From Toronto, the latest from our daily newsletter at podnews.net with Red Circle. How much did PodX Group pay for their acquisition of Lemonada Media? Well, around $30 million. That's according to Ashley Carman in her newsletter, Soundbite. She reports that QCODE has achieved fresh funding and that Goalhanger looks set to get funding from the churn-in group. Pod News readers get 25% off Soundbite for the first year. There's a link in our show notes and our newsletter at podnews.net.
Podtrac released its US podcast rankers for April. The Daily Wire slips below Paramount, but there are a few other changes and numbers are mostly flat. But Spanish-language news podcast Noticentro raised some eyebrows last month by appearing at number six in the Podtrac chart. Noticentro publishes 18 episodes most days, one every hour. But the podcast chart is based on unique audience, not total downloads. And anyway, it's nowhere to be seen this month.
Sounds Profitable's Tom Webster released more data from the advertising landscape on podcasts fans and anti-fans, those who listen a lot and those who aren't regular consumers. There's a clear gender gap and middle-aged people are most likely to be fans of podcasts. It's data that might help us grow the medium further. The largest podcast platform in the Middle East and North Africa, Podeo, has signed a partnership deal with SMC Group.
SMC Group will serve as Podeo's exclusive advertising sales partner in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Castos has added integration with Apple Podcast subscriptions. The deep integration allows individual episodes to be marked as paid or free. And you can also use Castos Commerce for direct listener donations alongside dynamic ad insertion.
Frontline has published Breakdown, Turning Anguish into Action, a limited podcast series about the worst mass shooting in Maine history in an additional format. American Sign Language. The shooting is believed to be the worst mass shooting of deaf people in U.S. history. And the owner of Rode, Mackie and Apex, the Freedman Group, has purchased Lectrosonics, a U.S. manufacturer of professional wireless audio systems.
The owner, Peter Freedman, promises all Lectrosonics employees an instant pay rise, plus Australian working conditions, whatever they are. We assume spiders in your shoes, perhaps, or Vegemite sandwiches for lunch. Who knows? In People News, talking about Australia, Australian podcast production house Deadset Studios has appointed Sarah Dabro as head of development and executive producer.
Dabro has held senior creative roles at Foxtel, ABC, B-Sky-B, Mamma Mia, Endemol Shine Australia and ITV Studios. And in podcast news, the Podgomerate Podcast Perspectives speaks this week with Audioboom CEO Stuart Last to discuss monetization strategies for podcasters and how independent creators can set up their shows for success. Top 10 true crime podcast Rotten Mango has announced that it's to cover the Sean Combs trial. He's Diddy, of course, with daily coverage from May the 12th.
In the Pod News Weekly Review this week, I talk about Spotify's new plays metrics with Sam. And we talk with Jason Carter from the podcast show London and Ruth Fitzsimons from Bauer Media in Ireland. And this podcast is sponsored by Red Circle. Your podcast deserves more than exposure. It deserves invoices. And Red Circle can help with those. There's a link in the show notes. And that's the latest from our newsletter.
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