Sponsored by Magellan AI. Competitive and ad load insight helped Mynt Agency dodge clutter and guide brands to stronger placements. Check out their strategy In the US, there are almost twice as many men creating podcasts as women, according to The Creators 2025, a new study from Sounds Profitable into the creator ecosystem for podcasting, which became available to all yesterday. The full report is a free download. While there is woefully poor gender balance in podcast creation, there is growing creator participation from multicultural communities, the study suggests, with the number of Hispanic, Black and Asian creators outpacing White creators. White creators also are less likely to create video. The data also shows that one in three podcast creators quit. That figure is higher for those aged 55+, or for those who identify LGBTQ+. “Women aren’t quitting podcasting more than men — they’re just not starting. That’s an entry problem, not a commitment problem,” said Sounds Profitable’s Tom Webster, suggesting that there are structural barriers to entry. “We lose something when voices opt out before they ever opt in.” Good news for fans of Nerdette - the show is to relaunch as an independent production, called Happy to Be Here. Nerdette was the casualty of cuts at WBEZ announced in April 2024; the host, Greta Johnsen, was able to use the old Nerdette feed for this new show. The Fiction Podcast Weekly newsletter is now independent. Expect resources and news for fiction podcast makers. > > > Read more of today’s podcast industry news stories on the Podnews website: and get our free daily newsle

Sponsored by Magellan AI. Mynt Agency's shortcut to smarter podcast planning is simple: better data, not guesswork. Learn Mynt's approachReady to shape how top agencies and brands measure audio in 2026? Join the team at Magellan AI as a Measurement Success Manager. The inductees of the 2026 Podcast Hall of Fame have been announced, recognising what the organisers call “visionary creators, innovators, and advocates whose work has shaped the modern podcasting landscape”. The Hall of Fame Ceremony is at PodFest, Jan 16 2026; the evening will be hosted by John Lee Dumas, founder and host of Entrepreneurs on Fire. This year’s inductees are: \ Mark Asquith, Founder of Captivate \ Arielle Nisenblatt, founder, EarBuds Podcast Collective \ Dan Carlin, Creator, Hardcore History \ James Cridland, Editor, Podnews \ Pat Flynn, Founder, Smart Passive Income\ Julie Samuels, President/CEO Tech:NYC, Senior Staff Podcast Troll Attorney, EFF \ Veronica Belmont, CNET’s Buzz Out Loud, Sword & Laser, Mahalo Daily, co-host of Tekzilla \ Sarah van Mosel, former VP, Sponsorship at New York Public Radio, Acast, Stitcher, iHeart, SiriusXM \ Paul Colligan, President, Podcast Partnership \ Kerri Hoffman, CEO, PRX \ Dan Miller, host, 48 Days to the Work You Love, in memoriam - to be presented by Dave Ramsey Speaking of which: Podfest’s pricing goes up on Friday. As a Podnews newsletter subscriber, you can save a further 10% over here. Libsyn has published its new pricing on its website. Its “bare essentials” plan has been removed. YouTube’s Neal Mohan has bee

Sponsored by Magellan AI. Ready to shape how top agencies and brands measure audio in 2026? Join the Measurement Success team at Magellan AI. Apply now Just days after the announcement of the Golden Globes podcast nominees, the NYC Podcast Awards have been announced. The organisers say it is “launching in direct opposition to the download-first culture dominating podcasting. The Libby Awards recognize craft: sound design, writing, acting, engineering -- and the creators themselves -- as highly as audience size.” You’ve until Jan 10 to enter. Global investment in podcasting is not matched to consumption, according to a new study today from NumberEight. The research shows that the US leads spend, while Australia, Germany and France are expansion opportunities for buyers looking for incremental reach. The data shows differences in culture and personas, and shows additional data to help buyers scale. The work was done in collaboration with Barometer, AdsWizz, and Sounds Profitable. UK podcast company Goalhanger filed its accounts for the seven months of June-Dec 2024 (the company has changed its financial year). These are a UK legal requirement but don’t tell us much, since you don’t have to show profit and loss for this type of company. But - spoiler - it’s in profit; it ended Dec 2024 with just over £5mn (USD $6.7mn) in the bank. In May, it had £2.7mn. > > > Read more of today’s podcast industry news stories on the Podnews website: and get our free daily newsletter.Classifieds - your job or ad hereFrustrated at the time taken to edit? — Save hours and scale faster. Seven Million Bikes

