Welcome to The Podcast News, a weekly recap of the latest & greatest podcast news and helpful tutorials, curated for podcast producers. My name is Aaron Dowd.

Here are the most interesting news articles and tutorials for the second week of December, 2019.

1

20 Podcast Predictions for 2020 from Top Industry Leaders

From Pacific Content:

Every year, Pacific Content asks the best and brightest in the podcast industry for their predictions about the year ahead. According to the experts, 2020 will be explosive, combative, experimental, better measured than ever before… and anything but boring.

It's always fun to see what all the different folks who are deeply involved in the podcasting industry think about the future of podcasting. Here are a few of my favorites predictions:

“Podcasting will go through a consolidation in which the longtail will encounter trouble.

Income inequality is a metaphor for what will happen in the world of podcasting. Over the last thirty years, there has been enormous prosperity, productivity, and economic gains in the United States, but it is all aggregated to the top 1%.

Years of prosperity, productivity, and listenership are about to hit the podcasting space, but new listeners will be the mainstream, and the podcasts of the highest quality at the top of the charts will reap the lion’s share of the benefits.

Niche podcasts that truly add value will also survive and do well, but reheated Joe Rogan imitators… that shit is going to fall off the face of a cliff.”

Scott Galloway, Professor of Marketing at NYU Stern and co-host of Pivot with Kara Swisher

If you haven't listened to Pivot yet, I'd recommend adding it to your podcast app of choice. It's currently one of my top three favorite shows.

“VC investment will continue pouring in, causing increased consolidation across the ecosystem. Publishers will acquire hosting platforms and podcatchers will acquire creators. Bullish publishers who invested heavily at first will pull away as podcast ROI isn’t realised with the speed or scale that was promised.”

Corey Layton, Australian Radio Network

If you want to succeed in podcasting, you gotta be in it for the long-haul. It's a marathon, not a sprint.

“Listeners are going to start noticing ads more — for better and for worse. We saw in our recent Super Listeners Report with PodcastOne that while podcasts remain incredibly attractive ad vehicles, podcasting’s heaviest users are noticing that the quantity of advertising is starting to increase.

We are also seeing more and more repurposed broadcast ads served in podcasts, which, while still effective, do chip away somewhat at podcasting’s feeling of being ‘special’ for listeners. We shouldn’t assume that podcasts have an intrinsic halo effect — we can ruin anything with bad ads.”

Tom Webster, Edison Research

I understand the need to make money for a show to keep it going, but I'm really not a fan of starting each episode with 3 minutes of ads.

Beyond the Download

“We’ll see a shift in 2020 where the download metric begins to lose its prominence as the main measurement of what makes a successful podcast, successful. Podcasters will have to be diligent in collecting and interpreting any ancillary data to help craft a more compelling story about what makes their connection with their audience more impactful — and more importantly, they will need to educate their partners [about] why having the full context of their listeners carries so much more value than how many times an episode was downloaded.”

Dane Cardiel, Simplecast

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2

Email Marketing Basics for Podcasters

From Mia Breunissen on the We Edit Podcasts blog:

So, you have a great podcast and quite a few listeners but what happens now? How do you get your content out to the right people?

Well, that’s where promoting your podcast comes in and using the most effective strategies to communicate with your listeners and build a relationship with them.

When it comes to sharing your podcast out with the world there are several tactics and strategies to consider. Of course, there is always social media, blog posts, and even word of mouth. But we can’t forget about using email!

If you’ve already built up an email list, then this strategy is key. It is the perfect way to let your listeners know when new podcast episodes come out so that they don’t miss a beat.

I had great success with email early on with my other show, but stopped sending emails after I left the podcast network I was a part of after pausing that show in late 2016.

I've started back up recently using Substack. If you've never looked into setting up an email list for your show, this article from We Edit Podcasts is a great place to start.

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3

Should You Join A Podcast Network?

From Dave Jackson on the Podcast Business Journal website:

“Man, if I could just get on [insert network name], my show would take off.”

I don’t think that’s how this works. In some cases, I’ve heard of people being asked to join networks based on a previous relationship they had with people at a network.

If you think some network is searching the globe for a “diamond in the rough,” you are being misled. The shows I see being added to larger networks are already successful — which is why they are being brought on the network.

It’s like musicians or actors who are in search of a manager. The easiest way to get a manager is to have enough success that there’s something to manage.

I've been meaning to write a podcast episode about this exact subject, but looks like Dave beat me to it.

Couple takeaways about important things to do and/or consider before joining a network:

Find someone on the network and ask them what their before-and-after downloads were before joining the network.

Would someone who listens to the other shows on the network also listen to yours? Does it appear you could share an audience? If there is going to be cross-promotion, there is no sense cross-promoting if the other shows have a completely different audience.

Do you have to pay anything to join? If you do, RUN AWAY.

What steps do you need to take to leave (and how hard is it)? Are you under a contract for a certain period? Are there any rules you need to know about that, if not followed, would have you removed from the network.

I don't have much to add here, but just to reiterate, make sure you maintain control of your show regardless of who you work with, and talk about and get a clear understanding of what leaving the network would look like and require before you join.

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Notable Mentions:

Digital Minimalism & Podcasting | Could You Achieve More by Doing Less?

From Matthew McClean on ThePodcastHost.com:

Cal Newport's book Digital Minimalism is essential reading for folks who feel like they never have enough time for things they need to do, and things they want to do. It's all about living better with less technology, and was the perfect compliment to another of his titles, Deep Work.

