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Lessons from Europe in paid subscriptions

Sesamy, a monetisation tool for publishers, has released a case study showing how its tool has “partially paywalled” podcasts of Kvartal, a Swedish magazine, and other clients in the UK and and Italy. There is much to learn: buying a whole season in advance seems to work well (only 15% want to pay monthly); conversion-rate was, surprisingly, over 10% of subscribers; and 70% of users wanted to pay with Swish, a mobile payment system popular in Sweden, rather than using card payments.
- For the magazine, more than 15% of new subscribers came via the podcasts, which kept a segment of the show for subscribers only. This is significantly higher than previous models. Kvartal’s CEO, Ludde Hellberg: “We have strong reason to believe that our premium podcasts are a far bigger driver of conversion to subscription than even these numbers indicate.”
The Australian Podcast Ranker for February was released by CRA and Triton Digital. LiSTNR is #1 for sales representation; ARN’s iHeartPodcast Network Australia is #1 publisher in terms of monthly listeners; the ABC is #1 in terms of total downloads.
- Year-on-year, downloads for LiSTNR’s network are down 9%; for ARN’s iHeart, down 29% - Australia hasn’t been immune to Apple’s iOS 17 changes.
Podcast website creation tool Podcastpage has added an AI-powered writing assistant. It can be used for headlines, titles, or full blog posts.

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🎯 Podfronts are coming to Los Angeles this March — If you're a brand, agency, or advertiser actively buying, or looking to get started, in podcasts, you can't miss this event. Learn about the space, meet the top publishers, and the food is on us! 🎉

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If you’re an indie podcaster in Aotearoa and want help with representation and distribution, The NZ Podcast Summit’s final session is about how to approach NZ’s two big networks, rova and iHeartRadio. There are fourteen speakers this year; the event is in Auckland on May 11.
The backend powering the Goodpods podcast app is going to have a “big upgrade” shortly, according to the company. It’s not a public facing change, but will pave the way for new features.
Realm signed an ad-sales partnership with kids and family podcast Story Pirates.
Tenderfoot TV announced a new slate. After the success of his Tenderfoot podcast “To Live and Die in LA,” Neil Strauss will launch Russian sexpionage series “To Die For,” produced in partnership with iHeartPodcasts, on Mar 26.

Moves and Hires

Jonathan Aspinwall, who has been running BBC News podcasts, is to become the Executive Editor of Newsnight, the broadcaster’s analysis news show. No news yet on his replacement as Executive Producer of BBC News Podcasts.

Tips and tricks

John McDermott posts 5 Ways To Grow Your Podcast in 2024. One of the ideas - “date Taylor Swift” - appears to be slightly beyond our capabilities right now, although come to think of it, our Editor is relatively similar to Tom Hiddleston, albeit ten years older with rather more grey hair and without the impressive acting career. So there’s a chance, right?
Heard about Podcasting 2.0 but not sure what it is? Hopefully this will help.

Podcast News

Part of the Airwave podcast network: Fast Company Daily promises stories, tips, and advice on how employees, managers, and businesses are working smarter, all from Fast Company and all in less than five minutes each weekday. Yesterday's episode featured five things all good bosses have in common.
If the Oscars have got you all excited about the creative process and creators across all kinds of industries, then ICONS could be the podcast for you: the show offers insightful discussions and reflections on the creative minds behind some of the most influential works in cinema.
Buzzcast this week takes a look at the Acquired podcast - a podcast they say is unconventional in that it takes time doing deep research, and seeing great success from doing so.
Newsworthy, we think, that in a heavily contested category, Heinous – An Asian True Crime Podcast has been nominated for The Ambies. The show is made by 1 Up Media and MediaCorp in Singapore, and is the only production made outside of the US to have secured a nomination in the category.
Spotify's The Ringer and Bad Robot Audio launches Dear Felicity today - an all-new star-studded podcast based on the JJ Abrams and Matt Reeves TV show. The show won't be an episode-by-episode rewatch; rather, we're promised an "innovative structure". It also has JJ Abrams and Matt Reeves as executive producers.
Finally! A Show about women that isn't a thinly veiled aspirational nightmare. There’s no host, no interviews, and no men interrupting. It’s like the best reality TV you haven’t seen, just on the radio and with 100% more reality. Come hang out with women you might actually know in real life — mothers, sisters, daughters, and that one weird but super cool cousin. It's new from iHeartPodcasts, Lea Pictures and Jane Marie.
Without, the award winning podcast hosted by international bestselling author Omar El Akkad, is back for season three from today. Every episode of Without is a thought experiment – what would the world look like if something we’ve become used to were no longer around? It stars with a world without fossil fuels; a world without guns is promised later in the season.

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