Sponsored by Magellan AI. With clear attribution, RedCircle doubled down on top performers and cut wasted spend. Explore their results The 2026 nominees for the Golden Globes Best Podcast were announced - the first time podcasts have been recognised. The nominees are: Armchair Expert (Wondery), Call Her Daddy (SiriusXM), Good Hang (Spotify), SmartLess (SiriusXM), The Mel Robbins Podcast (SiriusXM), and Up First (NPR). The podcast nomination announcement was made in the portion that wasn’t televised. The awards show is on Jan 11. SiriusXM has half the nominations. “We couldn’t be prouder,” said the company’s Scott Greenstein. Additionally, Dax Shepard and Monica Padman described the nomination for Armchair Expert as “unfathomable” and “a true honor”. Dying for Sex also got a nomination as a limited TV show, based on Wondery’s original Dying for Sex podcast. In spite of paying significantly for promotion, including full-page ads in Variety and Times Square billboards, The Ben Shapiro Show failed to be nominated - indeed, perhaps playing safe, there were no nominations for any political shows (right or left-leaning) or

Sponsored by Magellan AI. Half the CPA, higher conversion rates, stronger sales momentum. RedCircle's results speak for themselves. See how they proved performance Laura Mayer has joined Talkhouse as Head of Podcasts. She was the Executive Producer of Podcast Programming at ABC News; and made Shameless Acquisition Target, a podcast acquired by Gilded Audio in Jan 2023. The first inductees for the Podcast Hall of Fame 2026 have been announced. They are: Dan Carlin, the host of Hardcore History; podcasting’s Arielle Nissenblatt, and CEO of Captivate, Mark Asquith. Tickets for the Hall of Fame induction ceremony are available now. Netflix is to acquire Warner Bros. The acquisition, which is likely to conclude in Q3/26, is worth $82.7bn. Hollywood has not reacted well to the news. The company is currently buying exclusive video rights to shows from podcast publishers. > > > Read more of today’s podcast industry news stories on the Podnews website: and get our free daily newsletter.Classifieds - your job or ad here🎯Are you getting new clients from your podcast?💰 — Subscribe to the FREE Podcasting Business School newsletter and get fresh tips every Thursday for podcast growth & listener to client conversion strategies. Join over 4,000+ Pod Pals on this list.

Sponsored by Magellan AI. Competitive spend data helped Locked On zero in on active buyers and sharpen their pitch timing. See their playbook Apple Podcasts named The Rest is History the 2025 Show of the Year - the first time the accolade has gone to a show that isn’t from the United States. Apple Podcasts has interviewed the hosts, Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook. Exclusive: PRX and AudioUK have announced a 2026 Podcast Creator Summit in London, UK, inviting podcasters of all experience levels to share and gain insights spanning the art and business of making podcasts and audio. The free summit is organised in partnership with Apple Podcasts, and will be held at Battersea Power Station in February. The press release contains details of tickets: you can sign up now. Amazon Music released its 2025 Delivered recap earlier in the week. The company released data of the top podcasts for 2025, in a number of countries - we’ve a list of some of those countries here. In Japan, three of the top five were from TBS Radio. > > > Read more of today’s podcast industry news stories on the Podnews website: and get our free daily newsletter.Classifieds - your job or ad hereSubscribe to Tyrant In Training Comedy Podcast — Tyrant In Training is an improv comedy, power fantasy podcast. Every Thursday, host Kevin Ryan tal