This isn't intended to be a review of Digital Minimalism. It's more about how the book got me thinking of the podcasting medium. This is about what we could learn from this school of thought, both as podcasters, and podcast listeners.

Matthew asks some important questions in this post. Are you spending too much time listening to podcasts? Too much time promoting your own podcast online? And what are the activities related to podcasting that actually bring value to your life and the lives of others, and how do you find the right balance for you?

Personally, I feel we're all struggling with the pure volume of information and entertainment available for our consumption. It's like living in a football stadium filled with endless rows of tables loaded with the most tasty food you can imagine. At some point, you have to stop eating. And as producers, we don't like to think about the fact that at some point we might need to stop bringing new food to the party or encouraging others to consume more.

Anyways, great thought-provoking article, and as some of you may know, I'm a big fan of Cal Newport's books. Deep Work is still my top recommendation for anyone struggling with focus or feeling overwhelmed, and So Good They Can't Ignore You is the perfect book if you're looking for a new job or career path but aren't sure where to start. (Disclosure: affiliate links there.)

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The Best Ways to Grow Your Podcast Audience

From Abu Zafar on Lifehacker:

Launching your podcast is half the battle. Now you have to get people to listen. In the video above, I chat with expert podcasters about the three things you should do to gain listeners and grow your audience.

I really like what Jeffrey Cranor (co-creator of "Welcome to Night Vale") says towards the end of the video:

Success may come within the first three episodes, or it may take 300.

Do the thing you enjoy doing. If it's not enjoyable for you, it doesn't matter if it's successful or not: You're going to hate doing it. So find the thing you like doing and keep plowing ahead. Be consistent and just find a way to better your craft all the time.

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Overcoming "Imposter Syndrome" in Podcasting

Missed this one last week, but from Wil Williams on Buzzsprout's blog:

What makes podcasting so susceptible to its creators feeling like they’re just faking their way through creation or success? Unfortunately, the medium is the perfect storm for impostor syndrome.

Wil goes through some of the most common reasons podcasters feel like imposters, and ends with this encouragement:

I have spoken with podcasters who get tens of thousands of downloads an episode and think of themselves as impostors. I have spoken to indie podcasters who hustle, read podcasting news, and edit meticulously, and think they are impostors. I have spoken to people who have made a podcast but still insist that they aren’t a “real” podcaster, even if they can’t give me a criteria on what a “real” podcaster is or does.

Here’s the secret about what a real podcaster is: a real podcaster is someone who has made a podcast.

If you have made a podcast, if you have made a single podcast episode, you are a real podcaster. That is literally all a “real” podcaster is. You belong in this medium.

You deserve to be here.

And you are just as real a podcaster as everyone else in the industry is, even when it feels like you’re not.

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Conducting a Feasibility Analysis of Your Branded Podcast

From Tim O'Brian on The Podcast Business Journal's website:

The launch of a branded podcast for your organization, whether it’s a small business or a large enterprise, whether it’s a nonprofit or a for-profit organization, is an investment. It’s an investment of time, money, resources and brand equity.

It’s with this in mind that just about every organization that considers the idea of launching a branded podcast may hesitate longer than some of its staff members or creative agencies would like.

“The podcast train is leaving the station and we have to be on it!,” they may say. But here’s the thing, before falling in love with the idea of podcasting, it makes sense to know a thing or two about what you hope to get out of this new content-marketing romance. And it makes sense to take a cold hard look at the kind of commitment you may need to make to assure this relationship lasts.

Tim's written out an excellent guide to follow for folks who are thinking about starting a podcast (or for podcast producers who are helping people start podcasts).

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News Podcasts and the Opportunities for Publishers

From Nic Newman and Nathan Gallo on the DigitalNewsReport.org website, a huge report about news podcasts and the opportunities in the space:

There has been much written about podcasts in general and the drivers around growth, but there has been less focus on news podcasts and the creative and commercial opportunities for publishers. Nor has there been much attempt to understand differences between domestic markets, especially outside the English-speaking world. This research sets out to redress that balance by answering the following questions.

1. What types of news podcasts are being produced, who is producing them, and how does that differ across countries?
2. How big is the daily news podcast category in particular? Why are publishers investing?
3. What are wider publisher content and monetisation strategies?
4. What role are platforms and other intermediaries playing in discovery and monetisation?
5. What are the future prospects for publishers in this space?

At this point, I don't know where I'm going to find time to read all these great reports. Maybe I'll get around to it after I finish reading Stephen King's new novel, The Institute (affiliate link).

You gotta turn off the screens and pick up a good old-fashioned hardcover fiction book every once in a while, you know?

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Discussion topic for the week:

Since we're getting close to the end of the year, how do you feel about how the year went? Either related to podcasting, or just in general.

Personally, I know I got a lot done, but I've been moving at a pace that makes it hard to remember what I even did last week. Which I think means I need to slow down to appreciate my accomplishments and celebrate my efforts and the efforts of the amazing people around me. I'm feeling very grateful for everything and everyone currently, so I'd like to keep that gratitude going too.

Let me know what you're thinking via Twitter or email, and if you're OK with me sharing those thoughts on this show.

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Thanks for listening to (or reading) this week's episode! Please send feedback, thoughts, and cool stories or articles to [email protected].

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Have a great week, and happy podcasting.

Aaron Dowd

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This show was produced by me, Aaron Dowd.
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