Survivor mea culpa, Spotify Goes Vertical and new Edison Research

Hi all - going to begin today with a quick correction.? Two weeks ago we thanked everyone at CBS Studios for their work on Survivor, inadvertently leaving out all of the effort that was also being done for the pod from everyone at CBS Network.? That’s entirely on me so just want to say, on behalf of the entire pod team, our apologies and also THANK YOU.??

Related - Survivor continues to top the TV charts and is now at over almost 2,000 reviews (not downloads, but reviews) in under two weeks which suggests an extremely engaged and excited audience.? I would have thought that after two weeks of continuously checking to see how we’re charting on Apple this would all become a bit stale.??

It has not.??

Still a thrill to see where we are positioned, so quite happy to continue to bask in this on behalf of everyone involved.? Let’s keep it up.

Beyond that, still recovering from the semi-annual Podcast Movement conference this year held in lovely Las Vegas.? Fun fact - did you know that some hotels in Las Vegas have murphy beds instead of actual beds?? The podcast team did not know this but know they do!? Vegas - never not surprising.

With that said, incredibly productive, if exhausting, conference (as most of them are) and really great to talk to and reconnect with everyone in the industry.? There remains a certain esprit de corps amongst podcasters that I’ve always really enjoyed and while I still find these kind of conferences mildly debilitating, they are also, genuinely, joyous.? Great to see people and connect and makes you realize, yet again, how lucky we all are to get to do this every day.?

With that said, pair a Vegas conference with daylight savings and wow…takes a bit of the “oomph” out of a weekly newsletter.? So with that, on to the news:

Spotify’s Newest Interface: Vertical?

• In an earlier issue, we covered the tease of this major update. Now, the vertical-interface is live
• Users will now scroll vertically, being fed personalized recommendations of visual and audio previews of playlists, albums, podcast episodes, and audiobooks in an endless feed reminiscent of TikTok
• Spotify has also unveiled Autoplay for Podcasts - when a podcast ends, another relevant episode that fits your taste will automatically play
• “The world today pulls us in a million different directions,” said Co-President and Chief Product & Technology Officer Gustav S?derstr?m. “So the most important thing we, at Spotify, can do for creators is to reduce the distance between their art and the people who love it . . . or who would love it as soon as they discovered it.”?

Edison Research Releases Newest Report on Podcast Listener Behavior: The Podcast Consumer 2023

• Podcasts are mainstream with 83% of the U.S. 12+ population being familiar with podcasts
• New record highs were set in weekly and monthly podcast listening?

- 31% of U.S. population has listened to a podcast in the last week - a 4 point increase YoY

- 42% of U.S. population has listened to a podcast in the last month?

• Podcasting resonates with young people: 40% of those age 12-34 are weekly podcast listeners and over half (55%) are monthly podcast listeners?

- Around ? of those age 35-54

• Podcast listening time continues to rise as the average time weekly podcast listeners spend with podcasts has doubled since 2015 to over 9 hours, with an average podcast count of 9?
• Podcast advertising resonates with listeners, outperforming other mediums as 46% of monthly listeners claim that podcast ads are not intrusive?

CBS News Radio Marked the 85th Anniversary of “World News Roundup” this Week

Sharing directly from the press release, and congratulations to all!?

When it launched on March 13, 1938, WORLD NEWS ROUNDUP changed broadcasting forever by being the first program to feature correspondents stationed around the globe reporting for one live broadcast. The first broadcast was anchored by Robert Trout and featured reporting by Edward R. Murrow, then a CBS executive, making his debut reporting on the show from Vienna. Hitler’s German army was invading Austria and becoming a growing threat to all of Europe. This was the first comprehensive broadcast that linked America with a world careening toward war.

Today, Steve Kathan is the anchor of WORLD NEWS ROUNDUP and Jennifer Keiper anchors WORLD NEWS ROUNDUP LATE EDITION. The broadcasts are heard on 156 CBS News Radio affiliates around the country and nationwide on SiriusXM P.O.T.U.S Ch 124.

As part of the anniversary celebration, CBS News Audio is launching the new CBS NEWS ROUNDUP podcast, which combines broadcasts of WEEKEND ROUNDUP, WORLD NEWS ROUNDUP, WORLD NEWS ROUNDUP LATE EDITION and KALEIDOSCOPE into one. Listen to the trailer HERE. Also, CBS will release a remastered WORLD NEWS ROUNDUP broadcast from 1938. The program is considered the birth of broadcast journalism. Experience the first WORLD NEWS ROUNDUP in a special episode as part of CBS’ new combined podcast.

We sometimes forget the historical import that the news, and CBS especially, has had over the years.? Truly a historic accomplishment and one worthy of celebrating.

Congratulations again and we’ll see everyone next week.