Month: September 2025

Remembering Site Founder Todd Cochrane

~ Shawn Thorpe

The Podcaster News team mourns the loss of Executive Editor and site founder Todd Cochrane, who passed this week at age 61. Todd will be remembered by many as a new media pioneer, podcasting entrepreneur/innovator, beloved family man, and dear friend.

I’ve known and worked with Todd personally for over ten years as a member of the Blubrry team. I was acquainted with Todd for at least twice that long thru various online communities before. I always admired Todd’s drive and fearlessness when it came to getting things done, as well as his compassion for others. More than anything, Todd wanted to see others succeed. He was always available, when needed, to offer words of encouragement or helpful advice.

Todd hired me here when Podcaster News relaunched in 2014 and then hired me again a year later to work for Blubrry, at a time when I was struggling to find work. I’ll be forever grateful for those opportunities but much more grateful for the friendship and camaraderie of this remarkable man.

The fwd Network Expands With Addition Of Hit True Crime Podcast – The First Degree

~ jen

AdLarge and the fwd network, the female-first platform dedicated to elevating women’s voices, proudly announce the launch of The First Degree, the hit crime podcast hosted by journalist Alexis Linkletter and entrepreneur, author and cultural influence Jac Vanek.

Now in its 8th year with tens of millions of downloads, The First Degree has cemented itself as a must-listen in the true crime genre. The show takes audiences beyond the headlines and into the lives of people directly impacted by crime, the friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers forever changed. Each week, Alexis and Jan deliver sharp reporting, first-person storytelling, and candid conversations that expose both the shocking details and the lasting ripple effects of violence.

“The First Degree was built to uncover the stories you won’t hear anywhere else,” said Alexis Linkletter. “The most important voices are often the ones closet to the crime and bringing those perspectives forward is what sets our show apart. Partnering with the fwd network allows us to continue that mission on a bigger stage.”

“For me, The First Degree has always been about connection,” said Jac Vanek. “It’s where curiosity meets culture, and where listeners feel like part of the conversation. Joining the fwd. network means we’re not just growing the show, we’re growing a community of women who are hungry for stories that are raw, real, and relatable.”

With more than 500 episodes to date, the podcast pairs Vanek’s pop culture edge and lifelong fascination with true crime with Linkletter’s investigative expertise and acclaimed work on Unraveled: Long Island Serial Killer. Together, they bring a rare combination of rigor, authenticity, and accessibility that resonates with millions of listeners.

“The First Degree is the perfect fit for the fwd. network,” said Cathy Csukas, CEO of AdLarge and the fwd. network. “Jac and Alexis have built a powerhouse show that delivers smart, compelling storytelling and an audience of deeply engaged women. It’s a strong opportunity for the advertising marketplace and reflects our vision to make the fwd. network the destination for premium, women-led content.”

With The First Degree, the fwd. network continues to expand its slate of bold, premium shows created and led by women. It’s a platform built by women who know what listeners want and are shaping the future of podcasting with fearless storytelling, cultural impact, and highly engaged communities.

The First Degree is available wherever you listen to podcasts.

Melvyn Bragg Decides To Step Down From Presenting In Our Time

~ jen

Having presented well over 1,000 episodes from the much-live BBC Radio 4 series, Melvyn Bragg has made the decision to step down from In Our Time – following the series which aired earlier this year. Melyvn has presented every episode of In Our Time since the series first launched in 1998.

In Our Time is regularly one of the BBC’s most listened to on-demand programmes around the world, its appeal spanning generations. It is one of BBC Sounds’ most popular broadcasts amongst under 35s.

Over the last quarter of a century, Melvyn has skillfully led conversations about everything from the age of the Universe to ‘Zenobia’, Queen of the Palmyrene Empire. He has welcomed the company of the brightest and best academics in their fields, sharing their passion and knowledge with a fascinated audiences right around the globe.

While he will be much missed on In Our Time, Melvyn will continue to be a friend of Radio 4 with more to come to celebrate his extraordinary career, and a new series in 2026 (details to be announced soon).

Melvyn Brag says “For a programme with a wholly misleading title which started from scratch as a six-month contract, it’s been quite a ride! I have worked with many extremely talented and helpful people inside the BBC as well as some of the greatest academics around the world. It’s been a great privilege and pleasure. I look forward to continuing to work for the BBC on Radio 4. Thank you for listening.”

Melyvn first joined the BBC in 1961 as a general trainee. His BBC career has spanned the World Service, a ten-year stint presenting Radio 4’s  Start of the Week from 1988 – 1998 as well as numerous arts and culture programmes. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society and of The British Academy and was given a Peerage in 1998 and a Companion of Honour in 2017. Melvyn will continue to work with the BBC on future projects which are yet to be announced.

