PodMov Daily: Tuesday, May 25

Episode 437: Testing, One Two-sday

Growing a Podcast is Growing An Online Audience

How do you quickly grow an online audience? Writer, marketer, and developer Julian Shapiro is an expert in just that. His regular Twitter thread this week covers audience building across YouTube, Twitter, blogging, newsletter writing, and of course, podcasts. It’s compact, quality advice for anyone with a ‘show.’

Shapiro’s podcast growth strategies are YouTube-heavy. He suggests splitting episodes into 8–25 minute video clips with SEO’d titles, and even seeking guests that are searched on the platform. As Tom Webster wrote on Friday, “There is no denying the power of YouTube to find, recommend, and sample content.”

As podcasting blends into new forms, solid growth tips are less and less likely to fall under the ‘podcast’ label alone. Here’s what people retweet, according to Shapiro: “Ideological alignment, referenceable advice, clever humor, [and] elegant articulations of how the world works.” Sounds like a terrific listen.

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Questioning the “Seemingly Constant Clashes” in Audio

WNYC recently fired journalist Bob Garfield, the co-host of On the Media for 20 years, for violating an anti-bullying policy. What’s going on inside “America’s biggest and angstiest public radio station”? Ben Smith of The New York Times takes a look at radio, podcasting, and why that question is so heated.

“Even by the standards of our fraught media moment, public radio — and the parts of the podcast industry that emerged from it — has been beset by seemingly constant clashes that can be difficult for outsiders to make sense of,” Smith says. Inequality is built into audio production, as are misguided intentions.

The station’s podcast studio, home to Radiolab, is no exception. Reactions to the last few years of upheaval are starkly different: “Depending on whom you ask, WNYC is experiencing either an epidemic of bullying or an epidemic of whining.” Understanding this cycle of dismissal is a step toward ending it.

The Rachel Cruze Show: Save for a Life You Love

To financial expert Rachel Cruze, a fresh approach is the smartest way forward: “The whole point of taking control of your money is to create a life you love.” On The Rachel Cruze Show, the #1 New York Times bestselling author takes the fear out of planning for your future.

Rachel is passionate about helping listeners solve financial stress. From creating a budget to getting out of debt, money topics don’t have to feel unmanageable. Each episode delivers fun, practical advice to support your most important goals in life.

Now more than ever, it’s savvy to save for the unexpected. With in-depth interviews and positive conversations, you’ll learn how to plan for financial freedom. Ready to start fresh? Follow The Rachel Cruze Show wherever you get your podcasts.

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Here's what else is going on:

• Hope so: Apple released its latest iOS 14.6 update yesterday. Apple Podcasts subscriptions are live, reports Ashley Carman of The Verge. The app has also been improved (made functional?) “with the ability to mark all episodes as played, recover old episodes, and remove downloads.”

• Time machine: On Thursday at 8:30 am CT, The BBC Academy will host “Future Gazing.” Podnews editor James Cridland will be one panelist sharing “informed predictions about the podcast world we don’t yet know.” Led by Anna Doble of the BBC World Service. Free registration.

• Team spirit: Snap Judgment is hiring an audio engineer and producer for its spin-off podcast, Spooked. Both remote-eligible positions are seasonal (through October 31) and require “voracious appetite for talking about paranormal activity.” Applications are due June 14 and June 17, respectively.

• Off balance: Excellence in both podcasts and local news is becoming unsustainable for many organizations, writes Judith Smelser. The journalist and public media consultant describes stations launching podcasts and “robbing their already understaffed newsrooms in the process.”