Month: August 2023

From Spotify to NPR, podcast networks have cut their slate of shows. For some podcasters, reducing the number of shows they produce is part of a strategy to refocus their audio businesses on flagship podcasts to grow their listeners and revenue.

“We do see value in putting more emphasis on the franchises and core IP that have the potential to flourish and narrowing our focus a bit in that context,” said a podcast exec who traded anonymity for candor.

NPR’s podcast team has focused its efforts on fewer podcast shows, launching limited-run series within popular podcast feeds so as not to split its teams and listeners across multiple shows. And The Athletic has cut some of its smaller soccer club podcasts to put more resources into its flagship shows.

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The tides have turned for the better for at least one publisher’s digital business, thanks in large part to subscriptions and optimism for an improving ad market. That’s according to Gannett’s latest earnings report, which was published Thursday morning.

Even though total operating revenues saw less than ideal trends — a decrease of 10.2% year over year to $672.4 million — the company’s digital revenues did increase marginally in Q2 by 0.8% year over year on a same store basis to $262.1 million, per the company’s earnings. 

Despite the positivity, the company is still projected to earn between $2.75-2.8 billion in total revenue for the full year 2023, same as what it projected in May during its Q1 earnings report, which would be a 3-5% decrease year over year. Gannett did, however, modify several of its projections for the better, including adjusted EBITDA from the range of $285 million-$305 million to $290 million-$310 million and projected free cash flow also improved from $85 million-$105 million to $90 million-$110 million. 

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‘Standards’, ‘attribution’, ‘measurement’… such words may not invoke the most excitement, but for some, it’s upon such apathy that bad actors find fortune.

Although, when you consider these are the tentpoles of determining the flow of money in the $627 billion digital media industry, it helps to focus the mind on the importance of such concepts.

And in separate news agenda items recently, the importance of standardized media measurement has been underlined.

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Meanwhile, Hunter Biden’s legal problems become newly substantial to voters in the American middle.

VP Biden mixed the family business with his Ukraine diplomacy.

They want the election to be all about the former President, all the time.

Deciding which ones belong on the Jewish shelf is a sure path to weariness of the flesh.

If lying politicians can be prosecuted for ‘fraud,’ we’ll need a lot of new prisons.

I’m alternating between anger and bargaining, but I still hope we can avoid the need for acceptance.