Sponsored by Magellan AI. Locked On used real market signals to time pitches and improve win rates. Discover their strategy Spotify Wrapped was released, including Spotify Wrapped for Creators, which gives podcasters a year’s data for your own show. We learn 76 fans have the Podnews Daily as their #1 show (and Taylor Swift is your favourite artist). For shows hosted elsewhere, the data is only for consumption on Spotify. Nina Yiamsamantha, Spotify’s Head of Creator Marketing, Podcasts, told Podnews: “Wrapped for Creators this year is bigger than ever and dedicated to creators and their fans. It’s a look at which episodes sparked the most engagement, where new fans discovered your show, what kept them coming back, and more. We hope you enjoy exploring the experience as much as we enjoyed building it!” Spotify Wrapped included the Spotify top podcasts for 2025 in various countries. Notably, in the UK, Steven Bartlett has overtaken Joe Rogan for the first time; and Goalhanger’s “Rest Is” has four shows in the top ten. Within the consumer Spotify Wrapped, “Your Top Podcasts” appears if you’ve consumed podcasts during the year, says a post about methodology. Podcasts in this list are ranked by total minutes listened. Interestingly, if you listen to a podcast at 2x, Spotify only counts the actual minutes you spend listening, not of the original content. > > > Read more of today’s podcast industry news stories on the Podnews website: and get our free daily newsletter.

Sponsored by Magellan AI. Pod-to-pod attribution showed The Podglomerate exactly where their promo efforts paid off. Explore their impact YouTube released its annual end of year trending lists. The Global Culture & Trends Report 2025 contains top ten lists of creators, topics and songs across a number countries and regions; and - for the US only - a list of top podcasts, calculated by total watch time. The Joe Rogan Experience is #1; Kill Tony is at #2; and Good Mythical Morning - a video-only show - is at #3. The full list is at the bottom of their press release. The company is also rolling out YouTube Recap, a personalised look back across your activity across all of YouTube for the first time. It also links to YouTube Music’s Recap too, which is currently rolling out. AI tools for podcasting offer an exciting opportunity - but also a legal minefield. Writing for Podnews, Gordon P Firemark reminds us what to look for when we use AI. (As one example - if you make a logo using AI, you can’t copyright it.) With a hundred days until the event, Podcasthon has revealed that it already has more than 1,000 registrations from more than 40 different countries. The event in March asks you to dedicate one of your episodes to a charity of your choice, and has support from companies like Apple Podcasts and Spotify. > > > Read more of today’s podcast industry news stories on the Podnews website: and get our free daily newsletter.Classifieds - your job or ad herePodcast Growth & Mo

Sponsored by Magellan AI. The Podglomerate used Magellan AI to reveal that half of new listeners returned, proving real campaign impact. See how they did it First look: Acast has announced a dramatically enhanced YouTube program in the UK, allowing advertisers to access some of the largest YouTube podcasts. As part of the deal, Acast also signed an inventory partnership with Little Dot Studios, which has eleven billion monthly views on the platform. Little Dot Studios will work with Acast on its new YouTube offering, allowing Acast UK creators to unlock significant new revenue streams, and to grow their video podcasts. First look: Details of The Podcast Show 2026, in London, have been announced. The show will include additional stages and more networking opportunities, including what the event calls “the ultimate networking party”. Day passes are now on sale. Jason Carter, the Festival Director, tells Podnews: “Next May promises to be our biggest yet. We are delighted to hear from so many in the industry that the event has now become one of the most important shows on the global podcasting calendar.” Reflecting the high number of international visitors, the event will also include an international stage, curated by Podimo. Podnews readers get a discount on all passes. Edison Research released the top 25 podcasts in the UK for Q3/25. Wondery’s RedHanded makes it to the top 25 for the first time. Goalhanger have four shows in the list; the BBC have five. Acast and Megaphone both host six shows. > > > Read more of today’s podcast industry news stories on the Podnews website: and get our free daily newsletter.Classifieds - your job or ad hereFrustrated at the time taken to edit? — Save hou

