s Jingle Bell Ball with Barclaycard.

The acquisition of Captivate follows Global’s recent acquisition of innovative US- based next-generation digital audio content and technology start-up, Remixd. Now integrated into Global Player and DAX, Remixd technology means digital publishers can convert online written articles into audio content with targeted adverts inserted, as Global continues its focus on scaling digital audio.

New Conference to Focus on Future of Podcasting

~ jen

Getting podcasts heard is the theme of a new international conference being held in London in February hosted by Podcast Radio. The Podcast Futures event is being held on 22nd February – 22.2.22 – in Westminster. Registration for the event is free.

Gerry Edwards, CEO of Podcast Radio, says: “With millions of podcasts available right now, the biggest challenge facing the industry, whether you’re a corporate or independent podcaster, is simply getting your podcast heard.”

“There are lots of companies out there making podcasts, lots of companies monetizing podcasts, but far fewer companies marketing podcasts. That’s what Podcast Radio helps to do by using the trust people have in radio to help listeners choose which podcasts they’d like to listen to.”

Sponsors, speakers and the venue for the Podcast Futures conference will be announced in January.

Event organiser Lee Cornell says: “This is the first in a series of Podcast Radio thought leadership events. We are in advanced talks with several big international players in the podcasting world to present sessions at the conference and we will be announcing these shortly.”

Podcast Radio, which launched in 2020, is monetized by selling traditional on-air advertising and sponsorships; inserting commercials into its online audio stream; partnering with international content makers; and making original podcasts and bespoke audio content.

The company raised initial from an equity fundraising campaign last year. It is now raising more money from private investors to drive audiences and revenue, finance international expansion in the US and Australia as well as enhancing content with a bold new idea for presenting content which will be unveiled at the conference.


Here are the full details of the conference and how to register.

Neon Hum Announces Second Annual Podcast Editors’ Bootcamp

~ jen

Neon Hum Media, in partnership with Sony Music Entertainment, announced the launch of its second annual free Editors’ Bootcamp, which will began accepting applications starting December 15, 2021.

Created as a free podcast training bootcamp for aspiring podcast editors from underrepresented groups, the eight-week course led by Neon Hum’s Executive Editor Catherine Saint Louis is designed to provide an opportunity for Black and Indigenous storytellers, LGBTQ, Latino, AAPI, people with disabilities and all communities of color, to help drive their rarely heard, yet critical, stories in podcasting.

The eight people selected for this year’s course will learn and develop relevant skillsets from some of the industries top editors and experts. At the conclusion of the course, one graduate will be offered a staff editor position at Neon Hum. The program is designed to develop the selected students into top candidates for employers and to also consider hiring as editors after graduation.

The eight prospective editors for this year’s bootcamp will be announced in early 2022 and the course will run from mid-March to mid-May 2022. The application portal for prospective editors is open now through January 21.

The first bootcamp series in 2021 received an overwhelming response with more than 250 applications from longtime producers, print reporters and editors, documentary filmmakers and people in public radio interested in switching to narrative podcasts. After participating in the course, Nevada based journalist Stephanie Serrano joined Neon Hum as a staff director in June and has worked on several top series for the Company, including Smoke Screen: The Sellout and the upcoming season of Spectacle. Other graduates of last year’s program went on to work on hit shows across the industry, including Snap Judgement’s Spooked and Witness Docs and VPM’s Seizing Freedom.

Catherine Saint Louis said, “The audio industry still lacks representation from so many groups and voices, so we are thrilled to be bringing back the Bootcamp for another year and creating a way for people to become story editors.” She added, “It’s free and an incredible opportunity to learn from peers as well as the industry’s top editors. And at the end of it all, one lucky graduate will get a full-time job working at Neon Hum.”

Funding for the bootcamp is made possible by Sony Music Entertainment. To learn more about Sony Music’s commitment to supporting communities globally and locally, click here.

Acast and Nielsen: US Podcast Fans Are Spending Even More Time Listening

~ jen

Acast, the global power source for podcasting, unveiled the results of new podcast listener research conducted in partnership with Nielsen. The study of 2,000 US adults who consume podcasts at least monthly found that 52% increased the amount of time they spent listening over the past six months.

According to the findings, in the past six months consumption of podcasts has increased more so than most other media – especially when compared to other audio-based media. Versus the 52% of listeners who said they increased podcast consumption, the figures for online radio (36%), AM/FM radio (36%) and audio books (33%) were less encouraging.

With consumption on the rise, the podcast landscape is rich with opportunities for brands and podcasters to reach new audiences. Nearly half (45%) of respondents said they started listening to podcasts in the past year, with listeners in the 18-34 range the most likely to have discovered podcasts during that time. That same age group is proving to be a loyal audience, with 79% saying they now listen to podcasts multiple times a week.

The research also shows that podcasting is an undersaturated market, and that consumers desire more content than is being produced. For example, three quarters of respondents say they listen to podcasts weekly – but just 43% of podcasts currently publish in a weekly cadence.

