PodMov Daily: Wednesday, February 19

Episode 145: Your Midweek Update

Brian Heater: How to Support Independent Podcasting

A thoughtful article from Brian Heater in TechCrunch argues that supporting independent podcasts is more important than ever “as corporations take an increasing interest in the medium.” Its high-dollar popularity is a mixed bag of benefits and compromises.

“I do believe the spike in podcast popularity will be good for its myriad providers in many ways […] But I do worry that many of its most unique independent voices will get bulldozed as big companies rush to construct skyscrapers,” Heater writes. The positives of corporate investment, like opportunities for creatives to learn a living wage, come with complex limitations.

Fortunately it's simpler than ever before to boost independent shows. Heater advocates for giving through “a public radio-style fund drive like Maximum Fun,” through Patreon, or “just rating and reviewing or telling a friend.” Changing landscape or not, “If you like a thing, support it.”

PM's Weekly Community Recap & Squirrel Rosenberg

This week’s community recap celebrates Evolutions while looking forward to the future. For one attendee, Evolutions began as unexpected detour and turned into quite the memorable weekend.

Squirrel Rosenberg of SQR Podcast has shared the story of a missed flight that led to the Millennium Biltmore. It involves a podcast sweatshirt, a chance encounter, a wise and encouraging partner, and a group of new friends ― it's not to be missed.

In other news, the speaker submission window for Podcast Movement 2020 will be closing soon, and there are several free meetups planned for spring. Is your city on the list?

Slow Burn: What Works in a Podcast-to-TV Adaptation

NPR’s Glen Weldon reviews the TV adaptation of Slow Burn, the hit history podcast hosted by Leon Neyfakh. “We are about to be deluged with content that began life nestled in millions of earbuds,” Weldon predicts following an uptick in audio-to-visual offerings.

Slow Burn premiered Sunday on EPIX. It “scours away the crust of collective knowledge that has already accreted” around fairly recent historical events, like Watergate, we think we understand. Neyfakh has said that he enjoys subjects who “played roles in the story that are larger than history remembers.”

Weldon acknowledges that “what makes a great podcast great is wholly separate and distinct from what makes a television series great.” However, Slow Burn’s loyalty to its source material and style has set an example that “future podcasters looking to adapt their content to television would do well to follow.”

Happy Wednesday, readers, and thanks so much to those of you that have shared the newsletter. From supersoft pullover sweatshirts to patterned crew socks, the PodMov Ambassadors program has goodies you'll reach for on the Daily (get it?)

Is 50% off registration for PM 2020 more your style? We’ve got that, too.

Cheers,
Team PM

Here's what else is going on:

• Valued voices: Luminary has announced that its service, including over 40 original podcasts, is now available in South Africa for the first time. A spike in listeners and demand for shows like The Trevor Noah Podcast encouraged the expansion.

• Out front: Podcast Business Journal reports that Ira Glass of This American Life, Serial, and S-Town will receive the first-ever Audio Vanguard Award at this year’s On Air Fest. The fourth annual event will take place in March in NYC.

• Wide angle: In Vulture, Nicholas Quah considers the “broadly accommodating” reaction to the Podcast Academy's formation, despite longstanding anxieties across the industry about gatekeeping in the future of audio.

• Leader board: According to Radio Ink, podcast survey results from Media Monitors show an increasingly diverse audience. The leading podcast and streaming platforms are iHeartMedia, with 11 shows in the top 100, and NPR with 9.