Sponsored by Magellan AI. Looking for a new challenge in 2026? Partner with the largest agencies, brands, and publishers on our Measurement Success team. Join Magellan AI Congratulations to Start Here, the daily news podcast from ABC News, which published its 2,000th episode this morning. The podcast was launched in March 2018, and is hosted by Brad Mielke, who’ll be a guest on the Podnews Weekly Review this week. YouTube’s algorithm appears to have changed in September: it now heavily favours recency, according to Mario Joos on LinkedIn - who shares a way you can isolate the data for yourself. (You could argue that this algorithm change is a benefit to podcasting - where ‘recency’ is the algorithm in many apps.) Hindenburg has launched an advent calendar with “a daily treat for storytellers”. > > > Read more of today’s podcast industry news stories on the Podnews website: and get our free daily newsletter.Classifieds - your job or ad here➡️5 ways to grow your podcast WITHOUT social media — This FREE Podcasting Business School virtual workshop will teach you: ⭐️FIVE simple strategies to help you grow your podcast without using social media. Join us on November 25th or December 3rd.🎧 Grow Your Podcast On Player FM — Player.FM’s new self-serve ad portal can help you grow your show, boost engagement, and drive downloads with flexible pricing. Book your next campaign now!Gold

Sponsored by Beamly. Everything your podcast needs, all in one place. Beamly brings hosting, websites, and memberships together. Learn more about Beamly and start for free The winners of the APAs from AudioUK were announced in London. The organisers of Sheffield’s Crossed Wires Festival, which took place in early July, were presented with the AudioUK Award. We’ve a full list of the winners. 404 Media says that Apple Podcasts is being used for a sophisticated hack. The article suggests simply visiting a website can trigger Apple Podcasts to open and go to a podcast episode without user intervention. Apple has not responded to them for comment. GadgetHacks suggests the hack works by putting unsafe links into episode descriptions, and hoping you’ll click on them. This web page will open Apple Podcasts - but will ask first. In the UK, media regulator Ofcom has published its eighth annual report on the BBC. The regulator notes that the BBC has remained trusted by the majority of those in the UK, with 70% of regular BBC television viewers rating it highly for accuracy, and 68% for trust. However, it notes that BBC podcasts don’t appear in the Edison Research top ten for listeners aged 15-34. Ofcom also released its latest d

Sponsored by Beamly. Still renting your listeners? Own your members, content and income with Beamly - 0% platform fees and no lock‑in. Start free today Thank you to the folks at Sounds Profitable and The Podglomerate, who will be hosting a free webinar on strategic podcast awards budgeting on Dec 11. The webinar will talk about the benefits of awards, including enhanced visibility, increased credibility, and expanded monetization opportunities - and why you ought to budget for entering them. Be grateful for iOS 26.2, a free upgrade hitting your iPhone in December (Dec 9-16 ish) which adds automatic chapters for every podcast in Apple Podcasts (which you can opt-out of by making your own) - and timed links to other podcasts you mention on your show. The latest version of the beta was released last week. Thank the Podcast Movement team, who are paying for speakers next year. The event is looking for ten-minute talks for Podcast Movement Evolutions at SXSW. All speakers will get a $500 honorarium in addition to entry into the event. You’ve until the end of this year to get your pitches in. > > > Read more of today’s podcast industry news stories on the Podnews website: and get our free daily newsletter.Classifieds - your job or ad hereTry Audyllic - Podcast sound — Your podcast sounds great, but not like radio. That’s because it’s missing broadcast processing. Audyllic adds authentic Optimod processing automatically. Make every episode sound pro. Audyllic.comAlitu welcomes Riverside to all-in-one podcasting — What kept

Sponsored by Beamly. One link that actually does everything. Your episodes, blog, videos and memberships all on Beamly. The winners of the ARKAST Podcast Awards were announced at the second annual event in Little Rock AK, USA. Tiger Talk won the Kids and Family, Young Pod and Rising Star categories. Last week, Riverside launched podcast hosting as a free service for its customers. This week, Patreon launches RSS-based podcast hosting for its users. You can “insert previews of your paid episodes in your public RSS feed to help more listeners discover and upgrade to your paid membership”. The announcement - podcast hosting is item #5 - suggests it won’t work with podcasts that use dynamic ads (we’d think that’s referring to the import tool). Here’s a sample feed. It declares the Podcast namespace, but doesn’t, yet, support any Podcasting 2.0 features. The company is using Cloudflare as its CDN. The biggest “history” podcasts - literally, the ones with history in their title - were unveiled by Edison Podcast Metrics. #3 is Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History; and the Goalhanger show The Rest is History at #2. The #1 show is from Audioboom. > > > Read more of today’s podcast industry news stories on the Podnews website: and get our free daily newsletter.Classifieds -

