PodMov Daily: Wednesday, March 25

Episode 170: Your Midweek Update

Wednesday Guest Feature: How to Become a Content Powerhouse

This Wednesday’s guest article is all about streamlining your production workflow. Web designer and business efficiency coach Yvonne Heimann teaches how to successfully outsource tasks, turn one episode into a multitude of content pieces, and continuously drive traffic to past and future episodes.

According to Heimann, we're fooling ourselves to assume we ‘know every step' of our unorganized habits. The article's flexible ideas acknowledge that efficiency looks different for every podcaster. One of our favorite time-savers: “Anything and everything you are writing, building, designing, or recording should become a template.”

This isn't just about cutting down desk time. It's about making the absolute most of your content. “Exposure is simple yet time-consuming,” and the solution is to “repurpose, repurpose, repurpose.” Heimann explains 20 ways to make it happen with style, care, and a critical eye.

The NYT Acquires Audm, Investing in Longform Audio

In Hot Pod, Nicholas Quah takes a look at The New York Times’ purchase of Audm. The subscription-based service offers audio versions of longform articles. Rather than text-to-speech, professional narrators deliver the news. What does this acquisition say about the Times’ audio strategy?

Early this month the Times’ new media columnist Ben Smith commented on rumors of a Serial Productions acquisition. Quah explains Smith’s “belief that a Serial Productions deal, together with The Daily, would serve as the bones for a new standalone product that could be the ‘HBO of Podcasts.'”

HBO isn’t free. Quah considers how these premium, bespoke audio articles may fit in. “It doesn’t take a significant leap to view Audm, which was built on a paid subscription business model, as something that would directly contribute to the value of this theoretical Times-owned audio product.”

HBO's McMillion$ Showrunners on the “Precedent” of Companion Podcasts

Having seen the success of companion podcasts for HBO series such as Chernobyl and Watchmen, showrunners at the network are apparently now requesting podcasts for their own shows as well, according to the creators of the docu-series McMillion$.

In a new episode of the Lead Balloon podcast, producer/directors James Lee Hernandez and Brian Lazarte tell host Dusty Weis that they specifically asked HBO to incorporate a podcast into their storytelling strategy. [Each TV episode has a companion podcast episode.]

The six-episode McMillion$ docu-series tells the true story of the $24 million fraud ring that infiltrated and subverted the McDonald’s Monopoly sweepstakes throughout the 1990s, as well as the dogged FBI investigation that brought the scammers to justice in 2001.

“We absolutely love it,” Hernandez said [about the built-in companion podcast.] “It was something that we had discussed early on because…even with six episodes, there were so many interesting stories that we just couldn't fit within the body of the show.”

Interested in attending PM20? Unsure about the future? Yes to both.

We’ve got you covered with a contingency registration option. A $100 deposit locks in the current lowest rate, with the balance due just a month before PM20. In the event of cancellation, registrations will be fully refunded.

Email tickets@podcastmovement.com to be set up with the promo, available through Wednesday, April 15.

Here's what else is going on:

• Snack size: The team at Omny Studio lays out best practices for podcast trailers. “It’s your chance to sell your show,” so keep yours short, informative and engaging to pull in potential listeners. Find out how to publish, offer an ‘on-ramp episode,’ and more.

• First aid: The audio tech company Voxnest has released a report on changing podcast listening in Italy and Spain in recent weeks. Overall listening has risen, with the Spirituality & Religion category at an “increase of 15 times its usual listens” in Italy.

• Louder space: NASA astronaut Christina Koch performed the longest-ever single spaceflight for a woman at 328 days. Spotify’s For the Record spoke with Koch about how podcasts like Throughline and Houston We Have a Podcast kept her grounded.

• Come all: Andréa Jones, the host of Savvy Social Podcast, outlines how to optimize your show's social media presence. Jones' post for WOC Podcasters includes an insightful video on getting listeners to “share their love of your show with their circles.”