PodMov Daily: Thursday, August 22

Episode 28: Your Thursday Podthoughts

Driving? Really? Conan, Maron, and Repetitive Novelty Coverage

An excellent piece by Marnie Shure in the AV Club discusses the implications of Conan O’Brien’s recent Variety cover. The headline positioned O’Brien as “driving the podcast revolution,” which has garnered justified blowback. Marc Maron, Conan’s TV guest on Tuesday night, arrived with the magazine rolled up in his hand.

Their playfully confrontational exchange echoes the repetitive novelty loop many have observed. “Every few months, a stalwart media outlet will decide it’s time once again to educate its audience on this burgeoning medium […] They typically trace the same tired line from iPods to iTunes to Maron to Serial,” writes Shure.

Her exploration of what traditional media fails to understand about the podcasting space, time and time again, helps put our collective eye-roll into words. (Note: Variety has changed the headline: Conan is now simply “tapping in.”)

Coleman Insights: 7 Solutions for the Podcasting Brand Challenge

Coleman Insights has been honing in on the challenges of brand building for podcasts. Awareness and discovery are still obstacles due to the fragmented nature of the medium. Coleman President Warren Kurtzman revealed last week in Orlando that “none of the top 20 most-listened-to podcasts are familiar to at least half of all monthly podcast listeners.”

In a new post, Kurtzman breaks down 7 actionable solutions to branding and identity struggles in the space. The first step on the route? “If you are engaged in podcasting, you need to go beyond content creation, and think like a marketer,” he explains. “If you do, you will take an Outside Thinking approach to the medium.”

From mastering your elevator pitch to employing mnemonic devices, these tips are indispensable to growing your show — or, should we say, franchise.

The Daily, 3 Years Later: Origins and Michael Barbaro

The New York Times‘ 20-minute news podcast The Daily has approximately 2 million listeners per day. Variety explores how former politics reporter Michael Barbaro went from having “no experience with radio or podcasting” to hit host in just 3 years.

The Daily began with The Run-Up, a podcast Barbaro hosted for the 2016 election, which led to a more robust newsroom partnership with journalists. After all, public radio and TV shows borrowing reporters’ commentary was nothing new.

Barbaro picked up a “new set of skills” that have served the Times and its audience well. Interesting note: According to Stephanie Preiss, executive director of TV and audio, more than half of The Daily‘s listeners are people who don’t regularly subscribe to or read the Times.

Surf's Up on the PM19 Inspiration Wave

Happy Thursday, everyone. Who else has been putting inspiration into action since PM19? Excitement and encouragement were just about everywhere. Congrats on work well done, Jenna!

Unable to attend? Want to relive your favorite talks? Pick up a Virtual Ticket with on-demand audio and video of all the 100+ sessions. Videos will be ready at the end of the month.

Love,

Team PM

Here's what else is going on:

• Beyond the default: Paste has released their picks for the 10 best podcast apps. Casual listeners are starting to expect more than “the usual playlist creation, silence snipping and variable playback speed.” Considerations include convenience vs. innovation, customization, library, and exclusive features.
• MAPCON5: The fifth Mid-Atlantic Podcast Conference (MAPCON) is set for the Ocean Resort Casino in Atlantic City, September 6-7. What began as a regional Facebook group has become an event featuring an Iron Chef-style Creative Podcast Competition and a full speaker lineup.
• Tipping point: RadioPublic introduced in-app tipping in October, but now any RadioPublic PRO user with a Podsite can accept tips up to $100 right on their website. Tipping navigation, buttons, and dollar amounts are standardized and more features are to come. No jar required.
• IAB approves: Triton Digital has announced that it has received IAB Tech Lab Measurement Compliance verification, applied also to Tap, Triton’s ad server. Others recently verified include Blubrry, ART19, Voxnest Audience Network, Whooshkaa, Libsyn, Podtrac, and NPR.