Sponsored by Beamly. Build your podcast business on your terms. Beamly gives you direct payments, memberships, and full control of your audience. Popular podcast app Pocket Casts has added a new feature called ‘playlists’. You can create a manual playlist yourself, or automate a Smart Playlist based on rules. The feature is already available on web and desktop, and is rolling out to mobile. Ausha launched the PSO Category Benchmark, which compares your show to others in its category. It tells us that Podnews’s show notes are shorter than others in our category. And, it says our Podnews Daily show could do with a few more reviews in Apple Podcasts. Just a hint. Podfest has published its schedule. The event is Jan 15-18 in Orlando FL, USA, and will be its eleventh year. > > > Read more of today’s podcast industry news stories on the Podnews website: and get our free daily newsletter.Classifieds - your job or ad hereFrustrated at the time taken to edit? — Save hours and scale faster. Seven Million Bikes Podcasts is the trusted production partner for creators and agencies worldwide. Reliable turnaround, pro quality, and pricing that makes sense.Ads don’t sell themselves. (But we do.) — BackBeat Media has been matching podcasters with great sponsors for over 20 years. Got 10k+ downloads an episode? Let’s talk. New thoughtful podcast - The Collators — Dive into the philosophy and practice of analysis

Sponsored by Beamly. You don’t need more tools. You need one that works. Beamly provides podcast hosting, website, memberships and products - all in one platform. Triton Digital has two podcast rankers in the US - one based on data, containing participating podcasts only (here, for October), but it’s just released a new set of data based on a survey (here, called Q2 but actually for Q3 2025). Triton’s survey-based Podcast Ranker also includes Demos+ data which ranks shows based on a number of demographic data points to help brands know where to advertise. The data is freely available; more on that data here. It’s notable that NPR News Now is the #1 podcast according to Triton’s data, but only appears at #23 in their survey. That might be because NPR News Now is often the response from a smart speaker for “Play the latest news”, which means more downloads outside of podcast apps altogether. The iPhone app Castro has got significantly better over the past year, under new owners. If you were a former subscriber to Castro, you can grab a free month here, according to this announcement. In a blog post,

Sponsored by Beamly. Everything your podcast needs, all in one place. Beamly brings hosting, websites, and memberships together. Learn more about Beamly and start for free Bill Burr performs on stage, but also performs best for advertisers on his podcast - so says the ORBIT Rankings from Oxford Road, focusing this month on the top 15 performing comedy podcasts that deliver the best results for the advertisers who used them. Burr’s Monday Morning Podcast is at #1, NPR’s perennial favourite Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me is at #10. “There are plenty of ways to turn the funny into money,” says the report. The Podcast Hall of Fame will be on fire next January at Podfest in Orlando - the 2026 induction ceremony will be hosted by John Lee Dumas, organisers have announced. JLD is the host of Entrepreneurs on Fire, which has released more than 4,000 episodes. Overcast has launched a new feature dubbed “Promos and Reruns” that can automatically skip downloading any feed drops or trailer drops. The app also now - finally - displays per-episode artwork, and shows season/episode numbers. The app will soon support transcripts, we understand. > > > Read more of today’s podcast industry news stories on the Podnews website: and get our free daily newsletter.Classifieds - your job or ad here

Sponsored by Beamly. You don’t need more tools. You need one that works. Beamly provides podcast hosting, website, memberships and products - all in one platform. Acast started trading on NASDAQ Stockholm today. Celebrating today: Marianne Boström, Chief People Officer; Lizzy Pollott, Chief Communications & Brand Officer; Emily Villatte, CFO; Greg Glenday, CEO; Daniel Adrian, General Counsel. The shares are currently down about -1.75%, but year-on-year the Acast share price has more than doubled, up +105.33%. RSS.com has launched free podcast hosting. Made for local & niche podcasters, the free plan offers unlimited episodes and unlimited audio, and analytics, including episode-by-episode analytics, for up to 90 days. Paid users get access to transcripts, programmatic ads, and YouTube posting. (Podnews’s Editor is an advisor). Riverside announced the launch of its podcast hosting product, which we covered in August. As we noted then, the service offers no support for transcripts or for direct Spotify video uploads. Podcast hosting, for one show per account, is included in all plans. We’ve a full interview with Kendall Brietman in this week’s Podnews Weekly Review, tomorrow. > > > Read more of today’s podcast industry news stories on the Podnews website: and get our free daily newsletter.Classifieds - your job or ad here

