the state of podcasting

Betches is exploring a variety of strategies to grow, from sports and events to a splashy podcast deal with the TikTok news star V Spehar of Under the Desk News. It’s in talks for a partnership with the comedian Ilana Glazer (a gushy fan who described Betches as “if ‘Broad City’” — her cult hit TV show — “were a media company”).

Other podcast companies are taking a similar approach as competition for listeners mounts and investors start to get serious about profitability. They are turning the audible into the visualto advertise shows across billboards, streaming platforms and the internet, and hiring marketing executives from studios and streamers to lead the charge, even ... See more

The audience for podcasts continues to grow, with 42 percent of Americans 12 and older reporting last year that they had listened to one in the previous month, according to a report by Edison Research.

a cooperative is an ownership structure , not a business plan. You need to have BOTH to run a successful business. And the business of podcasting is hard . There are only so many ways to make money: advertising, membership/subscription, and sponsorship/branded content.

The industry is primarily funded by two groups: advertisers sold on the premise that they can reach young, educated consumers, and technology companies looking to turn listeners into paying subscribers with a relatively cheap-to-produce form of media.

The goal, as I understood it, was to build a small, independent production company that specialized in high-end, smart and funny content with a strong point of view.

Compare that to the first-time listener experience for fiction podcasts, which is quite bad, if I’m being brutally honest. Install a podcast-listening app—or choose the one that is already on your phone, possibly one you play music with or maybe watch videos in?—and choose a fiction podcast. No, not just any podcast. A fiction podcast. Yeah. You go... See more

The great podcast saturation has pushed companies to think more deeply about their brand to build a loyal audience across multiple shows. More companies are following the path of streaming services and magazine publishers by launching subscription models, offering live events and access to talent as part of a package deal.