Tim Davie, BBC Director General, says “Melvyn’s passion for the arts, his intellectual curiosity, and his unwavering commitment to public service broadcasting over the last 60-plus years have enriched the lives of millions. Through In Our Time on Radio 4 has brought depth, insight, and humanity to our airwaves every single week for more than a quarter of a century. He leaves behind not just an extraordinary body of work, but a gold standard of broadcasting and interviewing excellence that will inspire generations to come.”

Mohit Bakaya, Director of Speech and Controller of BBC Radio 4 says “Melvyn has been part of the heartbeat of Radio 4 for over three decades. His fierce intellect, coupled with a wonderful curiosity and extraordinary passion for knowledge marks him out as one of the broadcasting greats. Through we will miss him on In Our Time, he leaves behind a unique legacy: the treasure trove of over 1,000 archive episodes, which are a wonderful resource for all those with a love of learning. I look forward to working with him on new projects for Radio 4.”

To mark the end of an era, later this year Radio 4 will be airing some of Melvyn’s most cherished episodes and there will also be a curated selection on BBC Sounds chosen by some of In Our Time’s most notable fans.

In Our Time will be back on Radio 4 with a new presenter who will be announced in due course.

SOUND. WAVES. Launches In Adare With Early-Bird Passes

~ jen

SOUND. WAVES. a new two-day summit at the intersection of content, creativity, and commerce, will make its debut in Adare on November 12-13, 2025. This premier event is designed to explore how audience-first content is created, monetized, and scaled across podcasting, sports, and music. Early-bird passes are on sale now via www.soundwaves.ie.

At the conclusion of the summit, the inaugural All-Ireland Podcast Awards will also take place on Thursday, 13 November in Adare. The Awards will recognize standout podcasts across 32 counties, with Dylan Haskins — Commissioner, Podcasts at BBC Sounds — serving a Head Judge.

The All-Ireland Podcast Awards has been established with the primary aim of celebrating the vibrant Irish podcasting industry and spotlighting the nation’s most talented creators. The awards will honour the best podcasts across eight broad categories.

Judging will be independent with published criteria for each category and a transparent process designed to be robust and fair. The All-Ireland Podcast Awards have no affiliation to any previous podcast awards in Ireland.

Entries for the All-Ireland Podcast Awards are now open and to make the inaugural awards as inclusive as possible, entry is free. The submission period closes on Tuesday, 16th September 2025, at 5p.m. Eligible shows with a clear connection to Ireland can submit up to 15 minutes of audio, accompanied by a short synopsis, via the Awards page; Irish-language entries are also welcome. Full rules and the submission form are on the website.

A spokesperson for the organizers said: “SOUND. WAVES. Is about the craft and the business — how great ideas travel from studio to audience and back again. We’re starting as we mean to go on: smart conversations, practical takeaways, and a celebration that puts creators first.”

The podcast industry has grown rapidly in Ireland over the past 10 years, with a really diverse mix of shows from independent creators, commercial and public service publishers. While awards by their nature involve competition, the All-Ireland Podcast Awards are really about bringing the industry together each year to celebrate and recognize the excellent work happening nationally and internationally from Irish-associated producers and hosts,” said Dylan Haskins, Head Judge.

Podscribe Releases Q3 2025 Performance Benchmark Report

~ jen

Podscribe, the leading attribution and analytics platform for audio advertising, has released its Q3 2025 Podscribe Performance Benchmark (PPB) Report, a comprehensive look at how podcast and streaming audio ads are performing across audiences, formats, and devices.

This quarter’s report draws down on data from 66,000+ campaigns, 500+ advertiser, and over 17 billion impressions across 200+ publishers, offering the industry clear benchmarks for planning, optimization, and measurement.

Highlights From the Q3 2025 PPB Report:

Buy Type: Audience buys (e.g. Run of Network (RON)) and programmatic) grew nearly 2.5x in 10 months, now making up almost one-third of impressions.

Digital audio scale: Podcasts and streaming audio combined can reach 85% of U.S. listeners, with only ~20% audience overlap between the two channels.

Device + app performance: iPhone users convert 30% better than Android users, with Apple Podcasts on iPhone leading both visitor and conversion rates.

Frequency benchmarks: Advertisers see the strongest performance at up to 5 exposures per month.

Advertiser industries: Retail advertisers achieved the highest purchase rate (0.067%), with the lowest CPA at $65 and CPV at just $0.50.

The full Q3 2025 PPB report, along with the webinar recording, is now available for download.