Sponsored by Beamly. You don’t need more tools. You need one that works. Beamly provides podcast hosting, website, memberships and products - all in one platform. Apple Podcasts released a set of rankings for the most popular shows in each country - showing the “top shows” (based on listenership), “top new shows” that first published in 2025, “most followed shows”, “most shared shows”, and “top channels”. You can see your country’s chart here. Based on listenership data, rankings for Apple Podcasts’ “top shows” (and top new shows) appear in seventy different countries: we’ve all those country lists in full. In the US, Joe Rogan is #1, while Good Hang is the top new show. (Rogan also appears in the top tens for Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa). In the UK, The Rest is Politics is #1, one of four Goalhanger shows in the top ten. There are two more in the new show ranker, including The Rest is Classified at #1. Goalhanger shows appear 19 times in the full lists. The English-language show that appears the most is The Ringer’s Good Hang, with ten appearances - launched this year, it’s eligible for both charts. By comparing Triton Digital ranker data, we think Apple’s “top shows” are measured by total plays, rather than by listeners or time-spent. In addition, Apple’s curated lists of Best Shows of 2025 appear in 29 different countries. Here’s your country’s, if you have one. >

Sponsored by Beamly. Everything your podcast needs, all in one place. Beamly brings hosting, websites, and memberships together. Learn more about Beamly and start for free Audio is still the #1 way to consume podcasts, despite the chatter about video. That’s one of the findings of the latest Cumulus Media and Signal Hill Insights Podcast Download Report, published yesterday. Over half of podcast consumers on YouTube also listen to the same podcasts on another platform. Only 8% just watch podcasts, a number that hasn’t changed since 2022. You can download the report in full, and watch the webinar this Thursday. Podcast powerhouse Goalhanger has announced a new show: The Rest is Science, hosted by Professor Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens. It’s launched on November 25, and described as “video-first”. An upcoming news podcast from the BBC, Asia Specific, is being made in video - but the video will only be on YouTube, and won’t be on the BBC’s own website, Podnews can reveal. The podcast launches tomorrow on all podcast platforms, but in spite of the BBC having a comprehensive video service on its international website, the only way to watch this new show - filmed twice-weekly at the BBC’s bureau in Singapore - will be to visit a US-owned website. All this while the President of the US, Donald Trump, has threatened to sue the BBC for up to $5bn for a misleading edit, which is more than the BBC’s entire annual income from the UK public.

Sponsored by Beamly. You don’t need more tools. You need one that works. Beamly provides podcast hosting, website, memberships and products - all in one platform. In Australia, the industry body for commercial radio and audio, CRA, has launched CRA Audio ID, a “unified cross-network identity solution”. It allows a listener to be automatically given the same ID whatever radio station or podcast they consume (from a number of different companies) - meaning better audience de-duplication and frequency management. It’s now trading via Google’s DSP, the slightly-awkwardly-named “Display & Video 360”. Podcast Nation brought together over fifty podcast hosts and creators for CreatorCon at BravoCon in Las Vegas NV, this weekend. The fifth annual State of Business Podcasting Report was released for 2025. The research looks at the top 100 business podcasts. Around half were video-first (61% for B2B, 49% for B2C); and 70% of the biggest shows had a clear photograph of the host as the show cover-art. The average length of 46 minutes, though some stretch to three hours; and 37% are part of larger networks. > > > Read more of today’s podcast industry news stories on the Podnews website: and get our free daily newsletter.Classifieds - your job or ad herePodcast Growth & Monetization tips every Thursday! — Subscribe to the FREE Podcasting Business School newsletter and get fresh tips every Thursday for podcast growth, monetization, and online business strategies. Join over 4,000+ Pod Pals on this list.Your Next Client Is One Episode Away — Stop cold pitching. Start conversations that convert. Launch your podcast and grow your business—fast.