Ad revenue drops for This American Life: launches paid model

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Above: The Aarthi and Sriram Show, “a show on optimistic conversations with people building and creating new products and technologies”, advertising in London Heathrow Airport in July.

• One of the oldest public radio podcasts, This American Life, has launched a premium subscription version of the show, citing a collapse in the podcast ad market. “We’re doing this out of necessity,” says Ira Glass in an email: “the ad market’s changed a lot in the podcast industry and it has affected nearly everyone making shows like ours.” He added: “we expect our ad revenue to be a third less than what we brought in just a few years ago”. The branding is “This American Life Partners” - Glass also suggested other names of “This American Lifeboat” or “This American Life Support”.
  • This American Life switched to ad sales by National Public Media from August. It had been represented by the New York Times.
  • The show is using Supercast and Apple Podcasts to handle subscriptions.
  • The staff page on This American Life lists 36 people on the team.
• Ignite Creator Studios has launched PODignite, a tailored content marketing strategy package. The company offers a full suite of services, including podcast production, social media content creation, and branded content development.
• The 4th annual Anthem Awards has announced its finalists. Among this year’s finalists include podcasts such as The Black Fatherhood Podcast; On Purpose with Jay Shetty; How to Fix the Internet; Going Wild with Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant; Bonus Babies; and more.

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• Tom Streetley, Global’s Director of Commercial, DAX Audio, is asked questions at random by The Media Leader. For his ideal dinner party, he’d like former US President Barack Obama, and two former British Prime Ministers, Tony Blair and David Cameron.
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