On Air Fest celebrates ten years of big moments
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Exclusive: On Air Fest is celebrating ten years of the event by celebrating ten years of big moments that have happened at On Air Fest. The event began in the same year as Podnews, in 2017: The On Air 100 lists a hundred moments that have shaped the event and the industry - including Spotify buying Gimlet and Anchor in 2019, YouTube jumping into podcasting in 2022, Netflix’s first podcast agreement in 2025, and plenty more. More than two thousand people have been involved; the On Air 100 lists many of them, and the On Air studio box light has remained constant throughout the ten years. Tickets for the tenth On Air Fest are on sale today, for 40% off.
Substack says that “sponsorships will soon be coming to podcasts hosted on Substack”, previewing dynamic ad insertion, paid ad-free episodes, and “you’ll soon be able to tap into third-party sponsorship marketplaces to fill the ad breaks you mark in your episodes”. You can sign up for early access. (We think that Substack means ads, rather than sponsorships - we’ve asked.)
- Meanwhile, beehiiv seems to have leaked that it’s about to launch podcast ad monetisation next week. We probably shouldn’t mention it until it launches, eh?
Spotify shared its RADAR Creators program class of 2026. Rather than only promote the biggest podcasts, the company also offers marketing, editorial and promotional support to upcoming podcast creators and fresh voices. The company has chosen a number of podcasters from the US, UK, Australia, Spain, Argentina, France, Brazil and the Philippines.
Think it. Talk it. Script it. Podnami.com — Start with a conversation, not a blank page. Talk through ideas with AI co-hosts, then turn it into a structured script instantly or enter an idea and a script will be created for you.
🔊 Unlock Podcast Discovery — Grow your audience with Player FM promotional campaigns. Reach active podcast listeners, boost plays, and gain subscribers with easy self-serve campaigns. Start today!
One show can be overlooked. Together, we get heard — BackBeat gives independent podcasters more leverage, stronger buyer visibility, and a dedicated sales team keeping your show in the conversation. For podcasters, by podcasters. Let’s talk.
Podcasting for Business Conference — Why your business needs a podcast. Transform your podcast into a powerful business asset with the top voices in podcasting, November 16-17, 2026. Check out the agenda and join us. It's at no charge!
Sarah Koenig, famous to millions of podcast listeners with Serial, is back with a new show that started today. METRO with Sarah Koenig brings listeners stories about New York City, and New Yorkers, every week.
BBC Studios has appointed Ozen.fm to sell advertising for BBC podcasts across Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Argentina … TikTok and iHeart Podcasts announced three new shows … Acast announced a new comedy podcast Places, Dahlingz! promising interviews with Broadway celebrity interviews … and in Colombia, the MDIF has made an investment into Bogotá-based podcast production company La No Ficción. Terms weren’t given; the company is using the investment to expand into Spain.
Musixmatch Podcasts is to close. The service launched in 2023 from the music metadata company, offering automated transcriptions, chapters and topic extraction for podcasts. Much of the company’s features have been replaced by free AI tools; it’ll close its doors at the end of November.
Germany’s Podfluencer Awards had an international award this year; and the nominees have just been announced. Fank Gullo, who is nominated, generously writes up the other nominations.
Daniel J Lewis has added a new tool called Podcast Networking Radar in Podgagement. The tool exposes Apple Podcast’s recommendation network.
If you’re running PHP for anything - like Wordpress perhaps - then hopefully you’ve updated your PHP installation over the last 24 hours. There are a relatively serious set of security vulnerabilities going round - here, have a… graphical novel explaining them(?) - but you’re best doing the update. (Podnews runs five PHP servers for various things. We’ve updated them all.)
There’s a free Podcasting for Business Conference planned for Nov 16-17, with speakers like Dave Jackson, Rob Greenlee and Gordon Firemark. It’s virtual, and you can join from anywhere you’d like to be.
On a personal blog, Adam Bowie writes How To Incentivise Your Audience to Skip Podcast Ads. He recommends too many ad breaks; bad audio mastering; or… encouraging your audience to use Spotify. (That “skip-ahead” button won’t click itself!)
People news
- New York Public Radio - the owners of WNYC - has hired Kimberly Watson as Chief Development Officer.
- Shannon Quintana has joined RedCircle as Senior Vice President, Account Management. She joins from Oxford Road, and Veritone One.
Tips and tricks - with Audiencelift
- What are the top ten things that brands shoudn’t do when investing in podcast advertising? The team at Right Side Up have ideas.
Podcast News - with Airwave
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Podcasts in the wild
Spotted on a NYC subway train by Podnews reader Odile - some simple, straightforward and good advertising from Spotify, promoting Hot Smart Rich ▸ (indie/Megaphone); Baby, this is Keke Palmer ▸ (Wondery/ART19); House Guest ▸ (indie/Scott Evans); Lemme say this ▸ (Higher Ground/ART19); The Rewatchables ▸ (Spotify’s Ringer/Megaphone). It’s great to see Spotify (market cap $108bn) support creators in this way. In entirely unrelated news, here’s Apple’s market cap; and a guide to buying subway advertising.
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Podcast Connections LIVE! Podcast Hosts Seeking Podcast Guests! · Nov 10 · Virtual · free · just added
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