Podcast News Sources: 9 of the Best
The podcasting landscape is vast and moves fast. As with any technology-led industry, things change quickly around here.
But when you’re running a podcast, keeping up to date with the top podcast industry news stories is good practice. In fact, it’s essential practice. To run the best podcast you possibly can, you need to know what’s happening in the podcasting world. This includes keeping tabs on other podcasts, advancements in podcasting technology, media hosting, and listening platforms.
Knowledge is power, but most crucially – it’s what breeds innovation. The more you know about what other podcasters are doing and what new technology is available to you, the better position you’ll be in to do something different.
But how can you keep up with everything that’s going on in such a fast-paced industry? By knowing where to find the best podcast news sources that’ll help you stay informed on the biggest stories in podcasting news – that’s how.
Types of podcast news content
Everyone consumes their news differently. Here are a few different formats that your podcast news might come in, and which news sources you might want to check out if that’s your bag.
For more info on individual news publications, you can jump to the following section, where we take a look at some of the best podcast news sources to subscribe to.
Podcast news dailies
If you’re thinking there couldn’t be enough going on in the podcasting industry to justify news dailies, you’d be wrong.
Podnews, Podcast News Daily and Podcast Business Journal are all news sources that produce daily news briefs around all things podcasting.
Podcast news deep dives
If you like to get deep into the nitty-gritty of why things are moving in a particular direction in the podcasting industry, a deep-dive news source will be just the ticket.
Sounds Profitable is an excellent source for this type of news content, as is the New Media Show. If you don’t mind paying for your in-depth news content, HotPod Insider is an option too.
Podcasting news podcasts
Unsurprisingly, many of us prefer to consume our podcasting news as audio content rather than the written word. And another thing that’s unsurprising is that there are some great sources out there that will satisfy this need.
If this is your style, you’ll want to listen to The Feed, Sounds Profitable podcast and the New Media Show.
And believe it or not, you can even subscribe to a daily news podcast for podcasters, courtesy of Podnews.
Podcast news videos
We’re hearing everywhere that video is gaining traction in the podcasting industry. If you like to watch podcasters discussing the latest podcasting news, check out New Media Show for starters.
9 of the Best Podcast News Sources
Let’s be clear about one thing: there are a lot of podcast news sources out there. So this list is by no means exhaustive, but it’s a great starting point (if we may say so ourselves).
Have a browse through this list, take a look around and subscribe to any news sources that sound up your street.
1. Podcraft Perspectives
Of course, we’re a little biased putting the Podcraft Perspectives at the top of this list. So shoot us.
Here at the Podcast Host, we run a weekly newsletter that lasers in on one biggest news story in podcasting for that week. Unlike the other news sources in this list, we focus our coverage specifically on breaking down the story, analysing it, and considering why this story is important to you as a podcast creator.
Sign up to Podcraft Perspectives here.
2. Podnews
Podnews has been a solid favourite news source for us for years. It’s a daily podcast newsletter created by James Cridland, a radio futurologist with some incredible podcasting journalism skills. James somehow manages to get his hands on the biggest podcasting news stories before they seem to have even happened.
As well as a daily newsletter, Podnews also has a podcast. We recommend signing up to the Podnews daily newsletter for short, bite-sized headlines that get to the story quickly.
3. HotPod News
HotPod is a podcasting newsletter written and edited by Ariel Shapiro. HotPot was previously edited by Ashley Carman who now runs a weekly podcasting newsletter for Bloomberg called SoundBite.
HotPod News is part of The Verge, which is a technology and culture magazine. For this reason, HotPod leans into stories that focus on how new media and society affect podcasting.
The weekly newsletter comes in every Tuesday and is free. Otherwise, you can subscribe to get two additional HotPod Insider emails per week, which comes in at $7 per month. Insider emails contain news content that’s more of a deep dive into recent podcasting news stories.
4. Sounds Profitable
Sounds Profitable is a podcasting news source led by Bryan Barletta and Tom Webster. Their speciality is going into the real deep dives of podcast news.
A lot of SP’s stories come out of their own research, and news is delivered by means of a weekly newsletter, a podcast and they’ve also started running a monthly Zoom webinar, Unplugged, where they discuss the biggest headlines in depth, roundtable-style. As an attendee, you have the option of asking questions to the panel too.
5. Fiction Podcast Weekly
If fiction podcasts are your thing, subscribing to Fiction Podcast Weekly is a no-brainer. FPW is the best way to keep up to date with the latest shows and happenings in the fiction podcast world. It’s also the best source for keeping tabs of where the opportunities are in this space.
Every Thursday (or Friday, depending on your time zone), subscribers get a newsletter email containing everything you need to know about the Fiction Podcast world for that week. For example, you’ll see an overview of all the main fiction podcast headlines, plus information on relevant events and meet-ups. There’s also a section dedicated to highlighting opportunities for funding and competitions.
You can sign up to Fiction Podcast Weekly here.
6. Podcast News Daily
Podcast News Daily is part of Inside Radio, which dubs itself ‘the most trusted news in radio’.
As they’re radio news people at heart, this source tends to focus on the bigger commercial news stories like acquisitions, podcasting hires and fluctuations in podcast advertising numbers. For this reason, you’ll see a lot of news coming from this source that’s about large corporations like Sirius XM and NBC.
7. The New Media Show
The New Media Show is a news podcast with a video channel too. This show is presented by industry veterans Todd Cochrane and Rob Greenlee, who claim their channel is the one to go for if you want a “PhD in Podcasting”.
The format of the show is mostly interviews with guests they call “luminaries in the New Media and Podcasting space”, but they focus the content on discussing podcasting news headlines.
If you’d rather watch or listen to your podcast news, with a deep dive into topics, this one’s for you.
8. The Feed
The Feed is a podcast show that combines commentary on the latest industry news with how-tos and Q&As, topped off with a ton of data about listener habits and preferences.
The show is hosted by Rob Walch and Elsie Escobar, who also hosts the brilliant She Podcasts, alongside Jessica Kupferman.
Not only do these folks know everything that’s happening in the podcast industry, they set the bar high for best practices too.
9. Podcast Business Journal
Podcast Business Journal is a daily podcast newsletter. As you can probably guess, PBJ focuses on news topics that are business-focused. Subscribing to their newsletter will keep you in the know about changes in podcast monetization, advertising, and audience growth.
Their board includes a list of well-known podcasting veterans, including Todd Cochrane (of The New Media Show fame) and Elsie Escobar (of The Feed/She Podcasts).
Choose a Podcast News Source That Suits Your Needs
If we’re being honest, there’s no reason you can’t subscribe to all the news sources in this list. Nobody’s forcing you to read them every day, and you can always unsubscribe to any sources that aren’t scratching the right itch.
And it can be hard to know whether you’ll enjoy a news publication until you subscribe and feel for it for yourself.
But if the idea of filling up your inbox and bookmarks with all these extra news sources gives you the fear, that’s fair, too. In this case, whittle down your shortlist by thinking about how you prefer to consume content more generally. Do you like scanning the big headlines, or taking deep dives into specific topics? Do you prefer reading or listening to the information you consume?
By the way, there are also tools out there to help you curate and manage your podcast reading list.
But also think about the kind of podcaster you are (or want to be). Are you concerned mostly with monetization and audience growth, or do you want to keep tabs on what other podcasters are doing so you can get ahead of the curve?
Think about what’s most important to you, and subscribe accordingly. Only you will know what your needs are, so tailor your news sources to fit them.