The study went on to explore listener attitudes toward podcast advertising, revealing that there are low levels of advertising fatigue compared to other types of media. Just 25% of listeners say there are too many ads on podcasts, compared to 50% who say there are too many commercials on cable TV. And, according to the study, 76% listen to ads – while 73% say they take action after hearing an ad.

Half of all respondents said advertising on a podcast is the best way for a brand to reach them, and 55% say they developed a more positive opinion towards brands that advertised on their favorite podcasts – showing that podcast ads are a key tool for influencing brand favorability.

Additional key findings reveal:

Listeners enjoy various aspects of podcasts:

70% of listeners say they enjoy listening to guest interviews
58% of listeners say they enjoy listening to panel discussions
55% of listeners say they enjoy listening to host banter

News, music, and comedy content are most frequently consumed, with nearly two thirds (64%) of podcast listeners listening to news shows every week.

For episodes of an hour or longer, 62% of listeners say they listen to more than half – confirming that pre-roll and mid-roll ad placements are great ways to reach listeners.

More than half of listeners (57%) will listen to a podcast episode multiple times.

Listeners are attentive when consuming podcasts – 65% are focused when listening to podcasts, more so than any other tested medium.

Podcast listeners are actively listening to ads to support their favorite podcasters – 57% agree that listening to ads is important to support their favorite podcast hosts.
Podcast listeners are five times more likely to like than dislike brand-sponsored content in podcasts.

Podcast listeners are almost four times more likely to like than dislike brand-owned podcasts.

“Podcasts are undoubtedly an increasingly important part of the lives of listeners in the US. We think of our favorite podcasters like our friends, and trust them to entertain and inform us just as much as we trust them to recommend brands and products we will enjoy,” said Nick Southwell-Keely, US Director of Sales and Brand Partnerships at Acast. “Changing consumer attitudes and interests have seen podcasting become an integral part of thousands of brands’ marketing strategies, and our research supports the increasingly valuable role podcasts can play.”

Podcast Ad Platform Adelicious Hires New Agency Director

~ jen

Nicole Gardner has joined Adelicious as Agency Director, as the podcast ad platform grows to meet rising demand. Challenger ad platform Adelicious has been able to capitalize on the current boom in podcast ad spending. With more brands turning their attention to podcasts and more podcasters seeking to make authentic connections with brands, Adelicious’ bespoke approach is exactly what many in the industry have been looking for. With demand for its services expanding fast, Adelicious continues to build a team in support of rapid growth.

Nicole Gardner joins as Agency Director, looking to develop a commercial agency sales team and pursue new opportunities in podcasting, particularly around demand for host-read ads. She brings ten years of experience at Global Radio, and an extensive network of business contacts.

“I had heard about what Adelicious were doing, and it was something I wanted to be a part of,” says Gardner. “In moving from a large media organization to a start-up, I’m excited about the opportunity to make a difference, to build something from the ground up. And my clients are excited about it too. There is a real appetite for alternatives, for innovation, and for competition in podcast advertising.”

This demand for alternatives is the driver of Adelicious’ success. The platform was launched in the summer of 2020 by two podcast producers who wanted more flexibility in how they monetized their podcasts. Their ‘by podcasters, for podcasters’ philosophy has resonated with the industry, offering higher revenues, greater transparency and more options. The network already serves millions of listens every week, and continues to add high quality podcasts to its portfolio.

“We’re growing so quickly” says MD Andrew Goldsmith. “We need talented people with experience and who can hit the ground running, and that’s what we have with Nicole. I can’t wait to work with Nicole to deliver great campaigns for our clients and help us to continue to expand.”

OneFinePlay Creates Catalog of Podcast Businesses

~ jen

The ‘Yellow Pages’ of podcasting has been created and published by OneFinePlay, a podcasting company who are launching an ultimate tool for podcasters next year that will help them to grow and commercialize their podcasts. The directory, for use by podcast creators, contains details of most podcast businesses from production companies to transcription services.

The directory is completely free to access and is available on the OneFinePlay website. It has over 700 podcast businesses listed. OneFinePlay created the free directory to make it easier for people to search for podcast companies and for them to be classified together in one place.

James Bishop, founder of OneFinePlay said:

“Since I started OneFinePlay three years ago I’ve made lists of every podcast business I came across so I could have them to hand in one place. These include podcast hosting platforms, production companies, PR & Marketing services, live streaming software, transcription services, lists of podcasting newsletters to subscribe to and many more. As I grew my business, I thought it would be good to share my lists with others as there’s no central resource for podcasters.

I hope the directory helps creators find podcast businesses easily and it should save them a lot of time searching for companies as they are all categorized in one place. Making a podcast is hard work and each month thousands of people embark on this journey – often with little knowledge of the sector and without a clear strategic plan. In this new world where creators become businesses, they need an entirely new set of tools. I hope that the directory, along with the platform we’re launching next year, empowers creators run sustainable podcasts, using products and strategies built for the modern world.”

The Ultimate Podcast Directory will be continually updated by the OneFinePlay team. Companies that wish to be added to the directory can do so by clicking a link on the directory homepage.