Built on real attribution data from thousands of campaigns, the PBB is industry’s go-to source for audio ad performance benchmarks. With new international insights and solutions for measurement blind spots, the Q3 2025 PPB report is a must-read for marketers looking to scale advertising smartly.

About Podscribe

Podscribe is the leader in pixel-based attribution, incrementally, and verification for podcast, streaming, CTV, and other hard-to-measure media channels. We help advertisers, agencies and publishers measure true campaign impact, optimize performance, and scale with confidence — backed by real-time, household-level data.

New LiSTNR Podcast Uncovers How One Of Australia’s Most Wanted Hid In Plain Site For Years

~ jen

Launching on LiSTNER today, Jailbreak is a rollercoaster six-part investigative documentary series that tells the incredibly story of Darko (aka ‘Dougie’) Desic, a widely successful weed grower who staged a bold prison escape and remained on the run for decades.

When a neatly dressed man in his 60s walked into Dee Why Police Station in NSW to hand himself in, police were dumbfounded.

Darko Desic: a prison escapee who was featured on Australia’s Most Wanted, and had been on the run from police since busting out from Grafton Prison, using a hacksaw and bolt cutters three decades earlier. Surviving on little more than his wits, charm and guile, Darko dodged numerous hair-raising close calls over the years.

In a six-part podcast documentary series, award winning journalist and author Tim Eliiott takes listeners inside the extraordinary true story of Darko Desic, told in the fugutive’s own words. Darko takes listeners back to his arrival to Australia from Yugoslavia, his arrest for growing marijuana, his daring escape from prion, and how he evaded capture.

Darko worked for some of the wealthiest and most powerful executives in the Harbour City. HE was a beloved local in Avalon, yet police couldn’t find him. Once detained, the Northern Beaches community rallied for his release.

Fascinated by Darko’s story of survival and secrecy (including how he turned to DIY dentistry with pliers) Elliot tracks Darko down for an in-depth interview to find out the truth about the man behind the myth.

Tim Elliot said: “I love escape stories, and when I heard about this fugitive who’d led a double-life, near where I live, I had to know more. And I soon realized the backstory to this mysterious intellectual recluse went so much further than had been reported.”

LiSTNR Head of Factual, Clair Weaver, adds: “Secrets We Keep: Jailbreak is a wild, rollicking story about an eccentric but lovable anti-hero whose early attempts to fast-track his big Australian dreams land him in jail, until dire circumstances in his homeland drive him to escape. Tim Elliott and the LiSTNR Factual team have done an excellent job bringing Darko’s story to life in audio for the first time. This is a podcast you’re going to want to tell your friends about.”

Darko’s now vanished again, leaving Jailbreak as the only, and perhaps final, firsthand account of his extraordinary tale.

Talks.co Launches Free Digital Speaker Pages

~ jen

Talks.co, the free platform that connects podcasters and guests, has launched digital speaker pages, a modern replacement for outdated PDF one-sheets. Described by users as the “LinkedIn for podcast guests,” the new pages are powered by AI to surface the details hosts care about most, so they can quickly decide if a guest is a good fit.

Hosts are drowning in cold pitches, while guests rely on clunky PDFs that get lost in inboxes and quickly go out of date. This is happening just as podcasting is booming, with global ad spend projected to surpass $5 billion in 2025 and guest interviews becoming one of the fastest-growing ways for experts to build visibility and authority.

Talks.co speaker pages fix the process. Each profile is free to create and enhanced by AI to highlight the details podcast hosts actually care about: availability, formats, audience size, promotion promise, and recent podcast appearances.

Guests can even embed lead magnets to turn profile traffic into subscribers and clients. Every page comes with a unique short URL (e.g, talks.co/liam) that’s easy to share across emails, websites and social media.

Key differentiators:

Free access – anyone can create a page, no paywalls

AI-enhanced – auto generated, optimized, and kept current with past appearances.

Lead capture – embed a lead magnet, turn profile traffic into subscribers

Instant + editable – live in seconds, fully customizable, AI-updated

Unique short URL – memorable link like talks.co/yourname, replacing static PDFs

“Podcast outreach is broken. Hosts drown in spam, and guests waste hours making PDFs no one reads,” said Liam Austin, co-founder of Talks.co. “Our speaker pages fix that: they’re free, AI-powered, always current, and built to make booking interviews simple. This is created to replace PDFs as the new stander for speaker one-sheets.”

The redesign also introduces pre-packaged episodes angles (such as “Can AI Fix Podcast Guest Booking” and “How Can Virtual Summits Drive 100K Leads?), clear call-to-action buttons (“Request Interview,” “Email Me”), and structured sections like “Why Book Me” and “Recent Appearances.”